One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dad, Blue Dads facts for kids
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| Author | Johnny Valentine and Melody Sarecky |
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| Country | United States of America |
| Language | English |
| Genre | LGBTQ Literature |
| Published | July 1994 |
| Pages | 30 |
One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dad, Blue Dads is a children's book written by Johnny Valentine and Melody Sarecky. The intended audience is elementary school children, and it discusses all kinds of different fathers, including having two dads.
Its title is a play on the title of an older Dr. Seuss children's book, One Fish Two Fish Red Fish Blue Fish.
The storybook is intended to inform young children that it is okay to have different types of parents, and refutes the "one size fits all model." With both positive and negative reviews, One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dad, Blue Dads created a conflict of opinions. In fact, there was a large controversy in Canada surrounding the banning of the children's book. The picture book was one of the three books at the center of the 1997 Surrey book-banning controversy, alongside Lesléa Newman's Belinda's Bouquet and Rosamund Elwin and Michele Paulse's Asha's Mums.
Background
One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dad, Blue Dads was written in July of 1994. Sasha Alyson is the author of this novel, but he goes by the pen name of Johnny Valentine. The storybook was published during the middle of Alyson's writing career. Alyson wrote books before and after the publication of One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dad, Blue Dads.
Summary
The story begins with the protagonist, an unnamed elementary school girl, exclaiming, "I don't know who has dads that are blue!" From there, another character named "Lou" is introduced. Lou has two "blue" dads, and proceeds to describe how "blue" they are. The plot then goes back and forth between the protagonist and Lou, with the protagonist asking all sorts of questions about Lou's dads. After all of the questions are asked by the protagonist, Lou explains his dads are "blue", and "they're just like all other dads---- black, white, or green." It is at this point that the protagonist realizes that even though Lou's dads are "blue", they can still do all of the things that a typical dad would do. At the end of the book, another character is brought in, named Jean. Jean invites the protagonist and Lou to come see her dad, who is green.
Genre
One Dad, Two Dads, Brown Dad, Blue Dads is a fictional children's book aimed at elementary school children. The storybook combines illustrations with short text, "S. Alyson has written several children's books under the pen name Johnny Valentine, of which this book is one." Alyson's children's book has been discussed when talking about LGTBQ content.
