A couple of days ago I came across this article on Yagg.

Judith Silberfeld from french site Yagg wrote about an animated movie called "Le baiser de la lune" (Moon's kiss). It hasn't been fully produced yet but here's the synopsis : An old she-cat lives in her tower, still waiting for her prince charming for "there is no other form of love". She seems a little bitter and even judgy about the moon who fell in love with the sun... as if such love was possible, she says. Meanwhile, two fish-boys meet and fall in love. At the beginning the narrator wonders how he can possibly be in love with someone who isn't a princess, then he realises "Leo is my princess" and finally Leo convinces him to come out for "He liked the light too much" and "[their] hearts were guiding [them]".

Sébastien Watel, writer and co-director, explains his goals on the movie's official site:

"I wanted to show that two men or two women can love each other even if this love seems different or impossible. Because homophobia often strikes when you're a teenager, the movie is destined to children rather that teenagers."

I watched the trailer and found myself completely charmed.

As a humain being I would like to see this movie.

Now let's change hat/cap or whatever and think as a french school teacher. Let me grab my notebook.

At the end of school around the age of eleven, our students are supposed to be able to respect others, thus apply egality between girls and boys, be conscient of human dignity. Struggle against homophobia, along with other kinds of discriminations is an official part of our mission. Instructions have been renewed at the beginning of this school year.

But let's face it, we don't always have what it takes to do it. It's difficult to be in front of homophobic parents (or even just read some comments) and not feel completely disarmed when facing some arguments. No, you can't catch homosexuality while being "exposed" to it, otherwise everybody would be straight. No we are not teaching boys how to have sex with each other, for instance.

We have very few educational tools to begin with.

Last year our school psychologist and our fifth grade teacher organised a couple of sessions about gender, sexism, homophobia and it was difficult. We (as in the school educationnal team) almost thought it was already "too late" (as if, we could have done it at an early age, that was when I started reviewing children's books who had the guts to show gay parents, gay teenagers.)

With a movie like "Le baiser de la lune" we could have something educationaly approved to show to our students.

Unfortunately our National Education Ministry recently withdrawed its logo from the list of partners / producers of the movie. Seeing that, Martine Billard, a member of the french legislativ assembly, publicly reacted. She insisted on the fact that withdrawingeducationaly approved. the logo wasn't good at all for the fight against homophobia. She also officialy asked for the logo to appear again as a symbol of the values of the National Education 's mission Ministry : to educate to the fact that there are several forms of sexuality and to transmit anti-discrimination values.

I just wish all this noise will help people to be aware of the difficulties of education against all kinds of discriminations.

Links :

Le baiser de la lune (official site, on which you can make a donation)

Facebook petition against the petition against "Le baiser de la lune"

Yagg's articles :

Parler d'homosexualité à des enfants vous n'y pensez pas

Martine Billard interpelle Luc Chatel

Martine Billard's intervention on her own blog.

Dis ... mamanS (2003)
Author: Muriel DOURU
Publisher: Editions Gaies et Lesbiennes 3 rue Larochelle, 75014 Paris.
Intended age group: 5-8
Price: €7,90

Available in French only.

Another cute book and after this one, I promise to go surfing on a more teenager's wave, ok?

Dis...mamanS is Muriel Douru's first of three books (she also published « A very gay wedding » and « Two mommies and a baby », her own story about becoming a mom through insemination.)

Dis...mamans was published by Editions Gaies et Lesbiennes which was the only editor among several who accepted the idea. The author mentioned in an interview for the French website homoedu in 2005 that she had to struggle to bring her book to the world even among gay/lesbian editors.  Picturing herself as a future mom, she couldn't find any book gay parents would read to their children. She couldn't stand all the clichés about « normal » families and instead wanted to bring positive homoparental visibility. Even when she claims to write « gay litterature » she wishes not to be reduced to it in order to reach more readers.

I like what she says about the absence of difference between love in general and same-sex love and the fact that the difference is created by society's legitimation of heterosexuel love and the condemnation of all other kinds of love.

