A Review of Gay and Lesbian Themed Early Childhood Children’s Literature

by Jeff Sapp

Sapp provides a historical analysis of more than 40 gay and lesbian themed early childhood texts.  This literature is analyzed through lenses of homophobia and heterosexism, relationships, language, stereotypes and erasure.  We are reminded that it is necessary to analyze children’s texts outside of development appropriateness and that a queer equity lens provides a framework for combating injustice which develops in children’s early years.  In addition to providing a foundation for understanding the historical development of gay and lesbian themed early childhood texts, Sapp’s work provides educators with an extensive list of literature they can use within their curriculum to ensure inclusive practice for all.

                             On the third floor of the downtown library, my world began to 

                    open up.  It was in the gay and lesbian literature section that I

                    began to reclaim my life.  I would spend nights alone, sitting 

                    on the floor reading coming out stories, sections of fiction, gay

                    and lesbian history, and anything else I could find.  Those 

                    nights on the third floor, alone on the cold cement floor, were

                    where I took my first breaths of life.  It was where I discovered

                    that I would survive.  It was literature and literacy that helped

                    save my life.

                                    William DeJean (2001)

    Since the publication of the first children’s book sometime around the mid 1600s, there have been hundreds of thousands of them, but early childhood children’s literature containing gay and lesbian themes is in its infancy.  In 2000 Frances Ann Day published Lesbian and gay voices:  An annotated bibliography and guide to literature for children and young adults.  The book is an extensive 268-page resource of 275 titles that portray honest, accurate, gay friendly characters and themes for young people.  It was a revolutionary book for gay and lesbian people who, like DeJean in his quote above, often sought visions of their selves in literature as a way towards wholeness.  The lesbian poet Adrienne Rich (Maher and Tetreault, 1994) stated, 

                    When those who have the power to name and to socially

                    construct reality choose not to see you or hear you, whether

                    you are dark-skinned, old, disabled, female, or speak with a

                    different accent or dialect than theirs, when someone with 

                    the authority of a teacher, say, describes the world and you

                    are not in it, there is a moment of psychic disequilibrium, as 

                    if you looked into a mirror and saw nothing.

Day (2000) compilation of gay and lesbian themed children’s and young adult literature was an affirmation that a once invisible community was beginning to see itself mirrored more and more in stories for children, and that these mirrors had the capacity to have a great impact on the lives of children who, like DeJean in the opening quote, were feeling alone.  Day reviews six categories of books:  Picture books, fiction, short stories, nonfiction, biography and autobiography, and books for librarians, educators, parents, and other adults.  Because it was the first book of its kind, Day gave extensive author profiles, a calendar of gay and lesbian yearly events, and an extensive resource section that included hot line numbers for gay and lesbian youth in crisis.  Here was a complete resource for young gays and lesbians as well as for those who care for and nurture them.  Of the 275 titles reviewed by Day, only 27 were early childhood books.  The earliest publication date of these 27 books is 1989.

Purpose of the Study

    It has been nearly a decade since Day published her annotated bibliography.  The purpose of this study is to compare and contrast the 27 children’s picture books that Day reviewed in 2000 with a selection of picture books written within the last nine years to see if their story lines, images, and depictions of gays and lesbians have changed, and to critique the evolving quality of these works. This paper only refers to “gays and lesbians” because, as of yet, there are no early childhood children’s books that portray bisexual or transgendered people. 

    Social values, including attitudes towards gays and lesbians, begin at a very young age (Campos, 2005).  The dominant attitude among adults in school communities is that topics related to gays and lesbians are not relevant to early children’s lives and that the discussion of such topics is inappropriate for young children (Chung and Courville, 2008).  The reality, though, is that “All children are dramatically affected by anti-gay prejudice, and most, by a relatively young age, already have had ‘exposure’ to LGBT-related information, unfortunately most of it misleading and harmful” (Chung and Courville, 2008, p. iii).  All guardians of children – parents and teachers alike – can be powerful role models that demonstrate that all people, regardless of their sexual orientation, deserve recognition and respect.  It is imperative that schools address these issues at all grade levels to truly begin to confront and counter prejudice and the violence that stems from it.  This must begin in early childhood because if educators wait until children are in the middle and upper grades, the task becomes one of unlearning prejudice instead of preventing it.  The selection of early childhood children’s literature offered in this article, when supported by sound pedagogical practices, can provide children with an early engagement with difference and the principles of social justice.

