This older title, the first book for young children to show a two-man couple, was published in Denmark in 1981 as Mette bor hos Morten og Erik, and was translated into English in 1983 by the U.K.-based Gay Men’s Press. The book caused outrage among U.K. conservatives and was used to push for Section 28, the restrictive 1988 law prohibiting local governments from “promoting homosexuality” or “the acceptability of homosexuality as a pretended family relationship” in schools. (Section 28 was repealed in Scotland in 2000 and in England and Wales in 2003.)
Through text and photographs, readers learn about the life of a five-year-old child named Jenny, who lives with her father Martin, and his new partner, Eric. Her mother, Karen, visits often, but isn’t a primary caretaker. The beginning of the story shows their daily lives, making meals together, reading stories, fixing a bicycle, and shopping in their neighborhood. The story plods a bit in its ordinariness, but perhaps that is the point. Queer families aren’t all that different from any others in many ways.
At one point, however, the two men are pulling Jenny in her wagon and accidentally bump into a neighbor, Mrs. Andrews. She cries out, “You gays! Why don’t you stay at home so the rest of us don’t have to see you? Ugh!”
Jenny doesn’t understand why she said that, and Eric explains, “We call it that when two men love each other and live together like Martin and I do.” Some people think that is strange, he says, adding, “Perhaps someone has told them it is wrong. So they get scared or angry.” Jenny still thinks he should “just tell her about it” so that she will understand.
Eric then draws her a series of cartoons in which a fictionalized Mrs. Andrews says her husband would never kiss a man—whereupon her husband appears and explains that he was in love with a man when he was younger, until he met her, “and it was you I loved most.” The cartoon Mrs. Andrews has a change of heart about men loving each other and asks the cartoon Eric and Martin for forgiveness. It’s an odd little interlude in the book (though perhaps an early, unheralded example of bi representation).
Later, Jenny shares the story with another friend, who says his mom knows Mrs. Andrews and might be able to speak with her. The situation is still on Jenny’s mind as she gets ready for bed that night, and she asks Eric and Martin if Mrs. Andrews will stop being so grumpy. Eric hopes so.
Switching gears, Jenny asks if Eric and her dad can have babies, and Eric explains that “We can love each other in the same way as anyone else,” but that “Only women and men can have babies together.” Jenny replies that they are lucky they have her, then, and he agrees.
The story, although groundbreaking for its time, feels dated and is mostly of historic interest now.