Last 14^th of october she gave some of her time to Le Nouvel Observateur  to answer to some unmoderated online questions about homoparentality.

Again, she linked acceptance of gay parents with the acceptance of homosexuality itself.

More generally, once society sees men as able to raise and take care of children like women, the whole perception of gay parents should (and hopefully will) change.

Back to our book, starting with the cover who clearly announces it : there is mommy and mommy Lili and their two children. The little boy is waving a rainbow flag.

The story takes place mostly in a classroom and makes me almost regret my last picture, (My pride makes me wish I had saved the idea for this book).

It all starts when Theo's female teacher, complete with glasses and a bun, asks her first graders to draw individual family trees. Theo's includes his two moms, his sister Lea and both sides of grandparents : mami and papi, mami Lili and Papi Lili.

Pauline, his classmate, quickly reacts by saying that such a family is impossible.

Concerned, the teacher hears Pauline explain : « in a family, there's a daddy and a mommy. »

(Theo looks passably annoyed during the improvised lecture)

Fortunalety, the teacher throws herself into an efficient yet unprepared explanation :

«  To bring a child to the world, one's need a man and a woman. But afterwards, there are many ways to compose a family »:

The illustration here is wordless, my word.

The pupils all react positively and everybody has something to say : this one was adopted, the other one lives with only his dad, that one has a step-dad... all kinds of families are suddenly blossoming in the classroom.

Afterschool Théo takes his kid-girlfriend home, he stops to check if it's still allright with her to come even after what Pauline said.

Cut to : appartment : Mom 1 is cooking, Mom 2 is bottle-feeding baby Lea. Theo introduces his friend and they all get to know each other. Camille concludes by saying that Pauline is wrong to laugh at theo's family and that she still loves him.

You can see with the illustrations that the book is designed for very young readers (maybe not as young as Ophelie Texier's album).

However, the author stated that, at the time her book was published, there was so little choice among the subject that people bought her book even for older kids and teenagers.

I had the luck to meet Muriel Douru on Saturday, during the 20th lesbian and feminist film festival Cineffable and gathered my courage to aks her the few questions I had in mind.

She was charming and completely willing to have a little chat. Pillowqueen and I were there together : she first mistook us for a couple and asked us straight away if we wanted to have kids together. Hum. Well. We're just friends, you know.

Anyway, here's what we talked about :

You said you had written « Dis...mamans » as a future lesbian mom.

Now that you've cross the border and your daughter is born (Douru just had her third book published and it's quite autobiographic) do you plan on writing some other children's fiction?

Not really, but I have a project regarding adult fiction and a reflexion about what a family is.

If so, what would be different between 2003 and 2008, do you think it would be easier to publish?

It was hard at the time when Dis..mamans was published. Since then, all main children's books editors have published something on the subject.

After Dis...mamans I was contacted by Editions gais et lesbiennes to publish « Un mariage vraiment gai « (a really gay wedding).

When I had my daughter Danger Public editor asked me to testify on what we went through to become parents.

Do you still have time to write for instance?

Well, It's hard to concile my real job (Muriel Douru works as a textile graphist designer), my writing and the day-to-day parent duty.

Do you ever plan on writing adult fiction?

The answer is yes, (NDLR : I 'll let Pillowqueen deal with the subject)

For more info about how Muriel and her partner became parents, and what choices a gay couple can make in France nowadays, check out my next serie of articles about homoparentality (coming soon).

Dis ... mamanS (2003)
Author: Muriel DOURU
Publisher: Editions Gaies et Lesbiennes 3 rue Larochelle, 75014 Paris.
Intended age group: 5-8
Price: €7,90

Available in French only.

Another cute book and after this one, I promise to go surfing on a more teenager's wave, ok?

Dis...mamanS is Muriel Douru's first of three books (she also published « A very gay wedding » and « Two mommies and a baby », her own story about becoming a mom through insemination.)