Method of Analysis

    The review of the children’s books in this article will follow Day’s (2000) original “Suggested Guidelines for Evaluating Books with Lesbian and Gay Content” (p. xxiii-xxv) as well as adding other current criteria for reviewing children’s books (Temple, Martinez & Yokota, 2006).  Day’s guidelines are:

• • General selection criteria:  These have to do with literary quality and strong social values, and include

        analyzing the books for racism, anti-Semitism, sexism, ageism, size oppression, and lookism.

• • Self-esteem:  Will the book bolster or diminish self-esteem?  Does it provide positive images?
• • Homophobia and heterosexism:  Is there an irrational fear or intolerance of lesbian and gay people?

        Is heterosexuality assumed?

• • Characterisation: Are lesbian and gay characters portrayed as complex, multidimensional individuals?  Do they each have unique interests and personalities?  Is their lesbian and gay identity portrayed as only one of a number of significant social groups they identify with?
• • Language:  Does the book use language that is respectful of lesbian and gay people?  Examples of offensive descriptors are:  Lifestyle, preference, choice and mannish.
• • Relationships:  Does the book portray  lesbian and gay characters involved in healthy, loving relationships?  Are their identities trivialized by the assumption that being lesbian or gay is a bedroom issue only?  Is their same-sex attraction depicted as a phase from which they will eventually move toward heterosexuality?  Is the emphasis always on coming out, or do some of the books in the collection portray young lesbian and gay people whose sexual identities are secondary to the main point?
• • Stereotypes:  Does the book promote or debunk stereotypes of lesbian and gay people?
• • Erasure:  Are biographers honest about the sexual identity of their subjects?

    Temple, Martinez and Yokoto (2006) suggest “six qualities of outstanding children’s literature” and these will also be used to assess the books reviewed in this paper.  Believing in the immersion of young children in rich art-based environments, the author of this paper has added the seventh quality.

• 1. Good books expand awareness and give children names for things in the world and frameworkks for their own experiences.  Quality books take children inside other people’s perspectives and increase their capacity for empathy.
• 2. Good books provide an enjoyable read that doesn’t overtly teach or moralist.  If a book is too contrived to teach a lesson, children will not tolerate it.
• 3. Good books tell the truth of human experience.  The characters are true to life and the insights are accurate and wise.
• 4. Good books embody quality.  Their words are precisely chosen and poetic in their sound and imagery.  The plot is convincing and the characters are believable.
• 5. Good books have integrity.  The genre, plot, language, characters, style, theme and illustrations all come together to form a satisfying whole.
• 6. Good books show originality and introduce children to unique characters or situations to show the world from a different viewpoint.
• 7. Good books have a visual aesthetic richness.  The pictures, images, and symbols in the artistic expression engage, thrill, and draw children back to them again and again.

Findings

    The review of the early childhood children’s books Day mentions, coupled with the review of the books in this paper, allows us to look at the themes in 53 books.  The review of these books, based on the criteria mentioned above, breaks down into six themes:  Visibility for same-sex parents, celebrations of family diversity, love and marriage, adoption, biography, and gender variance.

TABLE 1:  FIRST DECADES

TITLE (YEAR)

William’s Doll (1972)

Oliver Button is a Sissy (1979)

Orca’s Song (1987)

Prince Cinders (1987)

Heather has Two Mommies (1989)

Daddy’s Roommate (1990)

Families:  A Celebration of Diversity, Commitment, & Love (1990)

Belinda’s Bouquet (1991)

Gloria Goes to Gay Pride (1991)

How Would You Feel If Your Dad Was Gay? (1991)

The Duke Who Outlawed Jelly Beans & Other Stories (1991)

The Daddy Machine (1992)

The Day They Put A Tax On Rainbows And Other Stories (1992)

The Paper Bag Princess (1992)

Two Moms, The Zark, And Me (1993)

Uncle What-Is-It Is Coming To Visit (1993)

Cinder Edna (1994)

One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dads, Blue Dads (1994)

My Two Uncles (1995)

Too Far Away To Touch (1995)

