A beautiful new book by a two-mom couple stars a girl named May encountering new friends and challenges on her first day of school. She tries not to cry—but ultimately learns from her two moms that people—even adults—cry for different reasons, and that’s okay.
Mighty May Won’t Cry Today, by Kendra and Claire-Voe Ocampo and illustrated by Erica De Chavez (Bunny Patch Press), takes us with May to her new classroom as she makes friends and finds solutions to various problems, like tripping on her way into the classroom, getting paint on her shirt, and forgetting her smoothie for lunch. Throughout it all, she tries to stay brave and not cry.
When she misses her stop on the school bus, however, she can’t help herself, and the tears come gushing out. The kind bus driver calls her moms and takes her home.
Back home, her moms share stories of times when they cried, too—Mama’s first time ice skating, on their first date; when they think of a pet whom they miss; when they got married; when May arrived. They explain, “It’s OK to shed a tear. It’s part of our emotions, sadness, joy, frustration, fear.” The Ocampos use a light touch, though; it’s up to readers to understand or discuss which situation led to the various kinds of tears. That’s a nice subtlety not always found in self-published books. As the Ocampos explain on their Kickstarter page, too, “As adults we can lead by example, teaching and showing children that crying is OK. Mighty May Won’t Cry Today teaches that crying is a natural part of who we are and how we express emotions.”
The story is written in rhyming prose, interspersed with onomatopoeic words that should make this a particularly fun read-aloud story. Raindrops “drip, drip, drip”; May’s heart goes “da dum, da dum, da dum” as she rides to school; she goes “zigzag, zoom” into her classroom, where she paints “swoosh, swoosh, swoosh” with her brush.
De Chavez, who has a day job as a children’s book designer at HarperCollins Publishers, has brought her professional-quality skills to bear here in her bright and bold illustrations. The rich, saturated colors give a depth and vibrancy to May’s world—and speaking as a curly-haired redhead, I love that she’s made May a curly-haired redhead as well. May is White, as is one of her moms; the other has a darker skin tone and could be read as Asian. Several of the other children in May’s class appear to be people of color.
The Ocampos are real-life married moms as well, and live in New Jersey with their two daughters. They’re hoping to raise $7,500 via Kickstarter to bring May’s story to life . I hope they do. May is a strong female protagonist, but also learns that being strong doesn’t mean suppressing all emotion. That’s a lesson that any child can benefit from. The fact that May has two moms is incidental, and as I’ve written before, we need more stories like this.
Check out this video of the Ocampos and their kids (including bloopers!) and visit their Kickstarter page to learn more:
This post is one of an occasional series on crowdfunded efforts to increase LGBTQ representation in kids’ media. These aren’t endorsements or requests that you send them money; only you can make that decision. I think it’s exciting and important, however, to see some of the wonderful, creative projects that people are doing to help all kids’ see positive images of themselves and the people around them. If you are launching such a project yourself, please let me know.)