Dis...mamans was published by Editions Gaies et Lesbiennes which was the only editor among several who accepted the idea. The author mentioned in an interview for the French website homoedu in 2005 that she had to struggle to bring her book to the world even among gay/lesbian editors.  Picturing herself as a future mom, she couldn't find any book gay parents would read to their children. She couldn't stand all the clichés about « normal » families and instead wanted to bring positive homoparental visibility. Even when she claims to write « gay litterature » she wishes not to be reduced to it in order to reach more readers.

I like what she says about the absence of difference between love in general and same-sex love and the fact that the difference is created by society's legitimation of heterosexuel love and the condemnation of all other kinds of love.

Last 14^th of october she gave some of her time to Le Nouvel Observateur  to answer to some unmoderated online questions about homoparentality.

Again, she linked acceptance of gay parents with the acceptance of homosexuality itself.

More generally, once society sees men as able to raise and take care of children like women, the whole perception of gay parents should (and hopefully will) change.

Muriel Douru and her partner are now proud moms of a daughter. She's too young to have to deal with narrow-minded schoolmates but what really concerns Muriel is the status of her partner . Even if she takes care of their child on a daily basis, with all the love a parent can give, she still isn't aknowledged as a second parent by the french law.

Officially and sadly, Muriel Douru is a single mom and there's nothing to be discussed. Yet.

Back to our book, starting with the cover who clearly announces it : there is mommy and mommy Lili and their two children. The little boy is waving a rainbow flag.

The story takes place mostly in a classroom and makes me almost regret my last picture, (My pride makes me wish I had saved the idea for this book).

It all starts when Theo's female teacher, complete with glasses and a bun, asks her first graders to draw individual family trees. Theo's includes his two moms, his sister Lea and both sides of grandparents : mami and papi, mami Lili and Papi Lili.

Pauline, his classmate, quickly reacts by saying that such a family is impossible.

Concerned, the teacher hears Pauline explain : « in a family, there's a daddy and a mommy. »

(Theo looks passably annoyed during the improvised lecture)

Fortunalety, the teacher throws herself into an efficient yet unprepared explanation :

«  To bring a child to the world, one's need a man and a woman. But afterwards, there are many ways to compose a family »:

The illustration here is wordless, my word.

The pupils all react positively and everybody has something to say : this one was adopted, the other one lives with only his dad, that one has a step-dad... all kinds of families are suddenly blossoming in the classroom.

Afterschool Théo takes his kid-girlfriend home, he stops to check if it's still allright with her to come even after what Pauline said.

Cut to : appartment : Mom 1 is cooking, Mom 2 is bottle-feeding baby Lea. Theo introduces his friend and they all get to know each other. Camille concludes by saying that Pauline is wrong to laugh at theo's family and that she still loves him.

You can see with the illustrations that the book is designed for very young readers (maybe not as young as Ophelie Texier's album).

However, the author stated that, at the time her book was published, there was so little choice among the subject that people bought her book even for older kids and teenagers.

I had the luck to meet Muriel Douru on Saturday, during the 20th lesbian and feminist film festival Cineffable and gathered my courage to aks her the few questions I had in mind.

She was charming and completely willing to have a little chat. Pillowqueen and I were there together : she first mistook us for a couple and asked us straight away if we wanted to have kids together. Hum. Well. We're just friends, you know.

Anyway, here's what we talked about :

You said you had written « Dis...mamans » as a future lesbian mom.

Now that you've cross the border and your daughter is born (Douru just had her third book published and it's quite autobiographic) do you plan on writing some other children's fiction?

Not really, but I have a project regarding adult fiction and a reflexion about what a family is.

If so, what would be different between 2003 and 2008, do you think it would be easier to publish?

It was hard at the time when Dis..mamans was published. Since then, all main children's books editors have published something on the subject.

After Dis...mamans I was contacted by Editions gais et lesbiennes to publish « Un mariage vraiment gai « (a really gay wedding).