Amy Asks A Question:  Grandma, What’s A Lesbian? (1996)

Daddy’s Wedding (1996)

Zack’s Story:  Growing Up With Same-Sex Parents (1996)

Sanctuary:  A Tale Of Life In The Woods (1997)

Sumorella:  A Hawai’i Cinderella Story (1997)

Lucy Goes To The Country (1998)

123 A Family Counting Book (2000)

ABC A Family Alphabet Book (2000)

All Families Are Different (2000)

Hello, Sailor (2000)

King & King (2000)

TABLE 2:  SECOND DECADE

TITLE (YEAR)

Pugdog (2001)

The Harvey Milk Story (2001)

Going To Fair Day (2002)

Felicia’s Favorite Story (2002)

My House (2002)

The Sissy Duckling (2002)

The White Swan Express:  A Story About Adoption (2002)

All Families Are Special (2003)

How My Family Came To Be - Daddy, Papa And Me (2003)

The Family Book (2003)

King & King & Family (2004)

The Boy Who Cried Fabulous (2004)

And Tango Makes Three (2005)

Antonio’s Card/Le Tarjeta de Antonio (2005)

Emma And Meesha My Boy (2005)

Kate And The Beanstalk (2005)

Koalas On Parade (2005)

The Rainbow Cubby House (2005)

Sleeping Bobby (2005)

Luna (2006)

The Different Dragon (2006)

Parrotfish (2007)

Visibility For Same-Sex Parents

    Comparing the titles and content of early children’s literature that has gay and lesbian themes, there are some distinct differences between the previous decades (Table 1) and the more recent decade (Table 2).  Many of the books in the first decade are explicit in their messages and don’t seem like stories that might attract child readers.  With titles such as Heather has two mommies (Newman, 1989), Daddy’s roommate (Willhoite, 1990), and How would  you feel if your dad was gay? (Heron, 1991), these books hardly have a compelling story that children would be drawn to on their own.  Gay and lesbian literature for children published between 1989 and 1999 appears to be about visibility, mirroring what is going on in society with regard to increasing the visibility of gay and lesbian people.

    Bruhm and Hurley (2004) argue that many of the gay and lesbian early childhood books are about gays and lesbians seeking respectility.  Spitz (1999) noted that some children’s books become classics because they tackle important psychological themes with craftsmanship and subtlety.  She abhors the spate of psychological self-help books for children that deal didactically with real-life situations and believes they’ll be short lived because they lack the aesthetic qualities necessary to engrave themselves onto children’s hearts.  “A book may focus directly and pointedly on a specific emotional and/or social problem, but if it cannot tell a good story, provide visual stimulation, and engage its audience in an imaginary world, it will fall by the wayside” (p. 8).  Children prefer stories once removed from their real lives so that they can process the psychological implications for themselves.  As a classic example, Hansel and Gretal is a story about abandonment and how smart children can save themselves.  It wasn’t titled Daddy dumped me in the forest.  Many of the early gay and lesbian themed books certainly deal didactically with gay families.

    Here we find a major difference between many of the books in the two tables.  Although most books easily meet Day’s (2000) “Suggested Guidelines for Evaluating Books with Lesbian and Gay Content”, fewer books from the first table meet Temple’s “Qualities of Outstanding Children’s Literature”.  Thus the books from the first table, although their topics and thems are important - even revolutionary - are often not well written and employing engaging language that would attract a child.  They aren’t enjoyable for children, as they are too didactic and overly moralizing.  They do not always form a satisfying whole.  The exception to these explicit books that appear to be about increasing the visibility and respectability of gay parents, and more for adults than for children, are the works of Johnny Valentine.  Valentine’s books are fairytales with storylines that draw children into them.  Bettelheim (1975) believes that fairytales speak to a child’s unconscious fears, give body to their unconscious anxieties, and relieves them without ever letting them come to conscious awareness.

    The duke who outlawed jelly beans another stories (Valentine, 1991), The day they put a tax on rainbows and other stories (Valentine, 1992), and Two moms, the zark, and me (Valentine, 1993) are all wonderful fairytales where gay parents are secondary to the plots that typically involve wise and kind children overcoming some kind of obstacle.  Two other titles, The daddy machine (Valentine, 1992) and One dad, two dads, brown dad, blue dads (Valentine, 1994) seem reminiscent of Dr. Seuss with their rhyming and humor.  One dad, two dads is less explicitly about gay fathers than it is about how fathers come in all shapes, colors and sizes.  It is also important to note that this latter title had parents of different colors, black and brown dads specifically, and is the first book in this study that has representations other than white people.

