I need to be straight with you all right off the block, You and Me Together: Moms, Dads, and Kids around the World is not a book about adoption. Nor does it include any reference to children in Russia or any Eastern European country. So if you take those things into consideration it's probably not the best book for your child adopted from Russia.

But if you take other things into consideration: that it's a gorgeous book filled with amazing photographs of families in their natural environment, I think it's very appropriate. Reading its spare, rhyming, simple text to your child conveys love, warmth, and appreciation for the beauty of mothers, fathers, and children spending time together.

As parent of internationally adopted children I think it's important that we show respect and wonder for other cultures. This book provides that opportunity.

The author, Barbara Kerley, assembled an astonishing collection of photographs to go with her text: two children and their mother ride ponies near a stream in Iceland; A Paduang mother in Thailand strums a guitae as her daughter listens next to her; a father and daughter watch the world out of a bus window in Berline; an Aborigine father in Australia shows his son how to carve a boomerang; a little boy naps on his father's lap as the father drives his truck through his ranch in New Mexico.

If I had one complaint about the book it's that there are no pictures for Russia or the Baltics or Eastern Europe. It's not like Kerley took these photos herself: they have been culled from National Geographic and stock photo agencies around the world. I know the world is a giant place and there was only enough room for 24 pictures, but there are 6 from the U.S. (granted, some include immigrant families), and none from the hugest country in the world (not to mention its neighboring countries, all of which are filled with fascinating vistas and interesting people of many ethnicities).

I'd still buy it for your kids, or at least get it out of the library. It's gorgeous, it makes you think about family, and it teaches kids about the world. It's the kind of book that I love.