Books like Gaston
By Kelly DiPucchio
For families built in all kinds of ways, this is a gentle, funny nudge that belonging isn't about matching. Sweet, funny, and quietly tender, with a happy warmth underneath the humor.
When a crocodile egg rolls into her nest, Mother Duck simply hatches it with the rest and raises the little crocodile as one of her own ducklings.
A little bird named Choco longs for a mother and searches among all kinds of animals, none of whom look like him, before finding one in a warm, unexpected shape.
A little girl can't join her mom on a trip, so she sends her toy dog Charlie the Cavalier in her suitcase instead, trusting him to keep her mom safe and close.
An elephant king and queen welcome triplets to their family, and the smallest, Alexander, has a habit of wandering into trouble — getting stuck in treetops, even chased by a crocodile.
A toy bear waits on a department store shelf night after night, hoping someone will love him despite his missing button — until a little girl named Lisa decides he's exactly the bear she wants.
A child in the Arctic asks her mother again and again — what if I misbehave, what if I turn into a wild animal — testing just how far a mother's love can stretch.
At the Central Park Zoo, two male penguins named Roy and Silo build a nest together, and a kindly zookeeper gives them an abandoned egg to hatch and raise as their own.
A gentle, repeating question moves through the animal world — from kangaroos to lions to dolphins — showing every baby, a joey, a cub, a calf, has a mother who loves it.
A little girl flies with her family all the way to Holland to visit her grandparents, but somewhere along the journey, her beloved Knuffle Bunny goes missing again.
A young hare tries to show his father just how much he loves him, stretching his arms wide and reaching as high as he can — but Big Nutbrown Hare always finds a way to love him back more.
A young koala, feeling overlooked as her family grows, enters the Bush Olympics determined to win an event and win back her mother's love in one triumphant swoop.
A mother lists the small, specific things she loves about her young son — his morning bedhead, the way he calls out "Mama" at night, his laugh — building a portrait of everyday devotion.
