This 1980 title about different types of families could be considered the first picture book to show an intact two-mom family (Jane Severance’s 1979 When Megan Went Away focuses on a girl and her mom after her mother’s partner Megan moves out), although its language feels coy and euphemistic.
The book follows a theme found in many books since: the introduction of different family types. “A family is people, living together, sharing, caring,” it tells us. People may be born into families, or adopted, “and some people just come together to make a family”—a nice early acknowledgement of chosen families.
We see children with many different types of families, including ones with solo parents, foster parents, divorced parents, and grandparents acting as parents. Some children have two parents employed outside the home; in another, the dad stays home. One child lives with an extended family of many adults and children.
And yes, there is a two-mom family. The book explains, “Margo and Rita are Peggy’s family. Although Margo is her real mother, Peggy feels as if she has two mothers. That’s twice as nice, except when they are both angry at her.”
Today, of course, we would say that both Margo and Rita are Peggy’s “real” mothers (unless Rita came into the family when Peggy was older and is seen as a stepmother). A few other phrasings in the book (like “natural parents” for an adopted child’s birth parents) also feel dated, making this title mostly of historical interest.
The story ends with several pages about how families are places of sharing and being oneself. Even when you fight with someone in your family, it tells us, you both still love each other. “People in a family care for one another,” it concludes. That message, of course, still resonates today.
Available to borrow free at OpenLibrary.
