Love Is Love

May 1, 2018

K-Gr 3-A picture book introduction to homophobic bullying that affirms the value of all loving families. The unnamed narrator tells a friend how other kids made fun of the rainbow heart shirt that was a gift from the narrator's dads, calling it "gay." While acknowledging that some people do not approve of being gay, the narrator decides that two-dad families are not so different from other families and feels proud of the love they share. Min's bright, cartoonish illustrations include plenty of white space and show big-headed figures with dot eyes and mostly smiling faces. Many spreads show a child with a rainbow T-shirt chatting with a friend as kites rise in the sky above. The final spreads show the children and parents (gay and straight) donning rainbow shirts and gathering to fly their kites into a rainbow heart shape in the sky. Some of the metaphors implemented may be above the heads of younger readers, who are not quite ready for abstract thinking. The pairs of children vary from page to page, and background landmarks like the Eiffel Tower and a giant Buddha statue place them around the world. It is unclear which child is the narrator or whether the narration is meant to switch among multiple children. The homophobic characters are never explicitly named in the text, though they may be indicated by the severe frowns on the face of an elderly Asian man and some young black boys. The white characters are not depicted with such expressions, which may lead readers to erroneously associate homophobia with people of color. In addition, the choice to depict yellow kites for the spread featuring Asian people reinforces harmful stereotypes. The back matter features a resource list, discussion questions, a note to kids, a note to caring adults, and a lengthy author's note. VERDICT Well-intentioned but not successful, with many troubling implications.-Sarah Stone, San Francisco Public Library

Copyright 2018 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

April 15, 2018
A heartfelt affirmation of queer love.A first-person text presents several children, all wearing rainbow-heart T-shirts, grappling with others' homophobia. It then documents their eventual movement toward pride in their families, simply by talking through their hurts and then arriving at the conclusion that "Love is the same. Wherever you live. Whoever you are. And whomever you love." Even as the different children talk about being teased for having gay parents (the word "gay" is used as a default or umbrella term, with no instances of words such as "queer," "lesbian," "bisexual," etc.) or feeling otherwise targeted, the illustrations also start to show kites in the distance, first red, then orange, then yellow, and so on. These kites end up forming a heart in rainbow colors in the sky when the various children and their families come together at the end of the book. Before arriving at this point, it's often quite difficult to follow the shifts between characters, as the illustrations pair the text with diverse children in clearly different locales without indicating that a new child is the speaker. Obviously intending inclusion, the images seem to attempt both universality and specificity at the same time, to frustrating effect. There's no story to speak of, but the clear message is underscored by extensive backmatter with conversation prompts and further affirmation of queer families and identity.A strong message weakly presented. (Picture book. 4-8)

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