Friday, May 1, 2009

Author, Author

As soon as we graduated from super simple baby books it became obvious that there was a serious problem. So many books about straight families, and most of the few LGBT friendly books out there are so do-goody that they are saccharine. (Can anyone make recommendations otherwise?). If ANY of the dads are even vaguely gender neutral, metro sexual, or - easiest of all - animals, then I make them female and voila, a lesbian family structure for my kids to relax into and identify with. (Goldilocks and the Lesbian Bears is a regular on our bedtime story list.)

Yesterday Pequita brought me the only book in the food coop play area, about Father's Day. Luckily, the little bunny selected plants and yard tools as presents for his bunny dad, and it was easy to transpose the pronouns into Mommy and Mama. But I had to think hard with a sick headachey brain, and I stumbled several times, and sheesh, how annoying.

I have grown weary of having to track the kid's books closely as I read them to carefully make sure we are represented alongside the dads. We have lots of gay friends with kids, so the kids see families like their own, but I want more fiction books for them. So I decided to write them and self publish them. I guess they'll be about our exact family structure, and maybe I'll even illustrate them. My sister and mom are both excellent artists, so maybe I can wrangle one of them to help. Maybe I'll even sell the books if they end up having appeal to anyone other than our family. But for right now, we just need some books about a sister and brother with two moms. And maybe a dog named Cosmo.

4 comments:

Becca said...

I'll take one, please! Kids from more traditional families would also benefit from your project.

Homestead Mom said...

I was thinking of you when I figured that the fictional family would attend a nice liberal church. I really love how you and Ryan have that influence in your lives, and that your boys will get the benefits of church & its community. I certainly gained a great deal from it in my youth. I've been priming Pequita in that she now LOVES to do the little hand game, "Here is the church, here is the steeple..." [Can you tell me if you get this? do you get emailed if other comments are made?]

Alison Williams said...

We will definitely take one! I am very much hoping that our families looks like yours sooner rather than later. Though that will definitely be it for us! And strangely I crave two boys...
I digress. Strangely, I never thought of changing the words. Get this -- Foxy hardly talks, but I worry about saying different words than those on the page, like it's going to mess with his reading or something.

grandma said...

I'd love to do the illustrations for such a book. You write the text and I'll help with the drawings.