Helen and I bring you the first signs of what could be growing ultra-right opposition to Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, a new children’s book featuring gay guinea pigs. (Regular blog readers will know about this from my earlier post; since this video is crossposted at After Ellen, though, there’s sometimes a little overlap in order to inform viewers there.)

We then give you a parent’s-eye view of one of our favorite stores, IKEA. It’s not just good for parents in search of cheap furniture, we argue, but can be a whole day’s worth of activities for children as well. We also offer some suggestions to new parents looking for baby gear and anyone whose home hosts both small children and large pieces of furniture. We next recommend some additional tools to improve your furniture-assembling prowess and ensure that your bookshelves are straight, even if you aren’t.

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Sarah Brannen, author of Uncle Bobby’s Wedding (about which see my Saturday post, if you haven’t been following the story), was kind enough to let me share this e-mail message she sent me:

I read the book to a group of young children at a school book fair yesterday. They had a lot of questions:

How long did it take you to write the book?
How did you draw them so cute?
Is the little white mouse a baby?
Is the white one at the wedding a boy?
How did you make their clothes?
Were you ever a flower girl in a wedding?

And that was it.

Sometimes, I hate being right. It wasn’t a stretch of the imagination to foresee that the new storybook Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, by Sarah Brannen, would be a target for the right.

I didn’t imagine they’d quote me while doing so, however. The conservative publication Town Hall just published the article “Librarians Against Censorship,” by Brent Bozell III. Bozell says:

Already we can predict how the ALA next year will complain about any objection to a book called “Uncle Bobby’s Wedding,” the story of a young guinea pig who worries that her Uncle Bobby won’t play with her anymore after he “marries” his boyfriend Jamie. The book ends at the “wedding,” with Chloe as the enthusiastic flower girl.

In my March 18 review of the book at Bay Windows (and published in a longer form at After Elton), I say:

It tells the sweet story of Chloe, an anthropomorphic young guinea pig who worries that Uncle Bobby won’t keep having fun with her after he marries his boyfriend Jamie. Uncle Bobby explains that their special times together will not end; Chloe will not be losing an uncle, but gaining one. The book ends at the wedding, with Chloe as the enthusiastic flower girl.

Hmm. See any resemblance? Well, if Bozell is going to take my words, I’m not going to provide a live link to his article. You can view it at:

www.townhall.com/Columnists/BrentBozellIII/2008/05/09/librarians_against_censorship

if you want to see it. He also rails against And Tango Makes Three and the American Library Association’s Rainbow List of LGBT-inclusive children’s and young adult books. (For an alternate perspective, see my interview with the chair of the Rainbow List project, Nel Ward.) Read more »

For the second year in a row, the children’s book And Tango Makes Three, about two male penguins who care for an egg and raise a chick together, tops the list of the American Library Association’s (ALA) 10 Most Challenged Books.

Personally, I think the guinea pigs will give them a run for their money in 2008 (not that I wish censorship on this or any book). Herewith, my full review of Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, a new LGBT-inclusive children’s book that I’ve mentioned in a few previous posts. I also speak with author Sarah Brannen and her editor, who discuss, among other things, the reaction to the book so far and their feelings about potential censorship.

Fur Better or Worse: Gay Guinea Pigs Wed in New Children’s Book
(Originally published at After Elton, March 25, 2008)

Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, by Massachusetts author and illustrator Sarah Brannen, is more than just a good LGBT-inclusive children’s book; it is a good children’s book, period. Like 2005’s And Tango Makes Three, about two male penguins who hatch an egg together, it is likely to garner critical praise as well as ultra-right censorship.

Uncle Bobby moves us from feathers to fur, however, and tells the sweet story of Chloe, an anthropomorphic young guinea pig who worries that Uncle Bobby won’t keep having fun with her after he marries his boyfriend Jamie. Uncle Bobby explains that their special times together will not end; Chloe will not be losing an uncle, but gaining one. The book ends at the wedding, with Chloe as the enthusiastic flower girl. Read more »

It’s Earth Day. My son’s preschool had a series of related activities and discussions all last week, and he’s had the Earth on his mind.

After going through several pieces of toilet paper during a pit stop the other day, he held up the final one and asked “Mommy, if it’s clean, can I leave it on the counter for the next person?”

I explained about germs, but was impressed by his commitment to reducing consumption.

Please share some of the things you do to protect the environment and save energy. How do you teach your children to do so? Where do you compromise for convenience?

It’s National Poetry Month, a time “to celebrate poetry and its vital place in American culture.” Mother Goose and Dr. Seuss have played a part in many of our children’s lives, but I’m wondering: what poets or poems do your children like as they get older (and what other ones have they enjoyed while young)? Do they ever turn away from poetry, except perhaps to read the lyrics of a favorite pop song, not realizing their connection (however faint) to Shakespeare and Dickinson? How does their relationship with poetry compare to your own (and/or your partner’s)?