When I had my daughter Danger Public editor asked me to testify on what we went through to become parents.

Me and my partner deliberatly chose to cross Belgium and travel till the Netherlands where lesbian can get a semi-anonymous donnor : it seems crucial to us that our daughter will be able to know her biological father when she reaches 16, if she chooses to.

Do you still have time to write for instance?

Well, It's hard to concile my real job (Muriel Douru works as a textile graphist designer), my writing and the day-to-day parent duty.

Do you ever plan on writing adult fiction?

The answer is yes, (NDLR : I 'll let Pillowqueen deal with the subject)

I read you were concerned about the second parent's status. How do you think things will evolve in that direction in the next couple of years?

The only hope is see nowadays is the shared authority on a child wich concerns all recomposed families, because step dads and step moms don't have anything to do with their kids, even if they provide all the love and caring a parent can do.

CONCLUSION is yet to come.

Je me permets peut-être à tort de republier un entretien de Muriel Douru pour le site Homoedu datant de 2005, à des fins uniquement informatives et de mémoire personnelle :prière de faire remonter tout motif de râlerie à l'auteure de ce blog via les commentaires...

Entrevue de Muriel Douru

2005, par homoedu

Auteure, aux Editions Gaies et Lesbiennes de deux livres pour enfants : "Dis mamanS" (2003) et "Un mariage vraiment gai" (2004)

1) Pouvez-vous vous présenter en quelques mots ? Combien de livres avez-vous publié en littérature jeunesse / adultes ? Quels genres (essai / roman...) ?

Je suis dessinatrice textile, spécialisée dans le domaine de l’enfant. J’ai écrit deux livres pour la jeunesse, publiés aux Editions Gaies et Lesbiennes : "Dis mamans" (2003) et "Un mariage vraiment gai" (2004)

2) Que pouvez-vous nous dire au sujet de l’homosexualité de vos personnages et/ou " l’homophilie " de l’intrigue ? Dans quelle mesure pensez-vous avoir écrit un livre sur l’orientation sexuelle et l’identité de genre ou des questions concernant les lesbiennes, gays, bisexuels, transsexuels ?

La thématique de l’homosexualité, en particulier de l’homoparentalité, est le point de départ de mes deux livres jeunesse. Dans "Dis mamanS", Théo, le petit garçon de l’histoire subit les moqueries de sa copine de classe au moment de réaliser son arbre généalogique car il a deux mamans. Dans "Un mariage vraiment gai", Charlotte a deux papas et quand Barnabé traite Dimitri de "PD" dans la cour de l’école, elle va se donner pour mission de dire la verité sur sa famille homoparentale à ses copains de classe. Le livre aborde l’homophobie à l’école, l’homoparentalité et aussi le PACS.

3) Qu’est-ce qui vous a donné envie d’écrire un livre qui aborde - de près ou de loin - la question de l’orientation sexuelle, les sujets gais, lesbiens, bisexuels ou transsexuels ?

Dans mon métier, je suis amenée à m’intéresser aux livres pour enfants et j’étais souvent atterrée par les clichés véhiculés concernant la famille. Comme je me suis par ailleurs intéressée à l’homoparentalité, à titre personnel et parce que mes amis devenaient parents autour de moi, je me demandais ce que pouvais bien lire les "homoparents" à leurs enfants, le soir avant de les coucher. C’est donc en pensant à eux que j’ai écrit mon premier livre "Dis mamanS".

4) Pensez-vous que l’on puisse aborder tous les thèmes en littérature jeunesse ? Qu’est-ce qui est selon vous tabou ? Pensez-vous que la loi de 1949 sur la littérature jeunesse doit être revue ou supprimée ? Pourquoi ?

Je ne vois pas vraiment de thèmes qu’on ne pourrait pas aborder en littérature jeunesse à partir du moment où il s’agit de la société qui les entoure et dans laquelle ils vont grandir, par contre il s’agit quand même, quand on s’adresse aux enfants, de faire passer des messages positifs, même si le sujet est grave ou tabou. Il y a un vraie ambition pédagogique quand on s’adresse aux enfants.

