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With its goofy animal illustrations of various family configurations — moms and dads, moms and moms, aunts and uncles, grandparents, foster parents, step-parents, and more — it’s impossible not to giggle your way through the irrepressible joy animating each page of Families, Families, Families! The book’s central message that a family is any group of people united by love shines a well-deserved spotlight on the parenting done by relatives, teachers, and friends.

Hoffman and Asquith do a wonderful job of showing children both what different family configurations exist and how issues like job security and religion impact how those families live and feel. The different foods, clothing, holidays, homes, and people depicted in the text and illustrations make this a rich and compelling resource that little children will turn to again and again.

Mother Duck is so busy reading a parenting manual that she doesn’t notice when a large egg rolls into her nest. Guji Guji isn’t quite like the other ducks, but when he encounters a trio of (delightfully) bad crocodiles, he realizes that being a “crocoduck” has its own merits. (Something Mother Duck knew all along.) This funny, warmhearted take on cross-cultural adoption is full of reassurance for anyone who has ever felt a bit out of step with their family.

Another brilliant take on how many different kinds of families there are, and the joy and love to be found in all of them. Little children will love the repetitive counting aspect of Shannon’s text (“One is two. One pair of shoes. One team of horses. One family.“) and Gomez’s playful and bright illustrations. The page featuring a wall of family photos greeting each other is reason enough to buy this lovely book.

In this visually stunning picture book, Rosa, her mother, and her grandmother are saving the money from her mother’s waitressing tips and grandmother’s coupon clipping to buy a huge, comfy chair to rest and cuddle in at the end of the day. The family lost their old furniture in a house fire, and this chair will be a welcome addition to the belongings donated to them by their generous family and neighborhood community. A vibrant celebration of collaboration and how “family” can extend to friends and neighbors, A Chair for My Mother never fails to make us teary-eyed.

Jessie Sima, author of Not Quite Narwhal, is the Queen of the Completely Adorable. In Harriet, a little girl dressed as a penguin (her usual errand-running outfit) is carried off by an exuberant huddle of penguins she encounters in the frozen aisle of the grocery store. Amazing adventures ensue, including a rescue flock of pigeons who bring her back to the city in time for her birthday party. Incidental to the plot, but wonderful, are Harriet’s interracial family and two dads, who clearly love their whimsical daughter.

In Drawn Together a young boy reluctantly visits his grandfather, who doesn’t speak English and subsequently has difficulty connecting with his grandson. Until, that is, the two discover their joint love of drawing, and work together to create an incredible story. The plot is heartwarming, but Dan Santat’s gorgeous art really steals the show, illustrating — literally — how art can be used to communicate knowledge and feelings even when words fail us.

Colorful collage and acrylic illustrations add dynamism to the incredible true story of Loving v. Virginia, the case that legalized interracial marriage in America. This book is an excellent addition to classroom and home libraries, as it helps explain both our country’s history of racism and how citizens have been able to utilize the courts and our constitution to move us toward a more just society.

Every page of this moving picture book about immigration, dislocation, and finding refuge is a glorious work of art. Based on Morales’s early days as a Mexican immigrant in San Francisco, Dreamers explores how lost she felt in a new language and foreign city, and how the library beckoned as a safe place to practice English and teach her young son to read. A testament to the value of public libraries (especially the social work librarians do) and a quiet reminder of the currently threatened status of our Dreamers and immigrants, Dreamers is an essential book for all families.