Lesléa Newman, author of Heather Has Two Mommies, was recently named Poet Laureate of Northampton, Massachusetts. In addition to Heather, Newman has authored over 50 works for children, young adults, and grown-ups. Her literary awards including Poetry Fellowships from the Massachusetts Artists Fellowship Foundation and the National Endowment for the Arts, the Highlights for Children […]
(OK, no more penguin posts for a while after this. I promise.) LGBT documentary series In the Life will be airing a segment about children’s book And Tango Makes Three in its April show. They talk with the authors about the making of the book, and with a second-grade teacher about her positive experience using
Looks like the Loudoun County, Virginia school superintendent’s backpedaling over And Tango Makes Three was in the right direction. According to the Washington Post: On Monday, school officials issued a written statement saying that the book also would return to the shelves at Sugarland [Elementary School] because [Superintendent] Hatrick had discovered “significant procedural errors” in
Could Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, a children’s tale about two gay guinea pigs, become one of the most controversial books of the year? At least it would give the penguins a break, Helen and I conclude in our vlog this week. After some guinea pig-hamster confusion, we then move ahead in age range and recommend a
Yesterday was the 11th annual Read Across America celebration, a program sponsored by the National Education Association to encourage children’s love of reading. The event is held every year on or near March 2, the birthday of Dr. Seuss (Theodor Geisel). We love us some Seuss here at the house of Mombian. At the risk
The school superintendent of Loudoun County, Virginia may be changing his mind about removing And Tango Makes Three from elementary school library shelves. He now says he “exceeded the authority” given to him by the school board, reports the Washington Post. Since the challenge to the book only applied to the Sugarland Elementary School, it
First, Lawrence King, then Simmie Williams, Jr., gender-nonconforming teens shot to death in the last three weeks. Both shootings appear to be hate crimes. Yet Lawrence King was not the first, as the long list of names honored during the Transgender Day of Remembrance and in the Wikipedia entry for Violence Against LGBT People makes
Helen and I start our vlog this week by explaining the difference between parenthood and lesbian Turkish oil wrestling. Our main topic, however, is storytelling. We discuss the surreal and whimsical works of Caldecott-winning author David Wiesner, which force parents to become storytellers, and recommend a book featuring a boy with two moms that celebrates
Yet another school district has made a fuss over And Tango Makes Three, the book about the chick hatched by two male penguins, and the American Library Association’s Most Challenged Book of 2006. The school superintendent of Loudoun County, Virginia, has instructed county elementary schools to take the book out of general circulation and move
A few weeks ago, I wrote of the American Library Association’s new Rainbow List of LGBT-themed children’s books. School Library Journal this week has an interview with retired school librarian Nel Ward, the Rainbow Project’s chair. She talks about the process of choosing books for the list, how LGBT books have changed over the past
