A Family Is a Family Is a Family turned ten this year! To celebrate, we sat down with author Sara O'Leary and illustrator Qin Leng to discuss the book's lasting impact on young readers, and the other two titles in the series. 

It’s hard to believe it’s already the 10^th anniversary of A Family Is a Family Is a Family. How do you plan to mark this big milestone?

Sara: Since I am often sent photos of kids with my books, it would be such a kick to print those up for the wall of my study! Kind of like how sometimes in a doctor’s office they have photos of all the babies they’ve delivered. Pictures of kids reading is one of the real perks of this job.

How have kids reacted to the book? Can you share any particularly surprising, funny or heartfelt moments?

Qin: I am actually shocked to realize that I don't have any stories from kids, but I am certain Sara will have stories to share!

Sara: Once when I was doing an event with a gym full of kids, a teacher came up to me at the end and asked me to wait because a student wanted to show me something. She explained that he was very excited but that I should know he was nonverbal. It turned out that what he wanted to show me was a book he had written. It felt like a real moment of recognition that went in both directions.

A Family Is a Family Is a Family is frequently challenged in schools and libraries across North America. Can you talk about the impact that censorship has had on you as a creator?

Qin: My fear with censorship is that over time we will provide a diluted selection of books for children to read. And that publishers and authors will be deterred from choosing certain topics or be asked to tone down certain elements, whether in image or word form.

As an illustrator, during the process of choosing manuscripts, I want to continue to work on projects that surprise me, inspire me and make me see the world from a new perspective.

Sara: I think it’s useful to think about who these book censors are targeting, because those are the kids who we need to protect and also celebrate. In A Family Is a Family Is a Family we showed several children with same-sex parents. In A Kid Is a Kid Is a Kid we showed a nonbinary kid who is totally over answering questions about their gender. And in the latest book, A Friend Is a Friend Is a Friend, we included a child who has made the choice to alter their pronouns. Not everybody is overjoyed about this. Florida, in particular, seems to take it very personally. But I know for a fact that those kids are out there and that they deserve to find a home in a book as much as anyone else.

As you alluded to Sara, there are now two more books in the series: A Kid Is a Kid Is a Kid (2021) and A Friend Is a Friend Is a Friend (2026). How has your approach to these books evolved over the years?

Sara: When I was writing the first book, [Groundwood Publisher] Sheila Barry and I made a grab bag of the types of representation we’d be happy to see in the books and Qin shook it up and took what was useful to her in the most wonderful way. We haven’t done that again because I think as a team working on these books, we’ve all fully internalized the mandate to let kids see themselves and their families lovingly depicted.

Qin: The way I approach any new project is by asking myself how I could do things differently, not necessarily because it could be done better but just as a way to inspire myself to try something just a little outside of my comfort zone. I find this way of working always brings out the best in me.

In A Family Is a Family Is a Family, the challenge was to design so many families. I wanted to make sure not to fall into generic portrayals of characters and keep the individuals as unique and diverse as possible.

In A Kid Is a Kid Is a Kid, the novelty was to make the artwork entirely traditional. A Family Is a Family Is a Family was drawn with ink on paper but painted digitally. In A Kid Is a Kid Is a Kid, I used a mix of watercolor and played with textures using crayons and pastels.

In A Friend Is a Friend Is a Friend, the setting of the story allowed me to explore nature a lot more, so I tried to keep my lines very loose, to get across this element of liveliness and movement that we find in the grass, leaves and organic shapes in the forest. I also decided to paint the characters in alcohol-based markers which really makes them pop against the more muted watercolor background.

Each page turn in the books shows a different kind of family, kid or friend. What’s your very favorite story or spread? (Mine is probably the imaginary friend in the third book!)

Qin: My favorite spread in the series is the spread of the family with many, many kids. I referenced my own kitchen, in my parents’ home where I grew up. It was a fun way to give a personal homage to my own family.

A Family Is a Family Is a Family being a book about families, I actually tried to include elements about my own family in a few spots. In the divorced family, where the child spends one week with dad and one with mom, the mom is an artist and we see her painting with her daughter in her studio. My father is also an artist and I have fond memories as a child of bringing my sketchbook down to his studio and drawing while watching him work.

Sara: Oh, I’d forgotten that Qin used her family kitchen for that spread but that’s so wonderful. And kids love looking at that illustration and finding the kids in the cupboards and under the sink and so on. It’s so witty!

My favorite might be the little kid with the “excellent shirt” in A Kid Is a Kid Is a Kid because that was my daughter’s shirt when she was small. But I also love the illustration of the kid who says that books are her life, because that kid is basically me. I have that one up on my study wall. I also just framed the one of the kids all running pell-mell off the dock at the end of A Friend Is a Friend Is a Friend because it is so utterly joyful. Actually, I don’t think there’s a single spread in any of those books that I don’t love.

What do these books mean to you? What do you hope their legacy will be in another ten years?

Sara: It’s so hard to believe it’s been ten years! When A Family Is a Family Is a Family came out, I did an event at a wonderful store, Collage Collage in Vancouver. My friend Holman Wang took a photo of me reading to a group of kids which included his own two little ones. I still have the photo but now all the kids that were there that day are adolescents or even adults!

If the books are still being read ten years from now, then I think we’re already doing well. And if by that time, they seem a little old fashioned or dated then I think that would mean the world is doing well!

Qin: These books celebrate human connection. They speak to something we all seek to create around us: a safe and welcoming space where we can be ourselves. They remind us that our differences are both fascinating to discover and a natural part of everyday life — something to be embraced rather than questioned. I hope that these books will resonate with their readers, parents and children alike, for many, many years to come.

What’s one silly question you always hear, and one question you would rather be asked?

Sara: When it comes to doing readings with kids, I don’t really think there are any silly questions. A question I’d like to be asked? How about: “How do you plan to celebrate the 30^th anniversary of A Family Is a Family Is a Family?”