5) Vous imposez-vous des limites ? Lesquelles ?

Je ne m’impose pas vraiment de limites par contre j’essaye de me mettre à la place des gens qui liront mes livres (enfants comme adultes) en n’oubliant jamais que ce qui m’est "évident", l’homosexualité ou l’homoparentalité par exemple, ne l’est pas forcément pour eux. Mais ça n’est pas pour autant que je ne veux pas parler avec simplicité de ces choses qui le sont ...

6) Accepteriez-vous qu’on qualifie votre livre de roman " gai " ? ou roman " LGBT " (orienté sur les questions lesbiennes, gays, bisexuelles, transsexuelles) ?

Mon deuxième livre s’appelle "Un mariage vraiment gai" et ce n’est pas pour rien ! Je n’ai aucun problème avec le fait qu’on qualifie mes livres de "littérature homo" sachant que c’est le but et que je le revendique, je trouve ça juste réducteur quant à la distribution et au lectorat qui ne se sent du coup, pas concerné.

7) Votre position d’auteur, est-elle militante ? vous inscrivez-vous dans une perspective de faire évoluer les mentalités, banaliser l’homosexualité ? Ou plutôt préférez-vous raconter des histoires qui vous touchent et toucheront vos lecteurs ?

Mon désir d’écrire était d’abord militant. Je ne me suis pas dit que j’étais un auteur et que j’allais écrire des histoires, mais plutôt que j’avais envie d’écrire des histoires positives sur l’homosexualité car je n’en trouvais pas et qu’il me fallait devenir auteur pour ça ! En ayant une démarche militante pour faire évoluer les mentalités sur les questions homosexuelles, j’en suis venue "naturellement" à raconter de belles histoires. Dans les livres pour enfant, on aborde toujours les faits de société avec légèreté et le plus souvent, tout fini bien à la fin, je ne vois pas pourquoi ça ne serait pas le cas concernant l’homosexualité. Dans "Dis mamanS", l’homoparentalité est présentée de façon naturelle et sans gravité, je voulais que l’histoire soit racontée comme un joli conte.

8) À quelle classe d’âge votre livre s’adresse-t-il ? S’adresse-t-il plutôt aux écoliers ou aux collégiens ?

Mes deux livres s’adressent aux petits, donc aux écoliers. "Dis mamanS" s’adresse même aux premières lectures, le ton employé étant très simple.

9) Comment à votre avis peut-on parler d’amour en général et d’amour homosexuel en particulier ? Est-ce délicat ? Quelles sont les difficultés ?

Il n’y a aucune différence entre l’amour en général et l’amour homosexuel en particulier, à part le regard que la société pose sur eux qui lui, n’est pas du tout le même, légitimant l’un et condamnant l’autre. Je n’ai pas éprouvé de difficulté à parler de l’amour homo, plus par contre à parler du couple, des regards amoureux ou des baisers ... des choses très simples qui peuvent choquer quand il s’agit de de deux hommes ou deux femmes et d’autant plus quand on s’adresse aux enfants !

10) Vous inspirez-vous d’autres auteurs ou de grandes figures du panthéon LGBT ( lesbien, gay, bisexuel, transsexuel) ?

Non pas du tout. Concernant les livres pour enfants parlant d’homosexualité, il n’y a pas vraiment de référent littéraire, tout est à inventer.

11) Quelle est votre implication personnelle, la part d’autobiographie dans votre roman ?

La part autobiographique est très importante dans mes livres. Je parle de l’homoparentalité parce que je m’y projette en tant que "future maman homo" et parce que plusieurs de mes amies le sont déjà. J’utilise des choses qu’elles me racontent mais aussi des souvenirs personnels (comme la signature de PACS par exemple) pour raconter mes histoires.

12) Quelles difficultés particulières avez-vous rencontrées dans l’écriture de votre livre ? Comment a-t-il été accueilli dans les milieux éditoriaux, la presse, auprès du milieu scolaire ?

