Heather Has a New Edition

Heather Has Two Mommies, the classic picture book about a girl with lesbian moms, is now out in a new 20th anniversary edition. Author Lesléa Newman has a piece in this week’s Publisher’s Weekly, in which she discusses the origins of the book and reactions both positive and negative.

I have to admit, though, that Heather is not my favorite LGBT-inclusive kids’ book. I tend to favor ones that don’t focus on the “issue” of having LGBT parents. Newman herself has taken a less issue-driven approach in her two latest books, Mommy, Mama, and Me and Daddy, Papa, and Me. When I interviewed her about them in July, she explained that this was a deliberate move.

Still, even if Heather isn’t the first book I would recommend for children of same-sex parents, I think it still holds up pretty well after 20 years, and addresses issues of classroom teasing that still, unfortunately, linger. And, as Newman wrote in Publisher’s Weekly:

Though the 20-year anniversary edition of Heather Has Two Mommies has a new look—its black-and-white illustrations are now in full color—the book’s message has not changed: “The most important thing about a family is that all the people in it love each other.” After 20 years, I am still waiting for someone to tell me what in the world is so controversial about that.

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