04.04.09
Library Journal Offers Advice on Choosing Books about Stepfamilies
There’s a great article in Library Journal this month designed to help librarians comb the book shelves and provide good resources to help today’s modern blended families.The author confronts the Brady Bunch myth head-on:
Yet a Brady Bunch nation we are not for two reasons: 1) most stepfamilies don’t have the luxury of a live-in cleaning lady like Alice, and 2) stepfamily configurations go beyond the classic two adults who are legally married (or cohabitating) to share in parenting children from earlier relationships (and/or share children together). Things get complex with noncustodial stepfamilies, i.e., those with children from multiple relationships, gay and lesbian parents, situations where adults “step” in after the death of a parent (the origin of the term stepparent), and adult stepfamilies (those comprised of people who remarry after their children are grown).
Some sources hold that stepfamilies outnumber nuclear ones in the United States; if that’s not statistically true, it’s simply a matter of time before the latter becomes the minority. However one terms them, blended, binuclear, multi-, and stepfamilies are here to stay.
Check out the article, which offers short mini-reviews of several books to help stepfamilies.