J’ai rencontré beaucoup de difficultés pour faire éditer mon premier livre. Comme je voulais naïvement m’adresser au plus grand nombre je me suis d’abord adressé aux éditeurs jeunesse "généralistes" or ils ont tous refusé, la plupart en me disant que la société n’était pas prête, que ça n’intéressait personne, etc ... En m’adressant aux éditeurs homos ça n’a pas été évident non plus. Tout ceux à qui j’ai envoyé la maquette étaient intéressés mais à part Anne et Marine Rambach des Editions gaies et lesbiennes qui ont accepté le projet immédiatement, les autres voulaient d’abord "tâter le terrain" ... Le sujet de l’homoparentalité présentée aux enfants est un vrai tabou.

13) Comment vos lecteurs ont-ils accueilli ce livre en particulier ? Quels témoignages en avez-vous ? Lors de rencontres avec vos jeunes lecteurs, quelles sont leurs réactions relativement à ce livre ? Comment réagissent-ils devant la thématique de l’orientation sexuelle, de l’homosexualité ? Quelles sont les réactions des enseignants ?

J’ai reçu un accueil très positif des lecteurs (parents et enfants) lors de la sortie de "Dis mamanS", j’ai été très émue de la réaction des gens, de leurs remerciements et du regard des enfants qui reconnaissaient le livre. J’ai reçu des témoignages de personnes qui l’avaient utilisé pour dire leur homosexualité à leurs neveux, cousins, frères ou soeurs et aussi petits enfants ! Il y avait une véritable attente des "homoparents" à tel point que les gens l’achetaient pour des enfants bien plus grands que l’âge approprié ! Concernant le monde scolaire, j’ai rencontré des enseignants qui voulaient l’apporter à leur classe ou le proposer à la bibliothèque de l’école.

14) Selon vous, que doit apporter aux jeunes lecteurs le fait d’aborder une question LGBT ( lesbienne, gay, bisexuelle, transsexuelle) ?

Il y a un désir d’apporter des "outils de tolérance" aux jeunes lecteurs et aux adultes autour d’eux. Déclencher le débat, les questions, faire évoluer les mentalités sur les questions LGBT. Et de façon, plus intimiste, leur donner un "héros" de livre qui leur ressemble en ayant deux mamans ou papas, une tata homo, etc ...

15) Si l’on parle d’amour doit-on aussi parler de sexualité et de passage à l’acte sexuel selon l’âge auquel on s’adresse ?

Non, je ne pense pas. Parler de l’amour a un enfant est très facile, il le comprend très bien et en aime le principe, même quand il s’agit de deux hommes ou deux femmes. Les enfants sont plus instinctifs, spontanés, le message hétérosexiste de la société ne fait pas encore (ou toujours, en fonction de leur âge) pression sur eux. Pour autant, leur parler de la sexualité, de ce que font deux hommes ou deux femmes dans un lit ne me semble pas forcément évident. Pas plus d’ailleurs que de décrire la sexualité hétérosexuelle, sauf que dans ce cas, elle peut expliquer leur venue au monde. Mais tout dépend de l’âge auquel on s’adresse, on ne dira pas la même chose à un enfant de 3 ou 10 ans.

16) Votre livre a-t-il été traduit ? Dans quelles langues ? Avez-vous constaté une différence de traitement avec les autres ? Au niveau des chiffres de vente également ?

Il y a eu des pays étrangers intéressés par mon premier livre mais il n’a pas été traduit pour l’instant.

17) Évoquer l’orientation sexuelle, cela vous renvoie-t-il à votre propre parcours initiatique ? à vos propres interrogations sur les désirs et la vie ? à une vision du monde et des relations humaines ?

