Chapter 14 Two-Dad Families in Children’s Nonfiction Picturebooks
In: Navigating Children’s Literature through ControversySearch for other papers by Angela Yannicopoulou in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Purchase instant access (PDF download and unlimited online access):
Abstract
Since nonfiction picturebooks are still under-researched in a variety of respects, including same-sex parenting, this chapter studies nonfiction picturebooks about two-dad families: The True Adventures of Esther the Wonder Pig, a tale of a mixed, interspecies “family” where an animal is “adopted” by two gay men, and And Tango Makes Three, where two male animals “adopt” an offspring. Nonfiction picturebooks about two-dad families interpret animal behavior in human terms and portray same-sex parenting in a favorable light according to heteronormative expectations, which result in the “normalization” of monogamous gay relationships. In picturebooks about gay parents, even the selection of the generic category (nonfiction) that connects them strongly to reality becomes a means for reinforcing ideological points.