    The second table of children’s books that deal with lesbian mothers and gay fathers have gone beyond the concern of visibility.  Many of them are still about gay and lesbian parents, but the parents are secondary characters to the children in the stories, and sexual orientation is not featured in the titles as in the books written from 1989 to 1999.  Visibility is more nuanced and, in the case of Emma and meesha my boy, Emma has two mothers but the point of the story is the way she cares for her cat.  The learn to include easy-to-read series (Harding & Harding 2002, 2005) beautifully portrays a lesbian couple and their daughter.  This Australian series is becoming a staple in many schools throughout the country and is a perfect example of how same-sex parents play secondary roles in stories in the second table.  The four books in the series - Going to fair day (2002), My house (2002), Koalas on parade (2005), and The rainbow cubby house (2005) - are about a young schoolgirl and her two moms.  The two mothers are mentioned but they don’t speak, and play only a supporting role in the day-to-day life of the little girl.  Written in the girl’s voice, the stories are about going to the fair, day-to-day life in her home, a school costume event, and building a clubhouse.  The girl’s friend at school is a boy named Jed who just happens to have two dads.  This fact is not central to the stories, which involve pets and things that young children face and love daily.  The authors of the stories are six-year-old Brenna Harding and her mother, Vicki Harding.  Brennan was six when the first two books were written and eight when she wrote the last two.  This series is remarkable for having a child author, and nowhere is this repeated in any of the other 53 books.  This series easily meets both Day’s and Temple’s criteria, as the simplicity of the stories and art attract children over and over again.

    The different dragon is a charming book about a little boy named Noah who happens to have two mothers.  The theme, though, is the routine of getting ready for bed.  Another excellent addition to this them is Antonio’s card/La target de Antonio (Gonzalez, 2005).  In this story, a young boy “comes out” at school with regard to his lesbian mothers.  What makes this book different is that it is a bilingual story with a Latino boy as the protagonist, something not often seen in children’s books about gay and lesbian families.  It’s the first story that shows the child’s anxiety about the sexual orientation of his parents.  Gonzalez’s book is to be commended for bringing such anxiety to the mirror and having educators reflect upon it.  A recent piece written by the author of this paper (Sapp, 2009) spoke of the palpable discomfort that teachers demonstrated when gay and lesbian themed children’s books were introduced as a topic in a graduate education course.  During the course, titled “Literature for Children and Adolescents”, teachers expressed their great anxiety over using any storyline with gay and lesbian themes.  Statements such as “Having books like these floating around in libraries is not something you want as a hazard for parents who prefer to teach their kids conservatively” several educators’ unease about having gay and lesbian themed books in their classroom.  It stands to reason that if educators are anxious then children may pick up on this anxiety as well.  Gonzalez’s story also reveals how this genre is maturing by presenting narratives showing a rich depth of emotional responses that range from fear and anxiety to comfort and pride.

    As mentioned, most of the books from 1989 to 1999 are about the visibility of gay and lesbian parents.  There are exceptions to this, where books mirror other aspects of what is going on in the GLBTQ community.  One, Newman’s (1995) Too far away to touch, is about a gay uncle explaining to his beloved niece that he is dying of AIDS.  Another innovative book is Newman’s (1991) Belinda’s bouquet.  The theme is size bias, and the lesbian mother is a secondary character who is a loving support to the child.  These stories take on anxieties about death and size discrimination, making them more about issues children face daily rather than about the visibility of sexual orientation.

Celebrations of Family Diversity

    A second common group of books used in early childhood have to do with introducing the concept of family to young children.  Day (2000) identifies Families:  A celebration of diversity, commitment, and love (Jenness, 19990) as an example of a family book about how some families have two dads and two moms.  In this photo-essay book, two of the 17 families are gay and lesbian.  In fairness to Jenness, photo essays can quickly become outdated, and this certainly applies to the flat black and white photographs in Families.  This non-aesthetic quality seems typical of books published in the first table.  Three other books about the concept of family are All families are different (Gordon, 2000), The family book (Parr, 2003), and All families are special (Simon, 2003).  Todd Parr’s work is an example of the qualities of outstanding children’s literature that Temple addresses, and Parr’s books are favorites of children who go back to them again and again.

