WOW Dozen: IYL's "Alles Familie" Exhibit Books Available in English
Throughout our Fall 2026 semester, the Worlds of Words Center hosts a traveling exhibit from the International Youth Library in Munich, Germany that looks at how the social changes of the last few decades have impacted families. "We Are Family! (Alles Familie): Depictions of Family in Contemporary Picture Books" is divided into four parts: Family Life – Colorful and Diverse; Mothers and Fathers – Loud and Soft; Sisters and Brothers – Old and Young, Big and Small; and Grandparents – Near and Far. Of the 50 picturebooks that are part of the exhibition, the center sourced 15 in English, with stories featuring grandparents being the most available.
As this feature limits list to a dozen, we feature twelve titles here. But because we are friends, I will tell you that you can also find Wild by Sam Usher, Grandma's Roof Garden by Wei Tang and Kelly Zhang and Hike by Pete Oswald through your local bookstore or library. Center staff has been pouring over the books, enjoying both the stories and the illustrations. We hope you will enjoy these picturebooks as much as we do and that they might find a place in homes and classrooms.
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As children pretend play family, they learn families come in many different forms & to value all the ways families present themselves. | Image
Mother & son create a new memory in a new home by remembering the happy, exciting & sad past throughout the night, until the sun rises over their new neighborhood. | Image
Boj cowers from the Bad Man who takes over his father in this realistic book depicting a boy’s reaction to domestic violence. |
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Mom is a celebrated & quite dramatic opera singer who is mostly "pretty normal." | Image
Mika's excursion to the lake has been put off so his father can finish just one more thing; but Mika is allowed to go to the pet store with his father’s wallet where he selects just one more pet for his growing menagerie. | Image
When Zoe's father is admitted to a clinic for depression, she finds a routine & a companion in another patient until the time comes that her dad, though never really happy, can come home. |
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Convinced that her big emotions make her presence unwanted, Yuki throws her keys down a manhole where she encounters a magical world of sludge & accepts it as her new reality – but things take a turn for the better when her brother arrives to take her home. | Image
All baby brother does is eat & sleep, but big brother has big ideas about the adventures the siblings will enjoy when the baby is older. | Image
Quiet moments between a grandmother & her grandson shift from the elder caring for the younger to the younger caring for his elder. |
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One day after kindergarten, Jotam asks his grandfather about where his wrinkles come from. | Image
A granddaughter collects memories of her grandfather as a way to cope with his loss & to keep her memory of him alive. | Image
A little fox writes his grandmother, whom he could not address on her deathbed, a letter to share his love & say goodbye. |
WOW Dozen features a list of 12 global books for children and adolescents around a theme, topic, issue or personal favorites. Each Dozen consists of ten newly-published titles with two older "must have" books. Please share or recommend additional books that fit the theme in the comments section or on social media using #WOWDozen.
