New Step-Family

In Progress
Age range: Preschool through 1st grade.
Recommended for: This book showcases a family in which a little girl’s mom and dad get divorced, and both the mom and dad start dating women. It celebrates this family constellation and provides upbeat reassurance that mommies can date mommies and daddies can date daddies. This book is best for parents who have an amicable co-parenting relationship and would feel comfortable referring to their ex-spouse as a friend.
Age range: Kindergarten through 3rd grade.
Recommended for: This book, written by an ordained Rabbi, is a great read for a kid with divorced parents whose family celebrates Passover. With a metaphor that families are like charoset–each different, but “tasty in its own way,” this book validates painful feelings that come with divorce but ultimately celebrates family change, including the girl’s father remarrying, and provides hope that families with divorced parents will be joyful again. This book is probably best read after a family has restabilized somewhat following a divorce.
Age range: Preschool through 1st grade.
Recommended for: This book is really lovely for a parent to read to their child when their ex-partner starts dating someone new. Parents who are about to introduce their children to a new partner or who have recently introduced someone new may also find this book helpful. It reassures children that it is okay for them to like the new partner and have fun with them and that this isn’t a betrayal to their other parent (a concern many children have). It also normalizes complicated feelings that children often have when their parents start dating new partners, and it provides hope that the relationship will become a positive one for them too.