    Two exceptions to the poor quality usually seen in the first table of children’s literature with gay and lesbian themes are ABC a family alphabet book (Combs, 2000) and 123 a family counting book (Combs, 2000).  Both are written by Bobbie Combs and are an example of typical books that introduce young children to the alphabet and counting to 10.  What makes these two books outstanding is that they illustrate diverse, multiracial, and same-sex families.  It is also one of the only books that show people with disabilities.  The illustrations in ABC a family alphabet book (Combs, 2000), less portrait and more caricature, show people of different shapes, sizes and abilities, and young children will want to read this book over and over.

    In 2005 one of the most controversial and most bannedd books was published.  And Tango makes three (Richardson, 2005) is the real story of Roy and Silo, two male chinstrap penguins who live in the New York City Central Park Zoo.  When all the boy and girl penguins began coupling and courting, the zookeeper noticed that the two males were doing what males and females traditionally had always done.  Roy and Silo were bowing to each other, singing to each other, and walking and swimming together.  They couldn’t lay an egg, but the zookeeper found an egg that was uncared for and put it in their nest, and they cared for it until it hatched.  The book, although a favorite of children, became anathema to many people who declared it was teaching children to be homosexual, and the book was banned.  It’s quite easy to get a book on the banned book list, as all that needs to be done is for one person to write a formal complaint and file it with a library or school requesting that the material be removed from the library because of content or appropriateness.

Love and Marriage

    Love and marriage are rarely the theme of gay and lesbian books for young children, although they are often the theme of traditional children’s fairytales.  Day (2000) mentions one book about marriage, Daddy’s wedding (Willhoite, 1996), the sequel to Daddy’s roommate (Willhoite, 1990).  The book, told through the lens of ten-year-old Nick, is about the marriage of his father and his roommate Frank.  The book refers to it as a “commitment ceremony”.  There is a stunning Canadian book that Day didn’t mention.  It is Anne Cameron’s folktale Orca’s song (1987).  In this beautiful tale, a female orca falls in love with a female osprey and the two birth an orca as a child.  Orca’s song is a beautiful narrative of love that contains no overt moralizing so often found in books in the first table of gay and lesbian stories.

    First published in The Netherlands, where gay marriage is a legal right, King & King (Haan, 2000) is the charming fairytale about a prince whose mother, the Queen, demands that he marry so she can retire.  He meets and falls in love with Prince Lee.  Hundreds of books have a storyline about a prince and princess getting married, but, because of its same-sex couple, this particular book aroused the fury of those opposed to gay and lessian themes in children’s literature and it became one of the most banned books of all time.

    Also first published in The Netherlands is Hello, Sailor (Sollie, 2000), released in Great Britain and the United States in 2003.  In the story Matt operates a lighthouse and keeps watch so that ships will be safe, but mostly he is watching for Sailor to come home.  Sailor had gone to sea and had told Matt that one day he’d come back for him and they’d sail around the world together.  Although the story doesn’t say that Matt and Sailor are lovers, it is obvious that the two are in love.

    Paul Monette’s Sanctuary:  A tale of life in the woods (1997) could be considered a piece of children’s literature in the vein of Harry Potter and The chronicles of Narnia.  In this beautifully written story, Renaldo the fox and Lapine the rabbit are two female characters who fall in love in an enchanted forest sanctuary.  Interestingly, the witches and wizards in the story know no true gender, but change from male to female naturally, demonstrating that gender is indeed fluid.  This 94-page tale has every element that makes for a quality piece of literature.  Sanctuary has the capacity to be the single most important work to educate children and adults on issues surrounding gay and lesbian relationships.  Montette’s writing is exquisite.  His characters are well developed, multifaceted and endearing.  The injustice the two lovers experience is outrageous and sure to engage studentts’ empathy.  The fantasy world of the enchanted forest is believable.  The arguments from the animals opposing the relationship of the two protagonists and the strategies they use to keep them apart are eerily similar to those used today to limit the civil rights of gay and lesbian people everywhere.  Children and teachers alike would benefit greatly from well framed discussion around the themes of this story.

