One dad, two dads, brown dad, blue dad

ONE DAD, TWO DADS, BROWN DAD, BLUE DADS

Valentine, J, & illustrated by Sarecky, M (1994). One dad, two dads, brown dad, blue dads.Los Angeles: Alyson Wonderland.

Little information could be found about Johnny Valentine, the author of this children's story. However, it seems that he is not an insider but rather an informed author. Regardless of the authors association with the GLBTQ community, One dad, two dads, brown dad, blue dads is a remarkable children’s book which creates a medium for diversity. Although the books focus is on familiarizing the reader with the idea of having two fathers, it equally focuses on the beauty of differences. From the beginning of the book it is clear that this young boy has two fathers. These two fathers happen to both be blue and the young girl therefore has many questions for the boy. She asks him if his blue dads can do the same things other dads can do. Although this is focused on the idea that these fathers are blue and that is their difference, at a closer view we can understand that the author is using “blue” as a metaphor for gay. Both are differences and might seem equally as unusual to children and it provides shift in focus from the specifics of being gay to just being different than the norm. On page fifteen the young boy, Lou, asks, “Do you think dads are different, because they are blue?” Although the author chooses to discuss differences in this family due to the fathers blue color, the real differences are in their sexual orientations. This quote provides an example of this extended metaphor throughout the book.

While continuing with this metaphor throughout the book the young girl asks how they became blue. She asks, “…just how did your dads end up looking this way” (p. 17)? She seems to think that something had to cause their blue color. This is a common conception that something has to happen to cause people to become homosexual. Valentine does an excellent job using this metaphor to address the misconception and creates a way of discussing the topic without bringing up sexuality. On page twenty three Lou addresses this question by saying, “They were blue when I got them and blue they are still. And it’s not from a juice, or a toy, or a pill.” I think the quality of this piece of literature comes out during this segment of the book. Explaining to children at a young age that homosexuality is not something you can catch or that you can get by drinking too much juice is very beneficial and important.

Like in the books And Tango Makes Three and King and King, the illustrations in this book are important in guiding the story. The back cover art is important because it shows Lou and his two fathers holding hands. It shows a different kind of family that is usually portrayed as the norm. In addition, the ending of the story is open ended in order to create further discussions about families and diversity. They introduce a young girl, Jean, who claims to have a green dad. I think this is the Valentine’s way of explaining to children that families come in all different make-ups, or in this case, colors! Finally, the text is formatted in a familiar way, as many of the pages and lines rhyme. This allows the text to be familiar to children and therefore the messages in the book can be focused on more easily. It is a quality piece of literature because of the creative way in which Valentine places blue as the metaphor for gay. Therefore, it is a book that every library should have on their shelves to discuss families through literature.