Wednesday, December 4, 2013

Mom, Mama, and Me... and How I Came to Be!

Mom, Mama, and Me... and How I Came to Be! 
by Tina Rella
illus. by Monica Meza
Language: English 
CreateSpace, 2010. 
26 p. : col. ill. ; 20 x 25 cm. 
ISBN: 9781452875668; 1452875669
My annotation: Told in both the first and third person, this is the story of Jonathan and his two moms. When one day at school, someone asks him what his parents do for a living, he tells them what his moms do. “But where’s your dad?” the other child asks, and Jonathan does not know what to say. At home he asks, “Do I have a Daddy?” to which his moms reply: “...love makes a family, yes it’s true/Love makes a family - me and you/There’s nothing better we could have done/We always knew that you were the one!” The next page features the “Family Fertility Center” about which his parents begin to explain how a “nice young man … donated his sperm,” which a doctor mixed with “our eggs.” Although the book introduces the terms, “sperm,” “egg,” “embryo,” and “donate,” the part about mixing the sperm with “our eggs” might have to be explained as the book’s attempt  at rhyme is confusing in parts: “The doctor mixed our eggs with the sperm/Which stayed in a dish for a very short term.” Still, this is an introduction to sperm donation and in vitro fertilization for young children with two mothers. This book takes a family-building approach and employs the “families are made differently” and a little bit of “the helper” script. Full -color illustrations depict a multi-racial lesbian couple. Recommended for ages 3-5.
Library of Congress Subject Headings:
  • Children of gay parents -- Pictorial works -- Juvenile fiction
  • Lesbian mothers -- Pictorial works -- Juvenile fiction
  • Conception -- Pictorial works -- Juvenile fiction
Available: https://www.createspace.com/3454840

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