In the latest book of the long-running Lola Reads series, Lola is off to her first sleepover! She’s excited about spending the night with her cousin Hani and Hani’s two moms, Lola’s aunts. The fact that they’re a two-mom couple is a complete non-issue.
Lola Sleeps Over, written by Anna McQuinn and illustrated by Rosalind Beardshaw (Charlesbridge), continues the duo’s tales about Lola and her friends and family. Each book can be read as a standalone, however, so if you’re not familiar with Lola yet, pick up this one and make her acquaintance.
Lola carefully gets ready for her sleepover, packing not only a twirly dress and sparkly shoes to dance in, but also overalls for building—no gender stereotypes here. At Hani’s house, Hani and Lola spend the day in imaginative play and enjoy dinner together. Lola has never liked cucumbers before, but likes the ones in Auntie Jina’s salad! The girls watch a movie and then settle in to bed, where Auntie Zari shares a photo album about when she and Lola’s daddy were children. In the morning, Auntie Jina makes French toast. When Lola’s daddy comes to pick her up, Lola reflects that she loved the sleepover and can’t wait to have one at her house with Hani.
There’s so much to like about this book. The girls have an easy bond and clearly delight in each others’ company. McQuinn’s text captures the everyday joys of their sleepover—they splash each other with water, try on each other’s clothes, and play with their stuffed animals on Hani’s “magical” bed. Beardshaw’s illustrations are adorable and full of zest. (Watch the girls’ clothes-swapping continue even after the textual mention of it.) The fact that the aunts are a couple is completely normalized, and they are a rare picture-book same-sex couple where both people are Black.
If you hadn’t seen this review, however, you might not know there was a two-mom couple in the book before you read it; the marketing material and book flap are silent on the matter. That has its advantages; the book may end up in some households or classrooms that would not otherwise have picked it out, and perhaps it will open their eyes to the normalcy of Jina and Zari’s lives. The disadvantage, of course, is that those seeking such representation may not find it. Spread the word, then! As I’ve long said, we need more books with LGBTQ characters in which the characters’ LGBTQ identities aren’t the focus of the story—and as McQuinn herself wrote about racial representation:
Why should any child only see themselves in books that deal with issues? Can you imagine being a little black girl and the only time you see someone like you in a book is when there is some issue to be resolved or adversity overcome? Mustn’t that just be so excruciatingly boring? And why should any child only see themselves in a book in order to teach other children about tolerance and acceptance? I suspect this one is because publishing itself is still so white, it still thinks of readers as white.
That’s absolutely true—and you can add “straight and cisgender” to “white” and apply this idea to queer representation in books as well.
Lola Sleeps Over not only includes incidental queerness, but is a delightful book in any case, perfect for any child spending the night with a friend for the first time or any time thereafter. Families of color and those with two-aunt couples may particularly appreciate the representation in it, but Lola’s charm should appeal to all.