What Makes a Family by Molly Potter
Short Summary
What Makes a Family by Molly Potter, illustrated by Sarah Jennings, is a warm and inclusive book that helps children understand the many ways a family can look. It celebrates all kinds of family structures – biological, adoptive, foster, blended, and more – and gently explains how families start, who’s in them, and what they do together. This book is a perfect fit for early conversations about diversity, respect, and what really makes a family: love and care.
Age Group
Suitable for children aged 3 to 7 years.
Topics Discussed
Families
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Buy a Copy
Buy a copy of What Makes a Family by Molly Potter from Amazon.
What this book is about
If you’re looking for a beautifully illustrated, inclusive book to talk to your child about what families can look like, this one is a gem. From the team who created Let’s Talk About the Birds and the Bees, What Makes a Family helps kids see that there’s no one way to be a family – and that all families deserve respect.
The book covers:
- Who can be in a family (hint: it’s not just two parents and a child!)
- How families form – through love, marriage, living together, fostering, adoption, and donor conception
- That families can have one parent, two parents, or more
- The roles parents, carers, and children play in a family
- What happens when families change, like through separation or becoming a blended family
- Celebrating your own unique family
It introduces these topics in a very child-friendly way, using simple explanations and vibrant illustrations. When it talks about starting a family with medical help, for example, it says a doctor combines cells from two grown-ups and helps the baby grow in a uterus, without bringing in sex or complex biology.
And, as with Molly Potter’s other books, there are helpful conversation starters at the back to help you talk through the ideas with your child. It’s a lovely way to build empathy and understanding from a young age – and a great reminder that what makes a family isn’t how it starts, but how it grows.
I hope you find this book review helpful!
Happy talking!
❤️ Cath