Family Changes

Family Changes uses a warm hearted story, with some of the most beautiful illustrations I've come across in a picture book, to help parents, therapists and teachers to explain the meaning of divorce and separation to young ones.
The book, which is aimed at kids between four and eight, starts with a note to adults, in which the author explains the idea of the book and how children experience divorce and how the story will help small children to express their feelings and anxiety concerning the changes in their family, when parents decide to go separate ways.

The story centers around the little bunny girl Zoey and the big day at the Sunny Bunny School, as it's the day of the annual treasure hunt. It's a cheerful story with lots of magic and fun, when the wee bunnies are trying to find the Glittering Feather and eat chocolate carrots. But it's also a story where, after her parent's divorce, Zoey now lives with her mother and the father turns up at school to take part in the special activity day with his child. Zoey is unhappy and confused, because of her parent's divorce and she wonders, if it was all her fault.
Her parents take turns to explain patiently the difference between separation and divorce and try to answer her questions and to address her feelings. They assure her, that they love her as much as before and the story ends on the positive note, that Zoey will now have two homes, where she is equally welcome and where toys will be waiting for her to play with.

After the story the author, who is an experienced clinical psychologist, offers a list of questions for adults (eg. "Will I ever feel OK again?") to discuss with children, who undergo such a significant and life-changing situation.

A very useful book and an excellent tool, to explain the changes to children, in which a separation or divorce of their parents will result and to help them to cope with the new situation.

With buzzwords such as divorce, separation, confused, and sad printed in all caps, Family Changes is an essential guide for divorcing and separating parents to discuss such issues with their children. The book utilizes a story format to explain divorce from the perspective of a young bunny. The feelings of the young bunny, the child of divorced parents, are very well explained in terms that can be understood by children.

Family Changes also enables parents to understand how their children are affected by adult issues such as divorce and separation. The book opens with an introduction from the author explaining to parents how to use the story with their children. Family Changes also features a list of important questions often asked by children who are experiencing the divorce of their parents.

Family Changes conveys to children that parents are sometimes happier apart and can in turn be better moms and dads to them without being married. Through the use of story, Family Changes takes a child-friendly approach toward talking about a tough topic.

Family Changes:Explaining Divorce to Children is a story that's helpful for children to better understand divorce. I thought the story was cute and the illustrations were beautiful. 4 stars

Family Changes is a helpful book for younger children who are curious or confused about separation and divorce. The setting and characters are obviously make-believe, which helps provide some emotional distance between the reader and what is happening in the story. This was a deliberate choice by the author, who knows that dealing with difficult issues is easier through the use of bibliotherapy. Asking questions about what the characters are doing or saying feels much safer and less frightening than asking questions about one's own life. Reading that Zoey's parents are not divorced because of something Zoey did (or didn't) do, can reassure youngsters that their own parents are not getting a divorce because a child forgot to do their homework, or some other small transgression. The story touches on several key issues that children worry about - will their parents still love them, will they have two homes now, did they somehow cause the divorce, etc.

But the book also opens with a straightforward Note to Adults and ends with a list of questions that adults can discuss with children. Often books that do a good job of explaining divorce and separation are so focused on the child's point-of-view, that they don't offer any advice for the parents, caregivers, and teachers that are trying to help the child makes sense of it all. Family Changes avoids that problem and gives good guidelines for adults.

I would recommend this book to parents and other family members, educators, and counselors as a way to get the conversation started an address some of the concerns that children have about divorce.

Dr. Azmaira H. Maker, a clinical psychologist with twenty years of experience in child development, presents a fantasized tale of young Zoey Bunny who must deal with the divorce of her parents.

A "Note to Adults" starts the book providing information to parents, or other care givers (teachers, therapists, grandparents,etc.) about sharing this book with young children (ages 4-8 is the recommendation). The book ends with a list of questions to discuss with the child / children following the reader. Although the questions are presented as follow ups to the reading, they would be best used as a discussion starting point. I would recommend reading through the questions prior to sitting down with the child to read the book so you are familiar with them. Don't go through the questions immediately after reading. Use them as a springboard for conversation and not a quiz to see how well the child listened to the story.

Although a variety of emotions (sadness, anxiety, loss, confusion, and anger) are mentioned in the initial note, I didn't clearly see all of these emotions represented in the story. This is not a criticism, just an observation. It is very important to realize children of divorce have no control of their situation. They need to understand their feelings and emotions are valid and should be acknowledged accordingly.

When Zoey questions Mama Bunny about the words separation and divorce, she is presented with a very open and honest age appropriate definition of the two words. I am a bit concerned the words are used interchangeably. It might have been best, since this book seems to focus on the initial stages of the separation, to simply use the word separated. As the story progresses divorce could have been brought into the conversation as a means of explaining the permanence of the situation.

I reviewed the electronic version of the book. The illustrations I saw in the electronic version were bright, colorful, and would be very appealing to young children. They seemed sporadic in the format I read. I feel full page illustrations across from the text on each two page spread would make the book more appealing to young children, especially because of the difficult topic.

A recommended book for kids. It can help kids to understand that it's not their fault when their parents separate. Also, parents can try understand what's their kids taught about this.