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The Trouble with Babies
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From: Nancy Silverrod <nsilverrod>
Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2004 14:39:28 -0700
I, too, hope that "The Trouble With Babies" is a portent of things to come, but even here, in San Francisco, we continue to need books in which GLBT characters are more than just background. If you read the conversation Ginny refers to, it goes a bit further, and I think, illustrates my point (comments in parentheses are mine):
and William have friends who are gay. Some of them have kids. But this was the first time I had met a kid with two dads and no mom. (Even though most San Francisco kids know gay families exist, they don't necessarily have direct experience.)
"Okay." I shrugged.
"You don't think that's weird?" Dr. X asked me. (Our kids are anxious when meeting new people, even when they can reasonably expect their peers to have heard of families like theirs.)
"It's not usual," I said. "But it's not weird." I reached into my pocket, "I didn't bring a calculator. But I brought paper clips." -
Nancy Silverrod,
San Francisco Public Library
Message----From: Ginny Moore Kruse [mailto:gmkruse at education.wisc.edu] Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2004 1:15 PM To: Subscribers of ccbc-net Subject: [ccbc-net] The Trouble with Babies
Robin wrote, in part, on June 5th that "The Trouble with Babies"
(Holiday House, 2002) "... might have been a predictor of books to come."
In this easy, brief chapter book written by Martha Freeman and illustrated by Cat Bowman Smith a minor character named Xavier says, "I have two dads. And no mom. Alan and Jim are p artners." The main character replies, "Oh, now I get it...You mean they're gay."
Period. End of conversation about the family.
End of appearance by the two dads.
"The Trouble with Babies" is worthy of note within this discussion because so few books for children contain gay characters who really don't contribute to the plot. These two dads are a lmost "wallpaper" for the story, decorating the plot, making it a tad more realistic, more like many parent characters in most children's books.
Another character in "The Trouble with Babies" has both a Jewish and a Chinese heritage. It's refreshing to have a variety of homes, families, and parents reflected in children's books. Remind s me of real homes, real families, and real parents. Robin, I hope you're correct about this being a predictor of other books in the very near future. What's that phrase again? Oh, yes, "they look like America." Such books help the aggregate of books for children to look more like all the families of America, to reflect what Megan refers to as a "daily reality."
Peace, Ginny
Ginny Moore Kruse gmkruse at education.wisc.edu
Received on Thu 17 Jun 2004 04:39:28 PM CDT
Date: Thu, 17 Jun 2004 14:39:28 -0700
I, too, hope that "The Trouble With Babies" is a portent of things to come, but even here, in San Francisco, we continue to need books in which GLBT characters are more than just background. If you read the conversation Ginny refers to, it goes a bit further, and I think, illustrates my point (comments in parentheses are mine):
and William have friends who are gay. Some of them have kids. But this was the first time I had met a kid with two dads and no mom. (Even though most San Francisco kids know gay families exist, they don't necessarily have direct experience.)
"Okay." I shrugged.
"You don't think that's weird?" Dr. X asked me. (Our kids are anxious when meeting new people, even when they can reasonably expect their peers to have heard of families like theirs.)
"It's not usual," I said. "But it's not weird." I reached into my pocket, "I didn't bring a calculator. But I brought paper clips." -
Nancy Silverrod,
San Francisco Public Library
Message----From: Ginny Moore Kruse [mailto:gmkruse at education.wisc.edu] Sent: Thursday, June 17, 2004 1:15 PM To: Subscribers of ccbc-net Subject: [ccbc-net] The Trouble with Babies
Robin wrote, in part, on June 5th that "The Trouble with Babies"
(Holiday House, 2002) "... might have been a predictor of books to come."
In this easy, brief chapter book written by Martha Freeman and illustrated by Cat Bowman Smith a minor character named Xavier says, "I have two dads. And no mom. Alan and Jim are p artners." The main character replies, "Oh, now I get it...You mean they're gay."
Period. End of conversation about the family.
End of appearance by the two dads.
"The Trouble with Babies" is worthy of note within this discussion because so few books for children contain gay characters who really don't contribute to the plot. These two dads are a lmost "wallpaper" for the story, decorating the plot, making it a tad more realistic, more like many parent characters in most children's books.
Another character in "The Trouble with Babies" has both a Jewish and a Chinese heritage. It's refreshing to have a variety of homes, families, and parents reflected in children's books. Remind s me of real homes, real families, and real parents. Robin, I hope you're correct about this being a predictor of other books in the very near future. What's that phrase again? Oh, yes, "they look like America." Such books help the aggregate of books for children to look more like all the families of America, to reflect what Megan refers to as a "daily reality."
Peace, Ginny
Ginny Moore Kruse gmkruse at education.wisc.edu
Received on Thu 17 Jun 2004 04:39:28 PM CDT
