Non-LGBT Book Recommendations for LGBT Families

The number of children’s books featuring LGBT families is sadly low, and the number of quality ones even lower. I think the only new one in the picture book category this year was Uncle Bobby’s Wedding. This needs to change, and we need to do whatever we can to encourage both independent publishers and large houses to bring such books to market.

In the meantime, however, I think there are two other categories of family-related books for LGBT parents to seek out for their young children: 1) books that are non-specific about family structure or that feature only a single parent, with the gender and existence of the other parent unknown, so we can fill in the blanks as we desire; and 2) books that show non-traditional but not necessarily LGBT families, such as adoptive or transracial families. I love when I see a non-LGBT parent reading an LGBT-inclusive book to her child; I imagine other non-traditional families feel the same about books representing their lives.

This is not to say we should shun all books that show traditional families; that would be presenting as skewed a view of the world as anything else. There are also any number of good books having nothing to do with families whatsoever. These books are easy to find, however.

What I am going to do, therefore, is start posting a once-a-week recommendation of a non-LGBT book in one of the two categories mentioned above. I’ll cover LGBT-specific books as they come out, of course, but unfortunately they are few and far between. (For a list of some, however, see the Mombian Shop.)

I’m going to launch the series with a few weeks of books from Candlewick Press, a great small press here in the Boston area with some wonderful books showing non-traditional families. They don’t have any LGBT-inclusive books for younger children, but they do have a few young adult books featuring LGBT characters. I’ll cover those, too, in coming weeks.

My first pick is Oscar’s Half Birthday by Bob Graham (Candlewick Press: 2005).

Oscar has a mom and a dad, but his mom is black, with her hair in cornrows and beads, and his dad is white, with a hippie-ish ponytail and tuft of beard. They don’t look like traditional, white, middle-class America—but neither does the book emphasize their difference. They just are what they are. The focus instead is on their quiet, not-quite-everyday adventure to the park to celebrate Oscar’s half birthday with his sister Millie.

Graham elevates the text above average with astute observations about daily life with children. When the family leaves their apartment, for example, Millie presses every button in the elevator. “They are a long time getting to the street,” Graham notes dryly.

He is sensitive to feeling as well as action. When the family stops to watch a train, “The eleven-fifteen is belting down the track so fast that Millie can feel it all the way up through her pink sneakers.” Later, towards the end of their day, “Oscar frowns in the dim light—six different expressions on his face in the time it takes a leaf to fall.”

This is a charming book of soft watercolors, a loving family, and a welcoming community. It would be perfect as a gentle bedtime story or to set the mood before venturing out like Oscar’s family.

Thanks to marketing manager Laura Rivas of Candlewick Press for working with me to identify appropriate books from their list. I received review copies of the books, but no other compensation.