Beyond the mama-papa stories

Why is children’s literature missing stories of adopted children, non-traditional families, and single-parent homes?

 Granth, one of Mumbai’s last stand-alone book stores, is on my route from office to home. Right by the sea in Juhu, it is often my pit stop to browse and refuel. The last book I picked up there is Where Is Home, Little Pip?—a heartbreakingly beautiful children’s book from 2008 by Karma Wilson and Jane Chapman.

 It is the Kids story of a baby penguin, Pip, lost in a snowy expanse off the Antarctic shores as he follows a black feather drifting by. Pip has doting parents, and they sing him a song every day:

 Our home is where the land is free, From hill or mountain, twig or tree,

 In our pebbly nest by the stormy sea, Where Mummy and Daddy and Pip

 make three.

 My little girl, about to turn 4, and I have both taken to the book, and especially the song, but this is yet another book that gave me a reason to search for children’s books with non-traditional families. What better way to show her that family is not always about the mama-papa-baby trinity than through a book or a movie?

 Most children’s literature and entertainment harp on the biological father-mother-child unit. Good, popular stories about families that involve an aunt or a grandfather, or just a mom and a child, are hard to find. Stories and research about adoptive parents and children are rare, unless, of course, you return to Amar Chitra Katha’s Krishna. I am yet to find a great story which is not about an orphan and has no father, mother or sibling in it. Even if non-biological families are a reality in India and across the world, we are not ready to write about them yet.

 Most parents I know tend to choose children’s books by word of mouth and dedicated online browsing. Some books stand out because of the reviews they get in international publications, like Goodnight Moon or The Very Hungry Caterpillar did. Among book stores, I prefer Mumbai’s Eternal Library’s Trilogy book store and reading space in Lower Parel for lesser-known, off-beat children’s book titles.

 So far, I have just come across a few books about non-traditional families. These include a picture book for toddlers called The Family Book by Todd Parr, about different kinds of families, and Love Is A Family by Roma Downey, about a young girl, Lily, and her anxieties when faced with the possibility of attending “Family Fun Night” at school with her single mom.

 The surprise, perhaps, is the Chennai-based indie publishing label Tulika Books. Just A Train Ride Away by Mini Srinivasan is about a boy’s search for what he considers the perfect family. The Mayil books (Mayil Will Not Be Quiet! and Mostly Madly Mayil), about a teenage girl coming of age, touch upon homosexuality. The Lonely King And Queen is about adoption. Its author and illustrator Deepa Balsavar writes on Tulika’s website: “This is the story we made up for our little girl. As a baby it was her night-time favourite, accompanied by much acting and searching around the house. She grew up knowing that adoption is just another way in which families are created.”

 I am yet to receive any of these books and start reading them out to my girl. I don’t know if they are great stories, and how much an almost-four-year-old will absorb from them. I just know it will be fun to mix up Where Is Home, Little Pip? with The Lonely King And Queen and Love Is A Family.

 

[Source::http://www.livemint.com/Leisure/l35HpVi3zmzYX6IYxqYN4N/Beyond-the-mamapapa-stories.html]