Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman

This story had a good message that families are all about love. I liked that there was no judgment about what a family "should" be because they all look different. Obviously, growing up in Iowa, my family probably looks different from someone living in a large urban environment. Growing up, my family unit consisted of my mom, dad, twin brother, younger sister, me, and dog. There really weren't too many around this area with different kinds of families that I was aware of.

As my life experiences have shaped who I am now as an adult, I feel that families really can be tailor made to individual needs-- having a loving family is the most important thing, not who all makes it up. I have been very blessed to have a supportive family that I can depend on in any situation. I liked that this book demonstrated how the different children in the classroom interpreted family. No one was judged for not "fitting the mold" or for being different. I have always tried to emphasize how important it is to be accepting of everyone because we are all special. Kids can be very receptive to this when taught young.

I remember an incident where my third graders were telling each other something was "gay." I asked them what they thought that meant and we had a very frank discussion about how words can be given power when we attach negative meanings to them. By giving gay a negative connotation in its usage, they were conveying a belief that being gay is a bad thing. I told them about a good friend of mine that I care about. I asked that if they thought being gay was bad, then was my friend bad? I talked about how we played tennis together, went out to eat, studied, and went to amusement parks--all fun things I do with gay and straight friends. Putting this into a positive context helped us have an interesting exchange of ideas (quite unexpectedly) that day.

I don't think this book is trying to force children to believe in one thing, but is instead helping reinforce the idea that we should keep an open mind. By keeping the illustrations simple and in pencil, the story and words remain the most important part of the page. I read the 10th anniversary printing, which was altered a bit from the original text. The author removed a section that didn't affect the outcome of the story that was causing a stir. I'm not sure what exactly was included, but I know the section was about conception and many deemed it to be too explicit. Having not seen the actual text, I can not speak to whether or not I would deem it acceptable or not (if it was informative and correct, I'd probably be ok with it). I would be happy to include this book in a classroom library and it could definitely be used for talking about accepting others and our differences. Words do have power, so let's give kids information so that they can use them correctly and with respect.