A Tale of Two Mommies by Vanita Oelschlager Published by Vanita Books on 1 September 2011
Genres: Children's Lit, Contemporary, LGBT
Pages: 40
Format: ARC
Source: Netgalley
A Tale of Two Mommies is a beach conversation among three children. One boy asks another boy about having two mommies. A young girl listening in asks some questions too.
True to a child’s curiosity, practical questions follow.
*I received a free ARC of A Tale of Two Mommies from Vanita Books via Netgalley in exchange of an honest review*
In a Tale of Two Mommies, a little boy who has two moms meets two new, very curious friends on the beach one day. They ask him all kinds of questions about which mom does what – and I was perplexed at how this is party also due to gender roles, not only because he has two moms instead of one mom and one dad, or only one parent (or grand-parent or aunt / uncle etc). Like, who can fix what is broken? had the underlying meaning of ‘since there are no men in your house’, at least in my mind.
The natural curiosity of children shine through in A Tale of Two Mommies, both in the dialog and the illustrations. It is really nice to read about a family that might be a little different, but where the children dare to ask their questions without holding back, and without any kind of judgment. And the answers are very enlightening too, because they show that no matter who our parents are, they care about us, take care of us, and do what they can to make sure we are happy and feel loved, that we will become ‘good’ people and know the difference between right and wrong.
A Tale of Two Mommies is written in the same way as A Tale of Two Daddies, very straight-forward and with beautiful illustrations. This is the kind of book that can only help when it comes to being open-minded. I hope a lot of parents will read this for their children, because I believe that showing everybody that homosexuality is nothing to be afraid of is truly important. And that what matters the most for a child is not to be raised by a mom and a dad (or only one parent) but that the parents who raise the child love the child, and each other.
About Linda @ (un)Conventional Bookworms
Linda is an English as foreign language teacher and has a Master's degree in English Language and Literature. She's an avid reader, blogger, compulsive one-clicker and a genre omnivore. Ever since she learnt how to read she has been seen with a book or two in her hands everywhere she goes.
sounds really sweet
It is very sweet, and I thought it was very well written, too.
Thanks for stopping by Katja 🙂
Here, here, Lexxie!! I love this review and it sounds like a wonderful book. I’m glad more books are being written for the purpose of helping people to understand there’s not a thing wrong with children being raised and loved in a household with same-sex parents. I wish there’d been more of these types of books sooner. Working in a bookstore, I’ve had instances when I was asked if books like this existed…Thanks for sharing this one, Lexxie!