This bilingual (English-Spanish) book stars a Latino boy named Antonio, who lives with his mother (Mami) and “Leslie, his mother’s partner. One day, Leslie meets Antonio after school. She has short hair and is wearing paint-splattered overalls. Some of the other children tease Antonio, saying, “That woman looks like a guy” and “like a rodeo clown.” Antonio is embarrassed.
Leslie senses something is wrong, but doesn’t know what. While they wait for Mami to pick them up, they read together about Mexico, where Antonio’s grandparents live and where his father went to live when Antonio was a baby. It seems that Antonio’s Mami had a child before she came out, a path to parenthood not often depicted in picture books about LGBTQ parents. Despite not being there at the beginning of Antonio’s life, however, Leslie is clearly an active parent.
Later, in school, Antonio and his classmates are making Mother’s Day cards. Antonio makes one for Mami and Leslie, but hides it from view as he draws Mami, Leslie, himself, and the word “F-A-M-I-L-Y.”
When the teacher announces that the children will be displaying their drawings in the cafeteria, and Antonio freezes, thinking of the teasing. That night, he suggests to Mami that maybe Leslie doesn’t have to meet him after school, and tells her that the other kids make fun of how Leslie dresses and walks.
“And how does Leslie dress, Antonio? And how does Leslie walk?” Antonio thinks carefully. “Like Leslie, I guess,” he answers. Mami agrees that yes, everyone is different. When they discuss the school display, rather than offering him specific advice, she smartly leaves it up to him, saying, “You’re old enough now to decide what to do.”
When Leslie comes to pick him up the next day, he rushes her off, suggesting they go to her art studio rather than wait at the school for Mami. At the studio, she shows him a painting of Mami that she’s making as a surprise Mother’s Day present. Seeing the painting makes Antonio realize that his after school time would be lonely without Leslie. She “is part of his family. And that is nothing to be ashamed of.” He tells her he has a surprise for her at school at the Mother’s Day display.
While this 2005 book focuses, like many LGBTQ-inclusive titles of the era, on a child dealing with others who question or criticize their family, it offers originality by focusing on a parent’s gender expression, not simply the fact of same-gender parents; by showing a child empowered to find their own solution; and by offering a bilingual text with a protagonist of color. It may still offer assurance to young readers today who encounter similar problems at school.
