Home » Posts tagged 'two moms' (Page 2)
Tag Archives: two moms
Best, Best Colors/ Los Mejores Colores by Eric Hoffman
I like everything about this book. The watercolor illustrations are dreamy and perfect for a book focused on a boy’s struggle with loving all the colors of the rainbow. Written simultaneously in Spanish and English, this is the story of the protagonist Nate having trouble deciding which color is his best color so he keeps on changing his mind based on liking a new object. Whatever color the sneakers or cape or paints are is his favorite color. He wants to integrate whatever color is his favorite into his world and he chooses his “best mom” or best friend according to whether or not they say “yes”, he can have the color in his life the way that he wants. When they say “no”, as mothers must, he takes away best mother status—which is such a candid representation of the mercurial nature of children. Without making reference to it, we see Nate with his moms and his sister who are all different races/ ethnicities (Nate and one of his moms are African Diaspora people while his other mom is Caucasian and his sister is East Asian) enjoying life on Nate’s journey of figuring out what and who he likes best. In the end, his nightmare of colors fighting opens his mind to choosing an object in which all the colors get along: the Pride Flag. This is one of the few books representing LGBT parents with an African Diaspora mother or child so it is refreshing that is has a well-written story line independent of its representation of diversity.
Recommendation: Highly Recommended
Book Review by Omilaju Miranda
Mommy, Mama, and Me by Leslea Newman
Parenthood through a child’s eyes can’t get any simpler than the way it is presented in this book by Leslea Newman. Mommies are the people who care for you and make sure you have fun. If you have a child under the age of five who you want to see that having two mommies is just regular life, this book should be a part of your home library. It is a board book so if your child younger than three-years-old gets attached in a way that they play roughly with the books, the texts are durable. One mother is white, the other appears to be of multiracial African descent; The child also looks to be multiracial. The book simply carries the reader through a fun day in life; there is no discussion of adoption or biology. When I read Mommy, Mama, and Me with my daughter at age two, she was very interested in clarifying the gender of the child. My daughter asked me several times “Is she a boy or is he a girl?” and she kept trying to figure out which mother was “mommy”. By opening these questions in my daughter’s mind, the book gave, and continues to give us a doorway to discuss having two moms. When this book is read with it’s companion book, Daddy, Papa and Me, my daughter’s questions about the child’s gender elucidate the one problem I have with Mommy, Mama, and Me and the books as a pair—the child in Mommy, Mama, and Me is androgynous and the child in Daddy, Papa, and Me is a boy but what of girls who have two parents of the same gender? I still think these are “must have” books, which are easily accessible and enjoyable for kids of all ages.
Recommendation: Highly Recommended; Age 0-5
Reviewer: Omilaju Miranda
Diverse Kids Books--Reviews 