Today at work one of our reference staff mentioned that The Advocate had been moved and hidden for the third time in recent weeks. I don’t know if this is a homophobic patron or a reader who moves it someplace private to read. Either way, I thought it was a good time for this post, as I was already working on a booklist of picture books about children with gay parents. I read a lot of reviews for books on this theme, and I was surprised how few I was able to find in the collections of my library and those in surrounding counties and towns. But I think this is a decent start. If I can track down some more of the interesting titles, like A Different Dragon and The Not-So-Only-Child, I’ll write a Part Two.
And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell (2005). A great, accessible kids’ story about two male penguins at the Central Park Zoo who fall in love and want to be just like all the other penguin families and have a baby. When the zookeeper notices the penguins trying to hatch rocks, he decides to give them a baby penguin from a family with too many to raise. This is Tango, and this book is based on a true story. It’s a heavily challenged book that I think is just a wonderful story of a family with a lot of love to share.