Dad and Daddy’s Big Big Family

A reunion becomes an occasion to expand a child’s definition of family in this educational picture book that reveals myriad connections based in love. When Dad, Daddy, and Harper road-trip to a family get-together, the child encounters previously unknown relatives, noting, “We were all so different!” Under the belief that only those who live together are family, narrator Harper and second cousin Noah try to figure out how they will house their relations in one place, and whose household rules they’d follow. Luckily, dialogue-driven exchanges with Harper’s dads clarify what extended family means: “It’s like lots of smaller families who are all connected into one big family. It’s like a web!” Bunting’s jolly picnic scenes present figures of varied abilities, ages, familial configurations, and skin tones; concluding moments introduce the idea that family can also be those that one chooses. Ages 4–8. (May)