Adoption

    In the books reviewed by Day about families with same-sex parents, they were often about a man and a woman who divorced after having a child and then one of the adults entered into a same-sex relationship.  Books about same-sex couples adopting didn’t hit the market until around 2002.  Leslie Newman, one of the most prolific authors of gay and lesbian stories for children and the author of such classics as Heather has two mommies (1989) and Belinda’s bouquet (1991), wrote one of the first books to address same-sex adoption.  Felicia’s favorite story (2002) is the story of a little girl adopted from Guatemala by two women.  Also published the same year, The white swam express:  A story about adoption (Okimoto, 2002), tells four couples’ stories about going to China to adopt a child.  One of the four is a same-sex couple named Andrea and Charlotte.  How my family came to be - Daddy, papa an me (Aldrich, 2003), published a year later, is the story of two white men who adopt an Afro-American baby.  As a result of the success of King & king, Dutch authors Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland published a follow up title, King & king & family (Haan, 2004).  One thing apparent in the books about adoption is that they all involve mutltiracial families.

Biography

    Although history is full of gay and lesbian individuals who have made a tremendous impact on society, there is rarely a mention of sexual orientation in biographies for children.  Heterosexuality is celebrated or, at least assumed.  This does a great disservice to children as it keeps homosexuality invisible.  It might help conservatives to know their argument that “we don’t want this gay literature in our schools” would cancel out a great deal of worthy works, such as those of Walt Whitman, Marcel Proust, Virginia Woolf and Langston Hughes.

    The lone exception to the lack of gay or lesbian biographies is The Harvey Milk story (Krakow, 2001).  It tells the story of Milk’s life, is rise to political success in San Francisco as the first openly gay politician elected in the United States, and his tragic death at the hands of assassin Dan White.  It is a well done biography of a beloved civil rights leader and would well serve children if it were on the shelves of their school library next to biographies of Martin Luther King, Jr. and other civil rights leaders.  The book may garner more attention with the release of the 2009 Hollywood movie about Harvey Milk.

Gender Variance

    One of the most interesting areas in children’s literature - and certainly one that easily fits into this study - is books dealing with topics of gender.  This might be the deliberate act of an author retelling a traditional tale where a male is in the protagonist role and switching it so that a female is in the main character role, demonstrating her intelligence, wisdom, courage and ingenuity, as in the case of The paper bag princess (Munsch, 1992) or Kate and the beanstalk (Osborne, 2005).  Or it could be the opposite, putting the male in the traditionally female role as in Prince cinders (Cole, 1987), Sumorella:  A Hawai’i cinderella story (Takayama, 1997), or Sleeping bobby (Osborne, 2005).  Such stories show how boys and girls genders can grow up with character qualities that traditionally have been attributed to one gender and not the other.  Even in the 53 books looked at in this paper, many have white males as the main character.  Children need to read stories depicting gentle men and strong women.  One such charming story is Cinder Edna (Jackson, 1994) where Edna, unlike her counterpart Cinderella, doesn’t wait for her fairy godmother to set her up with a gown, but instead uses money she earns to put a dress on layaway.   

    Two  of the earliest children’s books to deal specifically with boys who reject their male normative roles are William’s doll (Zolotow, 1972) and Olilver button is a sissy (dePaola, 1979).  In the first book, William wants a doll to love and is called a sissy, an obvious reference to being gay.  His father tries to coerce him into more masculine play, but when his grandmother comes to visit she buys him a doll.  The grandmother tells her son that this doll will help William learn how to nurture and love a child and be a good father.

    Oliver button is a sissy is about a young boy more interested in jumping rope and playing with paper dolls than he is in sports.  His father chides him for being a sissy and his mother urges him to exercise.  The parents put Oliver in a dance class, but this just makes things worse for him at school, where bullies tease him about his dancing and write “Oliver buttons is a sissy” on the side of the school building.  Davies (2003) considers such stories as Oliver button is a sissy to be feminist stories because the subtext, in this case gender, actually becomes the text or story itself.

