There are now a number of LGBTQ-inclusive picture books that explain (with varying degrees of success) creating a family via assisted reproduction or adoption. There are also a host of LGBTQ-inclusive middle-grade titles about bodies and puberty, which sometimes explain the basics of human reproduction. To the best of my knowledge, though, there has not yet been a middle-grade book that delves deeply into the many ways of family creation and gives youth a detailed look at the ways they may have been created or might someday use to create their own families. This book helps to fill that gap.
Rachel HS Ginocchio, who holds a master’s degree in public health and has a career in sexuality health education, covers the biological elements needed to create a baby; what is involved in insemination, in vitro fertilization (IVF), and surrogacy; the perspectives of donor-conceived people (including one with a trans parent); and foster care and adoption. She is inclusive of all genders and sexualities throughout and includes LGBTQ individuals in the many stories of actual families that are woven into the book. While she mentions that sex is one way that some people may have a baby, she does not position this as the only or standard way of doing so. “There are just as many reasons why sex does not work for people to grow their family,” she notes. These reasons could be that they are a same-sex couple without all the necessary ingredients; that they don’t want to pass on a genetic condition to their children; that one or both parents is infertile, or that “they do not want to have sex to bring them into their lives” (which I read as a nice nod to asexual folks).
Ginocchio covers not only the mechanics of assisted reproduction, but also topics like the different types of sperm donors (known, unknown, identity release); shifting demographics of sperm bank customers (increasingly single women and two-woman couples), why donor agreements are important, donor registries and donor siblings, and approximate costs of various family-creation methods. We see not only the perspectives of families created via these methods, but also of sperm and egg donors and a surrogate.
Overall, the book offers a combination of clear, non-patronizing explanations, useful diagrams, and engaging profiles of real families. Youth whose families were created via assisted reproduction (including surrogacy), foster care, or adoption, or youth who feel that one of these paths might be theirs in the future, should find much value in it.
Please make sure to get the updated 2024 paperback (links above), as the original 2023 hardcover has some errors with respect to legal protections for LGBTQ families that have been corrected in the newer edition.
