A subtle celebration of diverse families

Pond Babies initially caught my eye with its cover illustration of a mother and child who have different skin tones. After recently joining the adoption community, I have become more aware of the lack of books that celebrate families that don’t look alike. As I read this book, I was excited to note that the author has also chosen to highlight mother/baby animal pairs that don’t look exactly alike (frogs, loons, deer, etc.). I realize that the analogy doesn’t extend fully (the animal babies will look more or less like their parents as they get older), but the book is still a very welcome change from mother/baby matching books like Are You My Mother? I also like it better than cross-species animal “adoption” books like Guji-Guji or A Mother for Choco. (Just because we have different colored skin doesn’t mean we’re different species!) I love that the differences between the moms and babies in this story are not the main focus of this story – it can easily be read as simply a mom/baby story about a visit to the pond. The text is concise, lovely and perfect for toddlers, with some suggested animal motions on the last page. A beautiful book in every way.