Personally, I’m looking to find some good poems that would appeal to those transitioning from Goose and Seuss, like my own son. He seems to enjoy books like Debra Frasier’s On the Day You Were Born, which is really a poem-made-picturebook, but he also likes the silly haiku in Judy Sierra and Marc Brown’s Wild About Books. (E.g., “Dung Beetle”: “Roll a ball of dung/Any kind of poo will do/Baby beetle bed.”) I’m thinking fun ones like Casey at the Bat might be next.

Please leave a comment with your own thoughts on children and poetry.

Take a moment, too, to visit the A Poem a Day site run by Houston’s Writers in the Schools (WITS) program. Every day throughout April, they post a poem from one of their student writers. Some have amazed me, given the age of the children. Not only that, but the executive director of WITS is none other than Robin Reagler of The Other Mother blog. (She’s also organizing a Blog Reader Appreciation Day this Wednesday and asking bloggers “to thank the readers for sticking with you even when you . . . [fill in the blank].”)

School administrators in Bristol, England have removed the books King & King and And Tango Makes Three, and the DVD That’s a Family from two primary schools. Some parents complained that they should have been consulted before LGBT-inclusive materials were used in the classroom. The schools had introduced the books in order to comply with new laws intended to combat homophobic bullying.

The complaints in this case came from the Muslim community, but as many of you know, there have been any number of similar complaints elsewhere from conservative members of other religions. I’ve written several times before about a lawsuit brought by two right-wing Christian couples against the school district of Lexington, Massachusetts, claiming the parents had the right to be notified before books with LGBT-inclusive content were read.

If parents always had to be consulted before schools introduced potentially inappropriate materials, where would it end? Schools can’t determine everything that might be offensive to someone. At some point, parents have to step up and, well, do some parenting. As the U.S. Circuit Court ruled in the Lexington case, “The mere fact that a child is exposed on occasion in public school to a concept offensive to a parent’s religious belief does not inhibit the parent from instructing the child differently.”

If parents want to be able to opt their children out of exposure to material that goes against their views of religious acceptability, they might as well require notification before teachers read Dr. Seuss’ Green Eggs and Ham, which is all about a boy trying to force someone to eat a meal that violates Jewish and Islamic dietary laws (and those of certain Christian traditions, if the book is read on fast days). I’m not hearing reports of complaints about that book, though. LGBT-inclusive materials should be no different.

This week, I’m pleased to brings you a special interview with Sarah Brannen, author and illustrator of the new LGBT-inclusive children’s book Uncle Bobby’s Wedding. (Helen is taking a break from vlogging this week, though she’s busy with her real job, advancing the frontiers of technology.) Brannen discusses the process of creating the book, shows us some early sketches of the characters, and talks about the skull fracture that nearly waylaid publication. She also shares pictures and ideas from some books she’s working on now, including one featuring a two-mom family.

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If the Veoh video above isn’t working (sometimes their server can be flaky), you can try it at Daily Motion.

Brought to you in partnership with After Ellen.

I’m thrilled to be able to give away a copy of the fabulous new LGBT-inclusive children’s book Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, signed by author Sarah Brannen.

Uncle Bobby’s Wedding is more than just a good LGBT-inclusive children’s book; it is a good children’s book, period. It tells the sweet story of Chloe, an anthropomorphic young guinea pig who worries that Uncle Bobby won’t keep having fun with her after he marries his boyfriend Jamie. Uncle Bobby explains that their special times together will not end; Chloe will not be losing an uncle, but gaining one. The book ends at the wedding, with Chloe as the enthusiastic flower girl.

The book’s great strength is that Jamie’s gender is a non-issue throughout. This leaves Brannen free to concentrate on her other themes, and opens up the book to a wider audience. Brannen’s rich watercolor drawings match the tranquil but sometimes playful tone of the text. Backed by major publisher G. P. Putnam Sons (an imprint of Penguin Young Readers Group), Uncle Bobby’s Wedding is bound to become well known and well loved.

You can read my interview with Brannen and her editor at After Elton. Thanks to the publisher for making this copy available to a Mombian reader.

The book will go to the first person who leaves a comment with the correct answer to both of the following two questions. Please note rules and restrictions below. Read more »

(Originally appeared with slight variation in Bay Windows, March 6, 2008)

Where can children, teens, parents and librarians find new LGBT-themed children’s and young adult books of merit? Starting now, they can turn to the annual Rainbow List published by the American Library Association (ALA), the oldest and largest library association in the world.

It can be very hard for kids to discover LGBT-themed books, explains retired librarian and schoolteacher Nel Ward, chair of the Rainbow List committee. Even a helpful librarian may have trouble locating titles of interest, since the Library of Congress cataloging information will often use a phrase like “best friends” instead of a description indicating an LGBT relationship. Certain electronic searches will only yield titles on how to prevent homosexuality. “Librarians want lists so they can help kids access these books,” Ward asserts. Read more »