Growing up in a Grandfamily Within Our Chosen Family Village

By Nichola Gutgold & Brittany Avent and Illustrated by Jane Ramsey

Growing up isn’t easy, and when you don’t have your mom and dad around, it can seem even harder sometimes. But some kids grow up with help from their grandparents and other adults and kids that make up their grandfamilies in their own chosen family villages.

Brittany and her brother Bryant were fortunate to be raised by their grandparents, Nonna and Poppie (Loretta and Jacques Avent). Their childhood often felt “different” (and not only because their Nonnie worked in the White House)! They felt different because their family was different than a lot of their friends’ families. But different doesn’t mean bad, and when you can piece together your own grandfamily, it can be pretty incredible, too!

We will be donating books to early fluency living in grandfamilies. If you would like to help support this project (and other book donations as well), please consider making a donation to the non-profit, Random Acts of Reading.  This organization we are partnering with provides free meet-the-author events and promotes kids creative writing with the YACK! contest, but it depends upon a "pay-it-forward" model to make it work. Please join us! 

 If you are involved with or know about a support group for Grandfamilies, please contact us so we can provide free ebooks (and books as the funding comes in) for the kids there.