    These two classic books are some of the best in respect of teaching children about gender variance.  It’s important to note that they were published well before any books that specifically named gay and lesbian characters.  Because of this, Day (2000) didn’t include either of these titles in her study.  Today there are other books that address being a sissy as a way of urging young children to be kind to those of their peers who don’t fit into gender normative categories.  One such book is The sissy duckling (Fierstein, 2002) and is about Elmer, the duckling who loves to bake cookies and play make-believe instead of playing football and building forts like all of the other boy ducks.  Gay and lesbian storylines too often show the characters having to perform some great feat to earn love, but Fierstein saves the story of The sissy duckling by having Elmer embrace his “sissyhood.”  Elmer does perform a great and kind feat, but tells everyone at the end that he’s still a sissy and he isn’t going to change for them, for anyone.

    In Andrea U’Ren’s Pugdog (2001) a man named Mike gets a pudgy, and every day they go to the park where Pugdog chases squirrels and rolls in the dirt.  One day Pugdog hurts his foot and Mike takes him to the veterinarian where he finds out that Pugdog is a girl.  When they next go to the park, Mike doesn’t let Pugdog play and get dirty because, he tells her, ladies don’t do that kind of things.  Mike points to a fancy French poodle as a model for how Pugdog should behave.  Pudgy tries her best to imitate the poodle, but she falls into a deep depression and runs away.  Mike finds her and, worried that he’s lost his Pugdog forever, repents of trying to change her and tells her she is perfect just the way she is.  At that moment the fancy French poodle comes up and its owner introduces it as Harry.  It appears that you can’t judge a book by its cover.  The clever gender switch in this book is sure to intrigue young children who so often enjoy taking on both gender roles in their imaginative play.

    Leslie Newman, author of Heather has two mommies, shows her staying power as an author of gay and lesbian children’s books when she publishes The boy who cried fabulous in 2004.  When Roger starts out to school one morning his mother has only one rule for him:  Go straight to school and don’t be late.  But on the way Roger sees “a fabulous coat in a fabulous store when a fabulous bell on a fabulous door.”  His parents forbid him to use the word “fabulous.”  Poor Roger is as silent as he can be until finally he explodes with sheer joy at the wonderful world around him.  This cleverly written book uses Roger’s use of the word “fabulous” as a code for his being gay.

    Although mentioned under the theme of visibility for same-sex parents, The different dragon (Bryan, 2006) also deals beautifully with assuring little boys that they can embrace a range of emotions.  In the story, Noah sails in a magical sailboat to Dragon Cove and finds a crying dragon wo is tired of always having to be fierce.  Noah tells the dragon there are many ways to be, and being fierce is only one of them.

All of these books on gender variance seem to be making one specific point:  Fathers have a much more difficult time with gender variance than do mothers.  The mothers and grandmothers in the stories, although concerned for their children, love them exactly as they are.  It’s the fathers who chide, coerce and disown their sons for not being manly.  Fathers are unanimously portrayed as having a difficult time with gender variance, whereas mothers and grandmothers are nearly always open and affirming.  Given the prevalence of heteronormativity, it is surprising that so few of the books in this paper address homophobia more explicitly.  This is certainly true of the stories in the first decade and of many, but not all, in the second decade.  Although well intentioned, stories that position all men as homophobic and all women as accepting actually reinforce heteronormative gender roles, the exact opposite of the intent of many of these books.

Conclusion

    Much has occurred in the area of early childhood children’s literature in the past two decades.  The early books were mostly published by alternative presses and sold in alternative gay, lesbian and feminist bookstores.  Word of them spread fro person to person.  The books often mirrored what was going on in the gay and lesbian civil rights movement, and this still holds true today (see Table 3).  The early book art was often fall, one dimensional, and unlike the books from larger publishers who could afford well established artists.  The topics were at least as much for adults as for children.  They were so explicit that one need only to read the title to get the full thrust of what the book was about.  They lacked the elements of quality literature that children would want to read over and over again.  Like gay and lesbian people themselves, these early published stories seem to be about increasing visibility and respectability, assuring others that same-sex families are like all families, and that gay and lesbians are kind, caring and decent people.  The books often lacked images of diversity and were focused on white, middle-class culture.  There were no images of people with disabilities.

