My Family's Changing- A First Look at Family Break Up

by Pat Thomas

My Family's Changing This unusual picture book for younger children explores the issue of divorce. The fears, worries, and questions that boys and girls face when their family goes through this difficult period of breaking up are explained in terms children will readily understand. Full description

Genres: Divorce, Childrens, Picture Books, Family

32 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

There is more than one Pat Thomas in the Goodreads catalog. This entry focuses on Pat^Thomas, children's author.

Pat is a trained psychotherapist, naturopath and journalist. After working as a journalist and broadcaster in the USA, she now works in the field of child development and writes for various publications including 'Practical Parenting'.

Reviews

[Adara Kirana · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.0

"Divorce is painful for the whole family. Each of you will have to learn to do some things differently."

--

Random aja baca buku anak-anak yang menavigasi pengalaman anak dalam perceraian orangtua. Saya gak bisa berhenti mikirin adik saya yang masih SD waktu baca buku ini🥲. Untuk saya sendiri, buku ini memang sudah tidak terlalu relate karena pengalaman dan perasaan saya serta tantangan yang saya hadapi terkait perceraian orangtua saya juga sudah berbeda dibanding jika saya masih anak-anak, but this was still a good and refreshing read :).

[Kyle Abel · Rating 4 out of 5]

After reading this short 27-page picture book which is a part of the “A First look At” series, I thought it was a great book for younger children to understand the changes happening as result of a divorce. It includes two pages at the end of the text which are the guidelines and glossary. The guidelines tell parents or teachers how to use the book helpfully. I found this to be very interesting as well as pretty clever. The glossary only includes a few terms but would be useful for some children if they are reading it alone. This book relates to my personal life as my parents went through a divorce when I was younger. I did not read any literature associated with the situation. After reading this book, I feel literature such as this would have helped substantially.

As for the text itself, I thought it was simplified perfectly and also touched on many points the children involved in a divorce might be struggling with understanding. I liked how the story was written in sort of a chronological order based on how a divorce works. It started off touching on the basic terms of divorce and what it all means. From there it went into living with only one parent and changes involved with this. I also enjoyed the “What about you?” sections included, which were basically questions for the reader which further promoted on your own thinking or a conversation starter between adult and child if the book is being read to the aloud. I disliked how in detail the book was towards the end although. Touching on topics such as one parent talking bad about the other or buying objects to make the child love one parent more than the other. I feel like that was a little too deep of a topic to get into for a children’s book of this level. Overall from my personal experience with divorce, I feel this is a great book for kids struggling with divorce at a young age to read.

[Sandra Rivera · Rating 4 out of 5]

Growing up and experiencing my mother's divorce, even though it wasn't with my father, I wish I had a book like this to help me understand what I was feeling. My stepdad at the time was the only father-figure I had in my life until I met my real dad a couple years later, so when my mom and him got divorced it really affected me. This book definitely gives a rich, realistic plot of divorce that many students' families may be or may have already experienced. I really think my favorite part about the whole book is how Thomas and Harker (the illustrator) chose to use the boy in the family's perspective, especially since little boys have been taught "boys don't cry" or show their emotions.
The illustrations correspond to the text and show realistic people involved in divorces like attorneys. Also, another aspect I loved about this book is that every couple pages on the bottom of page are at least 1-2 "What about you?" questions. It really offers children the chance to really think about divorce, whether they have experienced it in their household or in another family member's house or even a close friend. It expresses that it's okay to talk about these situations; it shows that children should voice their curiosity on the subject and not be shushed.

[Jomal Childers · Rating 3 out of 5]

My Family’s Changing is a great informational book about divorce; it is a great way to feed the curiosity of young readers or even be used by parents and teachers to introduce divorce to a child who has been or will be affected by divorce. The books talks about feelings that a child going through divorce may be feeling as well as examples of what they may experience while or before their parents’ divorce. I think the reader will enjoy the illustrations painted in the book as they depict real life scenarios. The book also uses people as main characters however the book doesn’t represent a diverse cultural group. I would have liked to see more racial groups represented in this book also. I rated the book a 3 out of 5 stars because I didn’t see multiple cultures represented, I would have like to see more racial groups represented. However the content was great!

