We have this story because author Lesléa Newman was asked by a lesbian friend to write a story for her daughter, Sarah. It seemed there was nothing in the bookstores that presented same-sex families in any kind of light . . . positive or negative. Newman says her only goal in writing Heather Has Two Mommies was to create a story that would help children with same-sex parents feel good about themselves and their families.

This re-post is from 2001 write-off I participated in that celebrated The National Center for Family Literacy, which launched its first annual National Bedtime Story Month. I just checked the web site and there doesn’t seem to be anything for 2002 . . . yet.

The story is about a little girl named Heather.”Her favorite number is two. She has two arms, two legs, two eyes, two ears, two hands and two feet. She has two pets: a ginger-colored cat named Gingersnap and a big black dog named Midnight. Heather also has two mommies: Mama Jane and Mama Kate.”

This story starts out with Kate and Jane living on opposite sides of town. They have been friends for a long, long time and finally realize that they are very much in love with each other. They want to live together and be a family. They moved to a little house with an apple tree in the front yard and are very happy. There is only one thing missing, a child.

They go to a special doctor who performs artificial insemination. (Don’t look for a turkey-baster joke in this review ‘cause there ain’t one.) The doctor (female) puts some sperm in Jane’s womb, the sperm swims up and meets the egg and Jane gets pregnant. All the correct words are used so that the mothers who read this story to their children won’t be making up stuff about down there and indirectly telling the kids think it’s all something they shouldn’t know. Page by page you go through Jane’s pregnancy until it’s time for Heather to be born. Jane delivers her baby at home with the help of Mama Kate and a mid-wife.

Heather is tiny with brown eyes and curly brown hair. She sleeps and eats and grows and we find out that Mama Kate is a doctor who lets Heather listen to her heartbeat on a stethoscope. Mama Jane is a carpenter? (Well, that’s what Newman wrote.) Anyway, Mama Jane has a toolbox with a big yellow tape measure and all sorts of other tools. There are two hammers, one large and one small. She and Heather build a table together. The drawings on every page by Diana Souza are charming.

Next Heather goes to a playgroup. (This was never fully explained, so I gather it’s either kindergarten or day care.) Heather gets to take along two favorite things . . . a blue blanket and a red cup to drink out of . . . so she isn’t afraid. Molly, the teacher, reads a story about a little boy whose father is a veterinarian. There’s lots of daddy talk and Heather wonders why she doesn’t have one and starts to cry. It turns out that all the kids in this class don’t have regular mommy and daddy families. Miriam has a mommy and a baby sister. Stacy has two daddies. Joshua has a mommy, a step-daddy and a daddy. The children are also of differing ethnicities.

They draw pictures of their families. The pictures in this section of the book were drawn by real a five-year-old girl; they’re wonderful and they’re not like the ones that grown-ups try to make look like they were drawn by kids. That never works. The children are also taught an important lesson, as will the adults be who read this story to them.

Molly, the teacher tells them, “It doesn’t matter how many mommies or how many daddies your family has. It doesn’t matter if your family has sisters or brothers or cousins or grandmothers or grandfathers or uncles or aunts. . . . The most important thing about a family is that all the people in it love each other.” Now ain’t that the truth!

Mama Kate and Mama Jane come to pick up Heather from her first day at play school; they bring Midnight and Gingersanp. There are hugs and kisses for everyone and they all go home to the little house with the apple tree in the front yard. End of story and beginning of lessons learned.

Newman wrote the story and then sent Heather to over 50 publishers. She says, “Children’s book presses told me to try lesbian publishers. Lesbian publishers told me to try children’s book presses.” After a whole year had gone by she and a friend decided to publish the book themselves. With the help of a lot of $10 donations (and the promise of a book) they got the job done.

Newman says, “In December of 1989 the first copies of Heather Has Two Mommies rolled off the presses. She continues, “There wasn’t a huge reaction to the book. I got a few letters from lesbian mothers telling me how grateful they were and one letter from a six-year-old named Tasha, who wrote, ‘Thank you for writing Heather Has Two Mommies. I know that you wrote it JUST FOR ME!’ “

She “heard about a little boy who received three copies of the book for his birthday and slept with all of them under his pillow every night. She also spoke with a heterosexual woman whose child was captivated with the book. ‘He asks to hear it every night,’ she told me, and he wants to know why he only has one mom. . . . A more grown-up child who lives with her lesbian mom and her mom’s partner asked, ‘How come Heather has two mommies, and I have one mommy and one parent?’ ”

Another child with two moms was didn’t even question the idea of the book. “When his mother read him the book and asked him what he thought, he simply said, ‘Can we get a dog and a cat, like Heather?’ I have not yet heard of a child having an adverse reaction to the book.” Adults, however, are another story. In February of 1995, this book joined the Queer Books for Kids Top Ban List along with Daddy’s Roommate by Michael Wilhoite.

In June of 1998, Q.Voice, a Milwaukee LGBT magazine I used to write for, published an interview by Newman in which she had a conversation with the two gay male writers of a new gay children’s book called , Lucy Goes to the Country. It’s about two big guys and their cat, Lucy.

Joseph Kennedy and Jon Canemaker asked Lesléa Newman what it had been like to have a children’s book with same-sex parents banned all over the country. She replied, “Well, if you’re lucky, Rush Limbaugh will mention it in fund-raising letters, Pat Robertson will hold it up on television and Newt Gingrich will read it on the Senate floor . . .”

Well Rush and Newt are off the scene and Pat Robertson doesn’t seem to have much to say lately. Maybe they don’t know that Heather Has Two Mommies just celebrated its tenth anniversary in publication (actually Heather is twelve). In 1990 Alyson Publications started Alyson Wonderland, a line of books for children with gay and lesbian parents. Alyson bought out the rights to Heather and also published Daddy’s Roommate. This book lists all of Alyson’s children’s publications at the end. There’s even an order form.

Newman may have written this book specifically for a lesbian mother who couldn’t find something to read to her daughter that said her family was okay the way it was. I think it would certainly make fine reading for any family who wants their children to know that there are families with same-sex parents out there and it’s just great to be that way!

For more of Lesléa Newman’s writing and her children’s books, check out these web sites: http://www.lesleanewman.com/ and http://www.lesleakids.com/aboutleslea.html.

To honor National Bedtime Story Month this write-off was hosted by Phineaskc and Angelabar. The excellent entries by the following Epinions members listed below:

Angela9049, Angelabar, Bpotter1, Caines, Cbgresh, Chrisceb, Cjsmommy, ColleenMF, Dandj, DarkMistress, Daxman, Debbie26, ed_grover, GinaHill, Hhassell99, Jankp, Jenninca, Jenni1396, Jo.com, Jodycw, KC8988, KCFemme, KMINER, Lisa_J, Lisalexx, Magenta321, Mellkinwa, Mimi369, Mom2TyZick, Nwinston, Phineaskc, ProEditor, Redlass, Robinmichele, Rosieroon, Sherrylee, Staceys1, Tchoate, Wardukeky and Willetftk



Recommended: Yes