"Molly's Family"

Garden, Nancy. Molly's Family. New York: Farrar, Straus And Giroux (Byr), 2004.

"Molly's Family" is the story of a little girl in a kindergarten classroom that is preparing for the class's open house. Molly drew a picture of her family only to have other children in the classroom question the fact that she has two mothers. Molly gets upset so when she goes home she talks to her mothers about what happen at school. Soon after the teacher in the story explains to the children that there are many kinds of stories. Molly eventually puts up her family picture for the open house and everything is happily ever after.

This story is very interesting because although it presents the idea of a child having two mothers, it also displays the way that other children in a classroom could react to the family composition. Althugh the book does display a number of family types, for example a child with one dad, one with a mom and dad, and one having only one mom to help provide evidence of differing family types. One thing I was unsure about was the stereotypes presented about lesbians in the book. In the illustrations, it appears as though the birth mother has long feminine hair while Mama Lu has shorter hair which could present a more masculine appearance. The book also seems slightly unrealistic due to the fact that there is a problem, the child is upset, and all of the sudden everything is okay. This story also appears to lack diversity according to the illustrations simply due to the fact that all of the characters are caucasian. Could the lack of diversity presented in the book portray a stereotype about lesbians in general?