Lesléa Newman, the venerable author of Heather Has Two Mommies and more than 80 other titles, here brings us another, very different, tale of a two-mom family. A girl named Cookie loves going to the local bakery with her two moms, where the owner, Ms. Madeleine, bakes a new special cookie each month. For June, she’s made heart-shaped cookies striped with a rainbow, and wishes the family “Happy Pride.”
Not everyone is happy about the rainbow cookies, though; one customer cancelled an order for 60 cookies and left a nasty note on the door of the shop. Other customers follow suit, and Ms. Madeleine worries she might have to close the shop.
Cookie wants to help—but her family alone can’t simply buy all of the cookies from cancelled orders, even if Cookie adds all of the coins from her piggy bank. It seems that the original customer has a lot of friends.
That gives Cookie an idea, though, and she sets out with determination to find friends and neighbors who will help the bakery. Her moms go around the neighborhood with her. The next day, everyone rallies outside the shop, bedecked in rainbows. Ms. Madeleine is overwhelmed by the show of support as the community celebrates “More sweetness, less hate!”
Newman once again demonstrates her superlative storytelling skills and descriptive flair, which help immerse the reader in the story. “The Cookie Cubby smells like a holiday!” Cookie observes at one point; at another, Ms. Madeleine “claps her hands, sending up a dusty cloud of flour.” Illustrator Z.B. Asterplume’s watercolor images are bright and warm, perfect for the vibe of the tale. The wraparound cover shows the rainbow-clad community lining up for cookies, while endpapers showing an array of cookies add a fun extra touch.
There is bias shown here, yes, but there is also support, community, and empowerment. For young readers experiencing bias in their real lives, the book offers a reminder that there are also people of kindness and love, and that working together, we can overcome the hate and fear. I particularly like that Cookie takes the lead on responding to the situation. Her moms aren’t pushing her into action (not every child will want to be an activist)—but once she decides to act, they are there to support her efforts.
I love this book—although I tend to be hesitant about books that show LGBTQ people or families as a “problem,” even if the problem is shown to be false. Much of my hesitancy stems from the fact that many of the earliest wave of LGBTQ-inclusive children’s books took this “problematizing” approach; these days, there is happily more variety, including books in which the characters’ queerness is incidental to the story. There is still, unfortunately, bias and hate in the world, and thus an ongoing need for books that give children the skills for dealing with it. Newman, with her years of insight and experience, thoughtfully helps address that need in a productive way.
While the characters are fictional, Newman says in an Author’s Note that the story was inspired by several true tales of bakeries around the U.S. (Baking and LGBTQ rights have a storied history indeed, as I explained in 2017 and 2022.) A recipe for “Love Is Love Rainbow Cookies” (a frosted sugar cookie) rounds out the backmatter.
A well-baked and highly recommended story.
Cookie and one mom are White; the other has tan skin and straight Black hair.
