Fur Better or Worse: Gay Guinea Pigs Wed in New Children’s Book

Tim Travaglini, the senior editor at G. P. Putnam Sons who first saw her drawings, was impressed. “It’s such a pitch-perfect picture-book story,” he says. “That it treats the uncles getting married as such an incidental facet of the story, I thought was really gutsy, and exactly as it should be. We weren’t looking for an issues book at all; it just was a wonderful little children’s book. The fact that it breaks all these molds was all the more appealing.” Putnam, an imprint of children’s-publishing powerhouse Penguin Young Readers Group, made Brannen an almost immediate offer.

The weight of a major publisher is notable. The American Library Association’s new Rainbow List of LGBT-inclusive books for children and young adults includes six picture books for the youngest readers. All but And Tango Makes Three, published by Simon & Schuster, are from small presses.

The six are only a small fraction of the total 45, furthermore, indicating it is still difficult to publish books with LGBT themes for this age range. Nel Ward, chair of the Rainbow List committee, said in a phone interview “I think censorship is a huge issue. And Tango Makes Three was the most censored book in 2006 according to ALA. It’s just been removed from a library in the south, and there seems to be a struggle every time something like this comes out. I think for that reason, mainstream publishers are perhaps more hesitant to publish these books.”

Putnam, however, was willing to take a chance. Travaglini says “The publisher, Nancy Paulson, was immediately for it, very much for the same reasons I was. There’s something gutsy about the whole thing, in its treatment of [same-sex marriage], and that appealed to us. Frankly, nobody balked.”

So far, report Brannen and Travaglini, the public reception has been positive. One need only look at the many attempts to remove Tango and other LGBT-inclusive books from schools and libraries, however, to know that Uncle Bobby is in for a bumpy ride. Supporters of Uncle Bobby cannot fall back on the explanation that it is a true tale of real animals, as with Tango. The use of the term “marriage,” moreover, could be incendiary even to those who would concede some limited rights to same-sex couples.

Travaglini says he is ready for a firestorm. “In a very aggressive way, I welcome it. I sympathize with the folks on the front lines fighting that kind of censorship, but I’ll be happy with anything that draws attention to what I feel is a very unique, very special book, that really deserves to have the widest possible audience know about it, judge it for themselves, and hopefully fall in love with it the way we have.”

If they do, Brannen already has a sequel in mind. “They will adopt a child in the sequel,” she says, “so I will expand the story into a family. I’d love to do even another book after that.”

Author Sarah Brannen

Whether the sequel ever sees print will depend largely on the success of Uncle Bobby. Putnam is marketing it through the usual publishing trade journals and targeted lists of LGBT media and organizations, but Travaglini says word of mouth is key. “Above and beyond the average book, we feel that folks who have a specific interest in it are going to take the book and run with it, and announce it to their communities and audiences and have more impact that even the average book reviewer who is handling the promotion of books all the time.”

Sequel aside, Brannen has aspirations for Uncle Bobby’s Wedding. “I hope young children will pick it up and read it without having any preconception at all about the story, and have it become part of their landscape. I mean, same-sex marriage is legal in Massachusetts, so it’s not that I’m talking about anything weird anymore. I hope it becomes part of their world to them, that it seems normal, because to me, that’s what it is.”

Visit sarahbrannen.com for more about Brannen and Uncle Bobby’s Wedding.

Dana Rudolph is the founder and publisher of Mombian, a blog and resource directory for LGBT parents. She and her partner Helen do a weekly vlog on LGBT parenting for After Ellen.