Heather Has Two Mommies (1989)

I loved this story so much. It talked about a little girl named Heather who has two moms, and addresses the situation in which she realizes that her family does not look like others in her class. However, the lesson of the story is that each family is special and important due to the love each family member has for each other. I think this story is really important to introduce to a younger audience as it teaches understanding from an early age. ( )

Heather lives happily with her two moms, Mama Kate and Mama June, and their two pets, Gingersnap and Midnight. However, when Heather begins school, she starts to wonder if she is the only kid without a dad. The teacher notices and decides to ask the class to all draw pictures of their families. The book shows each student's picture, detailing the people in their drawings; some have two moms, some have two dads, some have step-parents, some have grandparents instead of what Heather thought a "normal" family was (one mom and one dad). This is so important for kids to become familiar with! There is no "normal" family, and the teacher's quote that the only thing that matters in a family is that "all the people in it love each other" put that concept into words perfectly. I loved the message of this book and how explicit the theme was. ( )

One of the first "two mama" books. Dedicated mostly to setting up that the little girl has an ordinary life with two mamas. Pretty good for that sort of explicit "here is a type of family" narrative. Useful if paired with books that similarly address different kinds of families in an explicit fashion, but this should not be the only two-mama or two-papa book in a library or family collection. If you have this one, consider getting "The Different Dragon" or "The Dragon and the Doctor" to show a two-mama family where the same-gender aspect is backgrounded, not foregrounded. ( )

Little Heather lives in a comfortable home with one mother who is a doctor and another who is a carpenter. Her mamas tell her she will start school, then they help her settle on her first day. At (pre-)school, she wonders if she's the only one there who doesn't have a daddy. The teacher turns the conversation about parents into a drawing activity, which shows a variety of families.

The class appears to have two students who each have a mom and dad, while the other students have a single mom, two dads, a mom and stepfather, and a grandparent as a guardian. Some of the children have siblings; others don't.

Laura Cornell's soft but lively illustrations in this 2015 edition added fun elements that encourage additional engagement by the reader. My family compared the settings to ours. My daughter enjoyed searching for the sticky bandages on stuff in the home scenes. "What happened?" she asked. "The -item- had a boo-boo!" We also liked how pets were included in the family without taking from the story's focus on what Heather and her mamas have in common with the families of her schoolmates.

This sweet book's overall message is handled well. While families are formed in more than one way, can look different from each other, and use different terms, all families are bound by love. ( )