Jean a deux mamans

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.