Teach Your Kid to Love Herself and Others Through Children's Books
LatestThe children’s literature market has come a long way since (the ever wonderful and important) Pat the Bunny. These days, kid’s tales tackle topics from adoption to egg donation — and they do it in giant books with adorable, full-color illustrations. Basically, if you’re looking for something to explain to your daughter that she was adopted by three dads who live in a New York City loft and all love her very much (no matter which one is her biological father!) — there’s a book for that.
One of the first children’s books that presented an alternative to the usual one straight mom, one straight dad, and one straight baby POV was Harvey Fierstein’s The Sissy Duckling. Originally published in 2002, the touching tale of tolerance tugged (sorry) at the heartstrings of many — I still can’t read it without getting a little misty-eyed — and plenty of other kids tales that extoll not only the value, but the awesomeness, of being different (or just tell unique, wonderful stories of reproduction and parenting) have followed in its, er, web-foot prints.
The Atlantic reports on children’s books with a fresh twist that are thankfully trickling into the market. There’s The Very Special Ducklings, by Wava Cirisan, the tale of a duck with eggs to spare who gives one with an infertile friend. Kimberley Kluger-Bell’s The Pea That Was Me is about sperm donation, and Carmen Martinez Jover’s The Baby Kangaroo Treasure Hunt is about a gay kangaroo couple who gets seeds from a lady kanga friend to make their perfect baby. Surrogacy, A Magical Delivery, by Tamara Martin, is about, well, surrogacy — but this time with opossums. (The fact that the surrogacy idea is easier to illustrate with marsupials probably explains their popularity.)