"For some readers today... ['Heather Has Two Mommies' is] a wholly sanitized version of same-sex coupledom, palatable to the masses...."

"Without the slightest hint of sexual or romantic attraction between the moms (not even a peck of a kiss) the book seems to say, 'Fear not, we’re just like you.'... Dr. Nathan N. Taylor, Ph.D., an assistant professor of education... said the story traffics in homonormativity.... The book 'allows some people to be a part of the American Dream — in this case, upper middle class, cis-gendered, partnered white women'... While we undoubtedly need to multiply the number and kinds of queer narratives in children’s literature, the value of 'Heather' to my daughter and family unit has been immeasurable. A little before she turned 2, Marty, the only child of queer parents at her day care, began asking after her 'father' in various iterations. 'Who’s my daddy? Where’s my daddy? I want my daddy.' It was heartbreaking because my partner and I could only counter with, 'You have two mommies.' (How else to explain the complicated series of events that resulted in the creation of our family?) That’s when I remembered we had a copy of 'Heather,' the 2015 version, sitting on our bookshelf where I’d left it a few years ago...."

Writes Stephanie Fairyington, in "'Heather Has Two Mommies' Is Still Relevant 30 Years Later/My daughter started asking for her daddy, so I turned to Lesléa Newman’s classic picture book and it changed everything" (NYT).

This article was originally published April 17, 2020, but it is featured on the home page of the NYT right now, presumably because this Sunday is Father's Day.

 ALL Credit of this post going to https://althouse.blogspot.com