Despite many picture books now happily showing the many forms a family can take, there have been shockingly few featuring queer blended families, and none I know of that focus on helping young readers better understand the emotions they might be feeling when their parent gets a new partner/spouse.* This warm and lovely book helps to fill that gap.
The girl protagonist here isn’t exactly happy when her mom’s new partner, Sam, moves in. Sam puts her cactus right in front of the child’s special shelf, and Sam’s compost bin is full of slimy, yucky things. The mom acknowledges that “It’s hard when things change.”
There are some good things—the girl gets extra cuddles from her mom, and shows Sam her drawings and toys. Sam shows the girl how to make a paper airplane (though it gets stuck on Sam’s cactus), and helps water and weed the garden. But when they all try to sit on the garden bench, it doesn’t fit the three of them. The child feels squished, literally and (we assume) metaphorically.
One day, Sam tries to help the girl transfer a pumpkin sprout from a pot to the garden, but accidentally startles her. The pot smashes to the ground. All of the girl’s frustrations come out in a howl of anger. Sam has “ruined everything” and the girl wishes she had never come to live with them.
Both Sam and Mom are sympathetic, though; Sam agrees that her arrival is a big change. Sam also has an idea to save the pumpkin sprout, using the now-not-slimy compost to create a nourishing spot for it in the garden. Fast forward to fall, when they harvest many large pumpkins from the now-grown plant, make jack-o’-lanterns together, and save some seeds for next spring so they can plant their next garden “together.”
The story feels perfectly pitched; there’s a message about change and a metaphor about growth, time, and nourishment, but neither feels preachy. The girl’s first-person perspective helps with that, and author Poppy O’Neill doesn’t over-explain. Importantly, too, the adults in the story allow the girl to have her complicated feelings and to process them at her own pace. Illustrator Brizida Magro’s absolutely charming images are soft and sweet, with lots of greens and blues punctuated by red, orange, and yellow.
The highly recommended title should be especially appreciated by queer blended families (ones with two moms most of all), but its message should resonate with blended families of many identities.
The child and mom are Black; Sam is White.
*The now-dated 1990 title Daddy’s Roommate, and the sequel, Daddy’s Wedding, seem so focused on showing that the dad’s being gay is a perfectly fine thing that the young boy protagonist has no qualms or concerns whatsoever about a new person (of whatever gender) arriving in his life.
