Florence and Her Fantastic Family Tree

K-Gr 2–A family tree sounds like a pretty simple school assignment, but nothing could be further from the truth for a little girl named Florence. Unlike the other students, Florence doesn’t have just a mother, father, and sibling or two; it is much more complicated than that. She has parents, siblings, stepparents, half-brothers, an adopted half-sister, and more. She is overwhelmed by the homework and how to approach it, and whether her tree will fit on the classroom wall. The more worried Florence gets, the larger the tree in her head becomes, even snaking its way into her bedroom windows. Eventually, she embraces the assignment with multiple sheets of paper and lots of colored pencils. She realizes that her family might not be simple or easy to describe, but she loves being in the middle of her “great, big, loud, colorful, fun, crazy family.” The next day, a much jollier Florence presents her tree at school.