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Was It the Chocolate Pudding?: A Story For Little Kids About Divorce features a funny story about two brothers living primarily with their father. They see their mother regularly every other weekend and clearly have a great time with her, too. The older brother thinks he caused the divorce because of a really messy day with chocolate pudding all over him and his hungry little brother. Kids seem to enjoy this book a lot because of the humor and how it relates to their viewpoint about the basics of what happens to the kids when their parents don’t get along and they end up living in two households. This is a definite “repeat reader” type of book, likely to be asked for at story time more than once. A few readers have criticized this book for gender bias which is unfair in my opinion. If the roles of mother and father in this book were reversed, these nitpickers would be pleased. Yet there is a scarcity of books that present alternative custody arrangements in a positive light, so it’s great that author Sandra Levins didn’t cave in to the “marginalize daddy” crowd.

Do You Sing Twinkle?: A Story About Remarriage and New Family is the sequel to Was It the Chocolate Pudding?: A Story For Little Kids About Divorce. The two brothers have grown a little and spend about equal time with each of their parents. Their mother has a boyfriend who has two daughters. When she and her boyfriend Tom decide to marry and she’ll be moving in with him in another city, the older brother has many jealous and angry feelings. He doesn’t want stepsisters and he doesn’t want to back to seeing his mother only every other weekend. Their parents work together to help the kids adjust with frequent phone calls, read-alongs with mommy over the phone, and sharing emails. Their mother helps them find some common ground with their new stepsisters and explains that an uncle they love is actually her stepbrother. Just after the story concludes, there is a section for parents with insights on helping children adapt to changing family dynamics including remarriage and new siblings.

Dinosaurs Divorce is another humorous book that features dinosaurs as the characters throughout the story. It is a collection of observations and explanations rather than a traditional story with main characters and a plot. The surreal and hilarious illustrations are very entertaining. Dinosaurs in bedrooms flooded with tears, with heads exploding from bottled-up feelings, and step-sibling-dinosaurs traveling in flying saucers are some of those that elicit the most laughs. Of the books we’re covering here, this one is probably the best at covering the whole gamut of divorce topics from what caused the divorce (parents not getting along) to the kids’ feelings, suggestions to talk with their parents and trusted adults about troubled feelings, how they may have to take some more responsibilities and money may be more tight, and so forth. It also covers longer-term changes in divorced families, such as when parents start to date, remarry, and more kids join the family. Overall, this is a very good read, one that most kids will enjoy over and over.

Mama and Daddy Bear’s Divorce (Albert Whitman Prairie Paperback) covers divorce from the perspective of the little sister Dinah. She loves her dad, mom, and older sister Ruth. She enjoys doing different things with mom and dad. The illustrations are lovely. Sometimes toddlers enjoy just pointing at the objects in them and getting parents to say their names. This book is written around the mother having primary custody and the children living with the father on weekends. Relations between the two are good enough that Daddy can come to the birthday parties at Mommy’s house. It also shows that even when weekend visits with Daddy don’t go as planned, the kids can still talk on the phone and share letters with their father.

Two Homes focuses on what it is like for a young child named Alex who lives with both parents in a cordial joint custody situation. Alex enjoys the plus points of having two homes such as two bedrooms, different toys and books in each home, and different friends in each neighborhood. The book stays neutral on gender. Not only can you not determine exactly what the custody split is, you also are not really sure if Alex is a boy or a girl. Thus this is one of the better books from the perspective of staying totally out of the mommy vs. daddy gender wars. Some of the other books in this review are criticized by a small minority of readers as biased because they have not managed to do this.

It’s Not Your Fault, Koko Bear: A Read-Together Book for Parents and Young Children During Divorce (Lansky, Vicki) is another cordial joint custody story covering from learning about the divorce, to feeling upset and learning how handle those feelings, to adapting to life split between mommy and daddy. This book has a scene where the teacher points out to Koko that there is another child in the class with a divorced family in order to help her get some emotional support. It might be good to mention to your kids that divorces vary widely, from parents getting along well to much less amicable situations, and that you’ll do your best to get along well with the other parent. Prove it to them by being positive about their other parent.

I Don’t Want to Talk About It focuses on just the time around when the divorce is revealed to a little girl and how badly she feels about the situation. It captures how she feels a range of conflicting emotions which are difficult for her to express. She has a vivid imagination and identifies herself and her feelings with several different animals as the story progresses. The best part of this book is that it reassures the child that both parents will still be in her life and will both still love her.