A comforting but honest story from 1995 about a girl and her uncle who has AIDS.
Lesléa Newman, acclaimed author of Heather Has Two Mommies, also wrote this early picture book about a girl whose uncle has AIDS. Zoe and her Uncle Leonard have a close relationship, but Leonard’s growing illness troubles Zoe. He is refreshingly honest with her about not knowing if he will get better, telling her there is no cure yet for AIDS, and he doesn’t know if he will die soon. He finds a metaphor for her in their trip to the planetarium—that while he doesn’t know where he’ll go when he dies, he will be, like the stars, “Too far away to touch, but close enough to see.”
Leonard’s partner Nathan appears without title or explanation, which would feel coy today, but at the time of publication, having both a (presumed but never stated as) queer uncle and his partner both spending time with their niece, with the obvious approval of the niece’s mother, was pretty rare. (Only one earlier picture book I know of, Tiger Flowers, shows an uncle with AIDS who had a partner. The first picture book to include a presumed-queer character with AIDS, Losing Uncle Tim, only shows Tim, never a partner.)
Newman leaves the ending open; we don’t know if Leonard dies or when, although it seems likely. Nevertheless, the book offers a glimmer of hope that no matter what, he will not be forgotten.
An important book of its time that may still provide comfort to some today.
The family is White.
