..."And Tango Makes Three..."

Parnell, Peter and Richardson, Justin.  And Tango Makes Three. New York: Simon & Schuster Children's Publishing, 2005. 

The picture book I chose for my final project on LBGTQ literature was the "ASPCA Henry Bergh Children's Book Award" winner, And Tango Makes Three.

This book is based on a true story, about two penguins in the Central Park Zoo, Roy and Silo,  who became a couple in 1998 and have been ever since.  They had one chick, Tango, who was born from an egg laid by another penguin couple.  This information is all found on the last page under the "Author's Note."

And Tango Makes Three is a story that starts "zoomed out" focusing on the Central Park Zoo in New York City.  It gives some background information on the perks of Central Park Zoo and talks about all the different families that visit there.  The book then "zooms in" and talks about the fact that animals in the zoo are families too and talks about some different instances of different types of animal families.  It then "zooms in" further, to the penguin families, and talks about how the girl penguins start noticing the boy penguins and vice versa, every year.  It then states about how "when the right boy and girl find each other, they become a couple" but there were two penguins who were a "little bit different."  The book introduces them as Roy and Silo and how they were both boys and did everything together. It then talks about different things they do together and stated how they didn't spend time with the girl penguins.  The zookeeper then notices they must have been in love and how they wanted to have a family like all the other penguin couples. It then talks about how Roy and Silo practice being a family with a rock and how diligent they were in practicing, but were sad that nothing was happening.  It talks about how the zookeeper put an egg in their nest, and since the couple knew what to do from practicing they acted as if it was their own and cared for it for weeks, and then Tango was born "Because it takes two to make a Tango"  The book ends with saying how all the children who came to the zoo could see Tango and her two dads and they would cheer for the family.  And they were just like all the other families, but a little bit different.

I thought this picture book was a great way to introduce the idea of homosexuality to a young person who may either have never been familiar with homosexuality or who can relate to a homosexual family and needs some affirmation from a book that is like their situation, instead of the token mother/father type of book.  I could definitely see myself reading this picture book to my class, regardless if there was a child in my class who had two dads. I would read this book to my class because it is a gentle way of introducing the idea of having two dads, and I could do it without "shocking" kids, and introduce it as a normal way to have a family, even if it doesn't seem "normal" to the students at that time.  The pictures are warm and inviting and the text is rich with a warm and informative way of helping children understand the LBGTQ community. I believe this is a book that isn't stereotypical and explains the idea of two dads in such an easy-going way, it doesn't at all seem like a book that is trying to "explain" something. It is just a nice picture book about a family that became very happy with the addition of a Tango. I think this book promotes a positive experience and could incite a good dialogue between teacher/student parent/child about different kinds of families and how even though they are different, they are all the same because of the love they all have.  I will include this book into my library as a teacher because of the positive values it promotes about being a loving family, and it is a positive representation of a child being born with having two dads. I think this book was great!! 

This is an authentic book because both the authors, Parnell and Richardson identify themselves as gay and researched the penguins for the story. They brought a true life story to pages for young children to help understand different families that make up all communities.