It’s the start of Banned Books Week here in the U.S., “an annual event celebrating the freedom to read and the importance of the First Amendment. . . . Banned Books Week highlights the benefits of free and open access to information while drawing attention to the harms of censorship by spotlighting actual or attempted […]
(Originally published in Bay Windows, September 3, 2009.) “As a kid, Cinderella was basically my favorite fairy tale. I always loved it, even though it was cheesy,” says author Malinda Lo. “I decided to do a retelling of Cinderella since I never read one that I liked.” Lo’s debut young adult novel, Ash (Little, Brown,
Here’s a great new children’s book that is unrelated to anything LGBT except insofar as my son has been enjoying it: Down, Down, Down: A Journey to the Bottom of the Sea, by Caldecott honoree Steve Jenkins (What Do You Do with a Tail Like This?, Actual Size), is a beautiful work that takes the
Helen and I share viewer comments on favorite Disney films, tackle neighbors’ assumptions about lesbians and men, and discuss two picture books we’ve enjoyed recently. One is Patricia Polacco’s In Our Mothers’ House, a new book for older elementary students that features an interracial lesbian family. The other, Tacky the Penguin, is an older book
Yesterday, I posted a recent column in which I reviewed several new books and films for and about LGBT families. It turns out the conservative Massachusetts Family Institute, which took the lead fighting against marriage equality here in the Bay State, didn’t like it so much—or maybe they did. In their latest e-newsletter, they included
(Originally published in Bay Windows, July 29, 2009. Stay tuned for another post on what an ultra-conservative group had to say about this article.) The number of resources for LGBT families is, like my own son, small but growing. Here are some recent highlights for a variety of children’s ages: Mommy, Mama, and Me and
[I published a version of this two years ago when Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows first came out. I thought it was worth revisiting now that Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince is in theaters. (No, I haven’t seen it yet. Hope to soon.) Warning: Serious geekiness ahead.] The below list of charms and
“Writing has always been my political activism,” said Lesléa Newman, author of Heather Has Two Mommies, the classic 1989 children’s book that was one of the first to feature a child with two moms. Her two new books, however, are sweet, simple tales of family life, without any overt politics or agenda. Mommy, Mama, and
Helen and I discuss two new children’s books (one about moms and one about dads) by Lesléa Newman, author of Heather Has Two Mommies. We then reveal yet another hidden lesbian on children’s television, Lily Tomlin (bonus points if you can guess which show without looking it up), and ask whether we’ll see any actual
My son is starting to read more on his own now, so I was delighted to find the lighthearted early reader There Is a Bird On Your Head! by Mo Willems, of Knuffle Bunny and Pigeon fame. The simple plot is that elephant Gerald has a bird on his head, and must rely on his