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

I think this one is probably best for a slightly older kids set (7-11, if the older kids will tolerate you reading a children's book to them). It really covers a lot of angles- and I can see some parents wanting to skip over parts that they felt weren't necessary ( "sometimes parents say bad things about the other parent or buy lots of presents to make you love them more.") But kids feel and experience so much that parents don't even realize, so probably reading it all and asking the little prompts it has every so often could be valuable. There are also some helpful tips for adults at the back.

[Katherine Pak · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is kinda different from the books I chose in my text set. This book is about families, focused on divorced families. This young boy is going through some changes in his family, divorce. It goes through how he's coping with it. It's an emotional book. Not really happy or exciting topic for children however it does cover the topic on families. The picture relate to the content of the book. It uses light colors rather than bold colors. Their content isn't confusing. It uses appropriate language. It uses realistic characters. It also shows multiple perspectives.

[Dawn]

Solid book, information wise. Though it's very old. Really only a good fit if you had a more "traditional family" with parents getting married, having kids, and then deciding to divorce. Diversity in background characters, but the featured family is white. I would probably skip pages 25 & 26 about acting out and having parents spend too much money when sharing with a child.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

An in-depth look at divorce for small children. Explains in clear terms what it is and some of the situations or feelings that might arise out of it. Great for counseling small kids through this change.

[Samantha · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is another good story about divorce with ideas about how to talk to your kids about the topic. It also mentions some inappropriate things parents might do, which was a little different.

[Natalie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a good book to read with young children whose parents are divorced. It defines and explains divorce with good prompt/discussion questions along the way to ask your child.

[Lee · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book didn't really leave an impression on me.

[Kendall Lentine · Rating 4 out of 5]

My Family's Changing by Pat Thomas allows children to have a first hand look at explaining divorce. This difficult topic is portrayed through a picture book and, in my opinion, would be appropriate to use as a k-4 grade level reference. Specifically, I feel this book would not be one used in the class for content or as a read allowed. However, I do feel it could be used as an effective tool for helping a specific child facing this issue. The school psychologist would an ideal person to store this book for a reference. Divorce happens and affects many children's lives and it is important to use these books as resources to help them understand and cope with these changes. I rated this book 4 out of 5 stars, simply because it is not exactly a content level book for the daily classroom. The dominate themes within the book include understanding, acceptance, and discovering feelings about a major change in life. Overall, I felt this was a wonderful reference to use for students when dealing with hard situations.

[Karley]

My Family's Changing is an educational picture book that explores the topic of divorce. It discusses many of the feelings and emotions that a child might feel during a divorce. It is an interactive story that has discussion questions for the reader, and gives many examples. As a teacher I would not use this story in a large group setting, but rather in a small group with children that could relate to the story. I feel that the children that are going through a divorce would be able to benefit from this text. Pat Thomas allows for a lot of discussion while reading this story. It does not state if Thomas is personally affiliated with the divorce community, but it does seem that she has done her research. Also, children may feel better and have a better understanding after reading this book with an adult. There are also nice illustrations that will keep the children interested. This book is a great reference book for children going through a divorce.

[Samantha Spratling · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book is informational and describes divorce in a way that is appropriate for children. The illustrations correspond to the text and will keep the students' interests while the text is read. It is developmentally appropriate for children of older elementary ages. The illustrations are appropriate for younger children, but the text is more difficult to understand. I would use this book in my fourth and fifth grade classrooms.

[Hope Johnson · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great book to read to a child in your class that is going through their parents divorcing. It has guiding questions for you to ask the child to help them through. It also teaches the child that it is not their fault which is very important. It is important to have these kinds of books in your classroom so the children can see themselves in the pages of the books.

[Randie D. Camp, M.S. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Thomas uses child friendly language and illustrations to discuss divorce. The book does a nice of job of providing opportunities for children to interact with the book and with their parents while addressing common worries and questions of children.

A very good resource.

[Andrea Retana · Rating 4 out of 5]

I like this book because it addresses the many changing that children go through when their parents get divorce. It include many questions, such as “ What do you think” that would stimulated conversitions between children and parents, and students and teachers.

[Shannon Sevcik · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great book to have in the library or to read if a student's family is going through divorce. Teaches understanding to students about different family situations.