Me in the Middle

Georgie is at school and a special lesson begins – Miss Clark has drawn a map of the world on the playground and asks the children to find where they live now (England) and then find the country their parents come from. This causes problems for Georgie whose parents come from two different countries; she doesn’t know where to go. She is teased by the children and disappointingly her teacher doesn’t seem to be very understanding either. She ends up in the middle feeling she doesn’t belong anywhere.

Fortunately, her parents do understand and help Georgie create a glorious family tree complete with photographs showing how her amazing family tree stretches from England to East Africa.

The book attempts to cover a lot of ground. Firstly, that families may have many or few ‘branches’ and stretch geographically over a large or small area and also that you shouldn’t make assumptions based on the colour of someone’s skin or the shape of their features. In addition to this, the idea that families can have different structures is also included (two parents, single parent, same sex couples, families with adopted children). The overall message however, is the importance of each individual feeling they belong, acceptance and celebrating our differences.

This is a story which might inspire children to find out more about their own families, dig out globes and atlases and pore over family photo albums. It is an interesting idea to directly compare the shape of real trees in the park to family trees emphasising the variety.

The illustrations are warm, colourful and attractive, the endpapers are especially lovely with a host of children of different ethnicities perched on a tree each clutching a flag to show their family’s country of origin.