    Although the first decades of books published lack all of these elements, they are nothing less than miracles to gay and lesbian people, especially same-sex families with children.  No one had ever published in this genre before, and these early works were the first time that same-sex families saw themselves mirrored in the print and pictures of books.  As Adrienne Rich noted, queer families looked into a mirror and saw themselves for the first time (Maher & Tretreault, 1994).  The brave men and women who wrote, illustrated and published these first works will always have the gratitude of the gay and lesbian community.

    The most recent decade of early childhood children’s literature is growing from these seminal works.  With the increased visibility of gays and lesbians in society, books have become more nuanced in their storylines.  Same-sex parents have now gone from main characters to supporting characters as our children take the leading role.  Mainstream publishers are increasingly taking on stories that involve same-sex couples and queer themes, particularly in the area of gender variance.  Books with gay and lesbian people are becoming more diverse, showing people with disabilities, multiracial families, and girls and people of color in the role of main character.

    One aspect that has not changes is the swiftness of conservative groups who ban books with any kind of gay or lesbian theme.  Most of the books in this study have been banned; some of them are among the most banned books of all time.  An examination of the American Library Association’s list of most challenged books between 1990 and 2000 showed 515 books were challenged because of homosexual themes (Bosman & Bradford, 2008).  But, as we enter this latest decade of early children’s literature with gay and lesbian themes, things are getting better.  A more recent survey from 2004 showed that 27 percent of the population thought books with gay and lesbian themes should be banned from libraries, a decrease from 45 percent in previous surveys (American Library Association, 2009).

    Children’s books with gay and lesbian storylines or that deal with gender variance in any way are providing valuable counter narratives to heteronormativity.  These counter narratives arise in opposition to dominance of heteronormativeness and provide young children with stories that undermine the dominance of heterosexuality.  It’s not only Jack who can be wise enough and strong enough to escape the giant; so can Kate.  Not only can children come from a family made up of a mother and father, but also from families made up of one parent, two same-sex parents, grandfathers and grandmothers, and many other configurations.  One size does not fit all when it comes to the human condition.  Counter narratives are important for a diverse society, and especially for children, to not only see themselves n the mirror of literature, but also to look out of the window of literature and beyond the confines of their own world.

    Who knows what the third decade of early childhood children’s books will unveil?  There will certainly be increased diversity.  Educators and activists hope for an end to able-bodiedness as a dominant theme in the same way they have fought to end the dominance of heterosexuality and whiteness (McRuer, 2006; Myers & Bersani, 2009).  Although there are images of gays and lesbians in children’s literature, nowhere are there images of other genders such as bisexuals or transgendered storylines (Peters, 2006; Wittlinger, 2007), thus one can only hope that some day images  of all genders will be represented in early childhood literature as well.  One thing is for sure, though.  Somewhere there is a child or young adult still going to the library, like DeJean (2001), and sitting on the cold floor seeking stories and images of herself/himself.  Some libraries still self censor books with gay and lesbian themes, but the changes are getting better and better that children of all sexual orientations, family makeups, abilities, races, ethnicities, and genders are beginning to see reflections of themselves in the early childhood literature mirror.

    

TABLE 3:  GAY AND LESBIAN CIVIL RIGHTS EVENTS

1969 - The Stonewall riots in New York City spark the modern day gay and lesbian civil rights movement

1973 - The American Psychiatric Association removes homosexuality from its official list of mental 

        disorders

1978 - Assassination of Harvey Milk

1981 - First AIDS case publicly reported

1988 - First World AIDS Day

1989 - Denmark becomes the first country to legalize same-sex partnerships

1993 - The United States military institues the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy

1996 - South African adds gays to its constitution

1996 - The USA legalizes the Defense of Marriage Act stating the federal government will not recognize

        same-sex marriage

1998 - Matthew Shepard is murdered

2000 - Vermont, USA becomes the first state to recognize civil unions between gay or lesbian couples

2000 - The American Medical Association opposes reparative therapy

2001 - Holland legalizes gay marriage

2003 - The US Supreme Court rules that sodomy laws are unconstitutional

2003 - Belgium legalizes gay marriage

2004 - Same-sex marriages become legal in Massachusetts, USA

2005 - Spain and Canada legalize gay marriage

2009 - Groups around the globe celebrate the 40th anniversary of the Stonewall riots.

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