Life, Death, and the Ties Among All Families: “An Ordinary Day” Is an Extraordinary Book

A moving new picture book, whose theme is nothing less than the circle of life, is also a quietly queer-inclusive tale.

An Ordinary Day, written by Elana K. Arnold and illustrated by Elizabet Vukovic (Beach Lane/Simon & Schuster), takes us to an ordinary neighborhood on an ordinary day. One resident is watering her flowers; children are playing in their yard; a crow watches the proceedings. In two houses, though, something notable is happening. A visitor arrives at each, both wearing stethoscopes and carrying bags. They enter the houses and so do we.

In one home, a family—two moms and their three kids—is saying goodbye to their beloved but ailing golden retriever, Sally. In the other, a different family—a mom, dad, and child—is welcoming a new baby via home birth.

Arnold gently draws the parallels of life and death: “Each visitor unstrung a stethoscope. Each visitor listened to a heartbeat. Each visitor looked up and spoke the same words: ‘She is ready.'” We see one medical professional preparing a syringe; the other rubs oil onto the pregnant woman’s back. Outside, the neighbors go about their day unaware. The dog takes its last breath, the baby takes its first one, “and the world shifted.” Outside, “It was an ordinary day in the neighborhood. It was an extraordinary day in the neighborhood. Like all days, and all neighborhoods, everywhere.”

Few children’s books deal with weighty subjects like this with such grace. Yes, there is sadness, and some readers (like me) may shed a tear. Yet we should be grateful for such stories that make us feel deeply and may help children (and even adults) better understand and process their emotions when similar events happen in real life. The sadness, furthermore, is tempered by the joy that is also here. It’s incidental that one of the families has two moms—but simultaneously, it’s also a very clear reminder of how all of us, no matter our skin color or the structure of our family, may be connected through these universal moments of life and death.

Beautiful, limited-palette watercolors by Vukovic capture the emotions of the characters with a soothing softness. One mom in the two-mom family has dark skin, the other has light; two of their children have light skin and one has dark. The family welcoming the baby—a mom, dad, and young child—all have dark skin. The veterinarian does as well; the doctor/midwife (it’s unclear) is a woman who seems Asian.

Arnold is perhaps best known for her middle grade and young adult books, particularly her Printz Honor Book Damsel, a dark feminist fairy tale; and What Girls Are Made Of, a National Book Award Finalist about a teen girl trying to understand love. Mombian readers may know her, however, from her 2019 picture book What Riley Wore, about a joyously gender creative (and possibly nonbinary) child. (My review here.) What Riley Wore is a fun, sometimes hilarious tale of a proudly independent child’s adventures. An Ordinary Day is very different in tone, showing Arnold’s range as an author.

I love that there is a two-mom family in a book that isn’t “about” their queerness—but the downside is that those seeking books with queer representation may not learn of it. The library cataloging information contains no hint. So: tell your friends, tell your relatives, tell your local librarian. Here’s a book with overarching human themes that just happens to have a two-mom family in it. While this should be an ordinary occurrence, it remains, at this point in time, rather extraordinary.

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