Stella Brings the Family by Miriam B. Schiffer, illustration by Holly Clifton-Brown

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Stella Brings the Family by Miriam B. Schiffer,
illustrated by Holly Clifton-Brown
Review Copy from Chronicle Books
Published in 2015, Stella Brings the Family perfectly compliments Heather Has Two Mommies, books that are as much about LGBTQ families as they are about diverse, modern families. Both books feature main characters who are starting school and engaging in the conversations that naturally happen and the everyday events in the life of a school aged child and both books let the students show that there are all kinds of families. 
Stella's class is having a Mother's Day celebration  and each student is allowed to invite a special guest. Stella, who has a Papa and a Daddy, spends the days leading up to the celebration worrying that she would be the only one at the party without a mother. Everyone else had a mother, "Howie even had two!" Her classmates can tell that Stella is upset and they ask her why. The kids with mothers ask Stella what it is like not to have one, "who reads your bedtime stories?" Stella realizes that there are many important people in her life, from her Nonna and her Aunt to her cousin and uncle, and decides to invite all of them to the Mother's day celebration.

Stella's worries about bringing her two fathers (and grandmas, uncles, aunts and cousins) to a Mother's Day celebration disappear and she promises to bring only TWO people to the Father's Day celebration. As Stella leaves school that day, a big smile on her face, a thought bubble shows her classmate, leaving with his two moms, worrying about the Father's Day Party.


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