GBLTQ Literature Children's Book Reviews

Willhoite, Michael. (1990). Daddy’s Roommate. California: Alyson Wonderland.

Daddy’s Roommate is a story about a young boy whose parents have recently gotten divorced. His father has a new roommate, Frank, who has just been introduced into the picture. The story goes on to depict their everyday activities that they do with each other and also as a family. Some of the activities that the two men do together in the story are, work, eat and sleep together, and sometimes even fight with each other. The story shows that Frank is a new part of the young boys’ life as well as his fathers’ life. They have bonded just like father and son.

It is important to have a children’s book like this in a library because it depicts this family in such a positive light. It is direct and straight to the point. It not only depicts this gay father in a positive light, it fulfills the curiosity children have about the concept of homosexuality. The book explains that this new concept of his father having a new roommate as, “just one more kind of love” which I believe is a great portrayal and explanation. This story has received the Lambda Literary Award and is also number two on the American Library Association’s (ALA’s) list of the 100 most challenged books from 1990-2000.

Richardson, Justin and Peter Parnell (Writers)& Henry Cole (Illustrator). (2005). And Tango Makes Three. New York: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers.

Who says only human families can be different from one another? In the story, And Tango Makes Three, two male penguins are depicted as a gay couple in the respect that they take care of and raise a baby penguin. This is a true story that is based on two chinstrap penguins from New York’s Central Park Zoo, Roy and Silo. Roy and Silo had at one point in their lives came together as a couple. The zoo keepers decided to give an egg that another couple was un-able to hatch and give it to the couple. The story ends up with the hatching, birth and life of Tango, a baby female penguin, the couples’ newest member of their family.

I think this a great book that depicts a non-traditional family in a positive light. This book being a true story gives more dimensions to it; adding more depth behind the characters. Even though the main characters are penguins, it is extremely relatable. It shows young children that it is absolutely okay to be a part of a non-traditional family, in fact it is depicted as being no different that than a traditional family. The best part of the book to me was the end page. “There they snuggled together and, like all the other penguins in the penguin house, and all the other animals in the zoo, and all the families in the big city around them, they went to sleep.” This book has received numerous amounts of awards including, the 2006 American Library Association (ALA) Notable Children’s Book, ASPCA’s Henry Bergh Award, Gustavus Myer Outstanding Book Award, just to name a few. Along with these amazing awards and others, And Tango Makes Three was considered to be the most challenged book of 2006 according to the ALA.


Setterington, K. (Writer), & Priestly, A. (Illustrator). (2004). Mom and Mum are getting Married! Toronto: Second Story Press.

Mom and Mum are getting Married is a picture book story about a little girl named Rosie. Rosie has two mommies in the story but that is not where the conflict lies. Rosie came home from school to find out the good news that her ‘mom’ and her ‘mum’ were going to get married. The first thought in Rosie’s mind was, “Why can’t we stay the way we are? I like this.” Rosie then gets excited about the celebration but her mom explains to her that it is going to be a very small celebration at their cottage. There are challenges that arise in the story that must be overcome but there are few and they are relatively easy to overcome. These are challenges that can happen with any other ordinary marriage, like figuring out who the flower girl is going to be or how to not lose their precious wedding rings.

Overall, I think this story is flat and not-engaging. I was expecting the story to focus more on the implications of a lesbian couple getting married, but instead the story focuses on the minor implications that can arise during any wedding. The pictures in this book are extremely simply using only line drawings and simple colors which add to the flat, one-dimensional aspect of the story. What I thought would be the resolution to the story was quite a let down. Rosie’s two mommies did end up getting married but it didn’t show a typical ceremony; it basically just said it happened.