Parler de l’homosexualité à travers ses livres c’est accepter une visibilité immédiate en tant qu’homo, c’est aussi devenir un peu "porte parole" d’une cause à défendre. A ce titre c’est déjà une façon particulière d’envisager les relations humaines à travers le dialogue et la vie telle qu’elle est, c’est à dire bien plus riche et variée que ne le pense la plupart des gens ! Se découvrir homo soulève beaucoup de questions, provoque des conflits (avec soi, sa famille), devenir auteur de livres homos c’est vouloir apporter son "grain de sable" aux autres pour les soulager, les soutenir un peu. Concernant l’homoparentalité mon envie était de dépasser les tabous, angoisses et clichés que la société assène à son propos pour montrer simplement que ce sont aussi (et surtout) de belles et simples histoires de famille, loin des polémiques mais en plein dans la vie.

18) Quels sont vos projets ?

D’autres livres pour enfants autour des questions d’homosexualité.

Retour à la sélection HomoEdu de livres pour les jeunes sur les thèmes altersexuels.

P.-S.

Tous droits réservés à HomoEdu.com 2000-2005

Le surlignage rouge est personnel, please don't mind.

Je ne suis pas une fille à papa
Author: Christophe Honoré
Publisher: Thierry Magnier
Intended age group: 8-11 (77 pages)
Price: €7,50
Available in French only.

Here's another of the rare books featuring lesbian moms in the french children's books landscape.

Publishing house Thierry Magnier is quite young (only 10 years) and has catch my eye on several quite daring publishing choices. Actually, several of the titles I intend to review come from Thierry Magnier Edition.

Far from picturing the day-to-day life of two lesbian moms and their little girl, "Je ne suis pas une fille à papa" strikes almost directly where it could hitch, A.K.A. the father of the girl.

Except that it doesn't. Here's what Lucie says about her father :

I'm not a mystery of nature, I was made like everyone else : I have a dad. Except that I don't know him. No pictures of him at home. No real answer to my questions, mere smiles, "off course you have a dad", "no, we don't know where he is".

I don't have two moms, but I do have a no-dad just like Lucie and I can assure you her apparent distance from the father issue seems completely unreal to me.

Here's what's really puting Lucie into panic mode : Her moms promised to tell her which one of them is her biological mom when she reaches the age of reason. Not wanting to see things change between her and her moms, Lucie does everything in her power to avoid the dreaded revelation, for instance letting them know that having two lesbian moms is a complete school nightmare.

Unfortunately (and pretty unlikely, IMHO), the whole story leads up to the departure of the non-bio mom.

Eventually, Lucie confesses to her school teacher and classmates and everybody teams up to set the two women back together.

Can you tell I didn't really like the unrealistic drama of the main arc?

My old friend Lionel Labosse already said it,good intentions don't make a valuable book. The two or three main arcs developped in the book seem really unlikely to happen : the fact that Lucie is so afraid to discover who her 'true" mom is and then says that it wasn't hard to find (they both have freckles), the uncredibly open-minded friends and teacher of Lucie and the split-up of the moms over what seems like a big child lie.

But hey, I still kinda like the book, it's fresh and brightly depicted. It's a kid's book with lesbians and it even features a glimpse of lesbian fight 101. (without the plexiglass)

Besides, that book gives me such a wonderful excuse to mention Christophe Honoré.

Honoré is known to mention difficult subjets such as AIDS, incest, suicide in teenager's books. He surprised everyone in 1996 with his novel "Tout contre Léo" (Published by L'Ecole des Loisirs) in which Marcel, 11, sees his older brother Léo die of AIDS whereas his family hides the disease from him.

He also delighted me last christmas when I got "Les Chansons d'Amour" on DVD (thanks, mum, BTW). Love songs was, I think, the american title, and since it's Honoré, it features bisexuality, menage-a-trois, fluidity of sexuality... and Paris, Paris, Paris. Trailer here.

Honoré also wrote some other great movies such as 17 fois Cecile Cassard, Dans Paris, and very recently La belle personne.

Love Songs Trailer
envoyé par ifcfilms

EUrout is on since yesterday!

