Molly's Family

Garden, Nancy. Molly’s Family. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux, 2004.

Molly’s Family is a story about a kindergartener who is preparing for Open School night with her classmates. She draws a picture of her family, which consists of her Mommy, her Mama Lu, and her puppy Sam. When one of her classmates saw her drawing he told her that she couldn’t have two mommies. Molly’s classmates started discussing their families – one student just had a daddy, another had a grandma, a mommy, a daddy, and two brothers – but no one else had two mommies. Molly went home and talked with her Mommy and Mama Lu and they explained that there were many different kinds of families and that not everyone’s family looked the same. For back to school night Molly brought her picture to school and hung it on the wall for everyone to see.

Although this story would be appropriate and enjoyable for young children, the format of the book makes it a better read aloud for beginning readers. Each page contains a paragraph of the story and the text is written in small font and includes a lot of dialogue. Young children would benefit from listening to the story while looking at the beautiful illustrations with soothing pastel colors.

This book did a good job depicting the kind of conflict and confusion that may occur in a school setting when a student has same-sex parents. The words “lesbian” and “homosexual” were not used in the book directly as the book’s message is not stated overtly; Molly’s parents’ homosexuality was implied through the text. The story seemed very realistic as the main character struggled to identify her family as “normal.” Molly’s classmates didn’t understand how she could have two mothers since they were never exposed to a family like hers. The book’s main message was that there are many different kinds of families, and all should be considered equally important and valid. The book serves as a great resource for students to look at who are questioning their own family identity and face ridicule from those outside their family who do not take the time to understand their differences.