Whose Fault Is It?

Cover art copyright 1999 by Barron's Educational Series

My Family’s Changing:
A First Look at Family Break Up

By Pat Thomas

Barron’s Educational Series

Hauppauge, New York, 1999

Reviewed by Laura Harting

This is a book for elementary school aged children, nicely illustrated and meant to provide a read-along opportunity with a parent or counselor. The author helps kids to understand what divorce is, why it happens, and what to do when it happens to you. 

     This book addresses the issue of fault in an unusual manner. Though every book I have read so far for the elementary school aged child says divorce is not the child’s fault, this book also says that it is the parents’ fault. 

The author also explains how adult relationships change over time and how this change can lead to parents not living together any more. How to cope with change is a central focus, and the author encourages children to talk about their feelings even when they don’t want to, or find talking difficult.

      My overall impression of this book is positive. I found myself thinking this would be a good book to read several times over the years as children grieve the loss of the divorce through the many changes of their development and life.

Laura Harting, LCSW, is a child and family therapist with a practice in Paoli, Pennsylvania.