My Stepfamily

Children's Literature - Wendy M. Smith-D'Arezzo

Part of Smart Apple Media's "How Can I Deal with…" series, this book portrays the complicated nature of stepfamilies from the perspectives of the parents, the child, and the child's friend. Each three-page section gives a brief introduction, followed by first-person accounts from children's and adults' perspectives. Each section ends with suggestions for how to make the situation more tenable, as well as a short narrative of what the child in question actually did. Due to the brevity of each section, the solutions are necessarily short and generic. Most include encouraging children to talk to their parents, their stepsiblings or another adult. The text is accompanied by realistic photographs of children, their friends and their parents. Both genders are equally represented, and families of various ethnic and racial backgrounds are shown. While this may be useful as a conversation-starter, the book has little depth. The reading level is in mid-second grade, which would allow second and third grade children to read on their own. However, the context and the subject matter are such that children would benefit more from reading aloud particular passages with a counselor or a parent. The endnotes include a glossary, a list of references and an index, as well as notes for parents, caregivers and teachers. Reviewer: Wendy M. Smith-D'Arezzo