Review
ASHA’S MUMS
by Rosamund Elwin and Michele Paulse
illustrated by Dawn Lee
Women’s Press, 24 pp.
Review
BELINDA’S BOUQUET
by Lesléa Newman
illustrated by Michael Willhoite
Alyson Publications, 32 pp. (out of print)
Review
ONE DAD, TWO DADS, BROWN DAD, BLUE DADS
by Johnny Valentine
illustrated by Melody Sarecky
Alyson Publications, 32 pp.
Every year, the Calgary Freedom to Read Week Committee selects an official book for Freedom to Read Week, a Canada-wide awareness campaign held during the last week of February that was established by the Book and Periodical Council of Canada. This year, the Calgary committee made the decision to highlight not one, but three books that will be forever linked due to a chain of events that began in Surrey, B.C. in 1997.
That year, a teacher named James Chamberlain sought approval from the Surrey School Board to use three children’s picture books (Asha’s Mums, Belinda’s Bouquet and One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dad, Blue Dads) in his kindergarten and Grade 1 classrooms to help teach his students acceptance of same-sex families because one of the students in his classroom was from a same-sex family.
"Just as I can’t cater to racist beliefs or not talk about people of colour in positive ways just because there may be one or two families who are racist within a school community, I also can’t cater to homophobic attitudes and beliefs in my classroom, either. My classroom needs to be an inclusive place," Chamberlain said to the CBC during a 2002 interview.
Parents of children in the classroom were asked to read the books and 17 of 20 families signed a petition that was presented to the Surrey School Board trustees in favour of the books being used in the classroom. Nonetheless, because some parents objected to same-sex partnerships, the trustees rejected the books for use anywhere in the district.
A series of escalating court challenges went back and forth between groups representing the teacher (and other supporters including the author of one of the challenged books) and the Surrey School Board. This went on until the Supreme Court of Canda ruled in late 2002 by seven to two that the school board had violated the principles of tolerance and secularism required by B.C.’s provincial education law. The board had gone astray by focusing on the concerns of parents who objected to the books on moral grounds, and by not giving enough consideration to the interests of families with same-sex parents.
That’s the background on why the books were chosen for Calgary Freedom to Read Week 2004. But what about the books themselves?
Each one has a different level of content about the theme of same-sex parents – from Belinda’s Bouquet by Lesléa Newman, where the fact that the main character has two mothers is presented as being secondary to the main message about body image, to Asha’s Mums, where authors Rosamund Elwin and Michele Paulse seem more anxious to convey their message about acceptance of same-sex families to an adult audience than tell an interesting story that children can enjoy.
The most interesting of these books for me was One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dad, Blue Dads which, as you can tell from the title, is an attempt to explore the idea of same-sex parents using the style of Dr. Seuss. Although once again the message tends to get in the way at times, author Johnny Valentine’s decision to borrow the wit and humorous rhymes of one of the world’s best-known children’s authors is a good one. The book manages to effectively convey the message that there are all types of people in the world and even if someone has two dads and they are blue, that’s OK.
Should these books have been banned by the school board? I don’t think so. Admittedly, educators walk a fine and difficult line in trying to balance the needs, beliefs and morals of all the students and families who comprise their classrooms, but Chamberlain didn’t want to use these books to "change" the children in his classroom, only to show that tolerance is the one thing that people can never begin learning early enough.
Perhaps the last word should be left to another famous children’s author, Robert Munsch. "Suppose 10 per cent of the population really wants a book off the shelves and 90 per cent sort of like it or even really like it. What then?" asks Munsch. "I think the 10 per cent should lose. But in real life, they often win. Even 0.001 per cent can win – as long as they stage a sit-in on the floor of the principal’s office."
A special 10th annual Freedom to Read Week fundraiser is planned for Thursday, February 26 at McNally Robinson Booksellers (120 Eighth Ave. S.W.). Tickets are available from McNally Robinson, Pages Books on Kensington, or by calling the Writers Guild of Alberta at 265-2226.
Jason Hammond is a member of the Calgary Freedom to Read Week Committee. |
Copyright ©2004 FFWD. All rights reserved.