Here's the link, have a nice reading.

Author: Ophélie Texier
Publisher: L'Ecole des loisirs
Intended age group: 3-8
Price: €7,50
Available in French only.

Something sweet seemed appropriate for my very first gay-parenting children's book review so I decided to go with this cute little purple book.

Jean a deux mamans (Jean has two mommies) by French author Ophélie Texier. (I hope you don't mind the little garden-in-summer touch to my picture!)

Yep, it was sunny at the time...

Be warned : If you're 28 or 34, not speaking a word of french, and unable to use any nephew as an excuse, you might still wanna get it considering the total cuteness of it.

Ophélie Texier was born in 1970 and is originally an illustrator. As a school teacher, I can tell you that children really like her style of brightly colored, thickly outlined drawings. (Have you noticed it's quite 'in' these days? See for instance Maisy the mouse, and French little donkey Trotro.)

Texier's book is part of a series of children's books dealing with all kinds of non-stereotypical families, all written from a child's point of view. Issues like being adopted (Barnabé a été adopté), having divorced parents (Camille a deux familles), being an only child (Malik est fils unique) and others have been covered by the same author.

Publisher L'Ecole des loisirs is well known in France for the high quality of its books for all ages (officially from ages 1 to 18) and is widely acclaimed by school teachers and librarians, as well as by parents in general."

The storyline (or the absence of it) is quite simple : Jean has two mommies who love each other "like a mummy and a daddy". One of Jean's mommies, Jeanne, gave birth to the little wolf and clearly embodies the maternal role: she cooks, she sews, and if that wasn't obvious enough, she wears a pink apron, too. Marie, the other mommy, clearly plays the dad. She teaches Jean to fish, plays cowboys and Indians with him, and she paints the house. (She also buys flowers for her lover. How cute!) Both Jeanne and Marie are pictured to look quite feminine, with dresses and long lashes, making it easy for even wee readers to identify them as she-wolves."

Some of you may be annoyed by these stereotypes during their first reading, I admit I was at first glance. Like "pfffffff, ok, I get the picture and  everything". But then I remembered I'm not three anymore. What i'm trying to say is  that stereotypes seem necessary here, that children from age 3 to 8 build their interpretation of their environnment on stereotypes and need them to understand and cope with news concepts.

This book, clearly designed for very young readers, is one of the few french books showing a lesbian couple in day-to-day life. Hats off to that is all I have to say, considering.

It also allows us to feel the love and affection between these three characters through a very simple approach and even if nothing "happens" in it, I have the feeling it can lead to lots of interesting discussions between parents/teachers and children.

How about making up some stories featuring Jean, Jeanne and Marie ?

However, it's not always that easy :

3 years ago, a serie of articles in the french press was initiated by a mum shocked by the presence of this book in the children's departement of a public library. Among the articles published in the quite conservative magazine "Le Figaro" figured an interview of Edwige Antier. The well know pediatrician pointed out that such book should'nt be read by children, that it lead to the transmission of "anti-values" and that such reading before the age of six could be destructive.

Ironnically, Le Figaro's tagline is and has always been "Sans la liberté de blâmer, il n'est point d'éloge flatteur". Which basically means that if you don't have the right to criticise one's work, the fact to be acclaimed by critics has no values. (I could go deeper and more political but now is not the time). My say is that if you're open to criticism, you should be open to other ways of thinking as well. Anyway. Back to my point.

This whole buzz lead to lots of discussions, Antier even mentionned the possibility of a boycott of all books from l'Ecole des Loisirs!
Fortunately, the French Librarians Association took the opportunity to denounce censorship and (re)published their commitment to the librarian's duty (which is not, if you're wondering, helping a bunch of highschool hotties fight vampires and demons ;-) ) :

« ne pratiquer aucune censure, [de] garantir le pluralisme et l’encyclopédisme culturel des collections »

(no censorship and guaranty of cultural diversity)

Next review : Je ne suis pas une fille à papa, from Christophe Honoré.