The Family Tree - Sean Dixon - ★★★★

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AUTHOR: Sean Dixon
ILLUSTRATOR: Lily Snowden-Fine
GENRE: Children's Picture Book
PUBLICATION DATE: April 12, 2022
RATING: 4 stars.

In Lianne Moriarty’s “Big Little Lies”, there is a scene where a little boy is asked to make a family tree for his first grade school assignment. However, he struggles with it as he doesn’t know who his dad is. That was the first time I wondered how schools can insist on traditional family trees in a world where the very meaning of “family” has undergone such a drastic change from its old-fashioned definition of Dad+Mom+kids.

When I saw this picture book and saw that it tackled a similar idea, I knew I had to read it. And to a great extent, it does justice to its intent.

The concept begins the same way. Ada has been given a paper with a tree drawn on it and she is supposed to draw her family at the appropriate places. However, Ada’s family history isn’t just a simple tree. Through her talks with her parents and their extended family and friends, Ada finds families created through IVF, adoption, surrogacy and even fostering. There are also same-sex parents and divorced parents. How she weaves them all in her tree is what you need to discover through the book.

The topic is difficult, and hence some parts of the book will need more discussion or explanation. I loved it for the idea it tries to put forward – we need to look beyond traditional family units. But there are certain ideas in it that might be either complicated or painful for kids to accept, such as a birth mother who gave her children for adoption.

The illustrations are very good and reminded me of my childhood Russian story books. More importantly, they are inclusive.

The book will work very well as a school resource. Before teachers give out family tree projects, they can use this lovely story to help children understand how every kind of family is still a complete family. It would also work well for children in any non-traditional family setup. Or maybe even for children in traditional family setups. After all, they too need to learn that theirs is not the only kind of family possible. This might help foster better understanding with their friends.

My thanks to Penguin Random House Canada, Tundra Books, and NetGalley for the ARC of “The Family Tree”. This review is voluntary and contains my honest opinion about the book.

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