"We are not the Cleavers": Images of Nontraditional Familiesin Children's Literature

Suzanne Bunkers

The Lion and the Unicorn, Volume 16, Number 1, June 1992, pp. 115-133(Article)

Published by The Johns Hopkins University PressDOI: 10.1353/uni.0.0110

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"We are not the Cleavers": Images of NontraditionalFamilies in Children's Literature*

Suzanne Bunkers

I grew up in what many would call a traditional family; that is, onecomposed of two married, heterosexual parents and biological children. 'My mother did virtually all the housework and cared for the five childrenin our three-bedroom rambler, while my father worked as a rural mailcarrier. In our town of 400 in rural Iowa, divorce was nonexistent, singleparenthood occurred only through the death of one's spouse, "illegiti-macy" was extremely shameful, and adoption took place as a last resortfor those married couples whom God had not blessed with "natural"children.

Today I live in a nontraditional family. I am the single parent of a six-year-old daughter, Rachel. Along with our three cats, we live in an oldertwo-story house in a working-class neighborhood of Mankato, a town ofabout 45,000 in south-central Minnesota. Rachel's father and I nevermarried; her primary home is with me, and she spends occasional week-ends with her father in a nearby town.

Like many of you, I grew up steeped in the adventures of Dick, Jane,Sally, Mother, Father, Spot, Puff, and Tim. Typical stories in readerslike Helen Robinson et al.'s Fun Wherever We Are (1962), had titles like"Come and Ride," "Look in Here," "Will Spot Run Away?", and "DoSomething Funny."2 As a child, I quickly learned that a proper familyhad two married, heterosexual parents with clearly defined gender roles;children of both sexes; clean and docile pets; and money enough for ahouse in the suburbs, a late-model automobile, and family vacations. Itnever occurred to me to question this model until much later, when Idiscovered that not every family had two parents, that not all parentswere heterosexual and/or married, that not all families were biologicallyconstituted, and that not all children and pets were polite and obedient.

This discovery led to my search for children's books that depicted the

* This essay is based on a paper presented at the 1987 Midwest Modern Language AssociationConvention.

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wide variety of families that I knew existed.3 I will note at the outsetthat I have not undertaken a scientific search. Rather, I have sampled thechildren's books available in my community and university libraries aswell as those carried by local and regional bookstores. In addition, I havesampled the children's books in our family library, with an awarenessthat those books reflect an interest in many kinds of family structures.My hypothesis is that images of nontraditional families in children's bookshave increased greatly in recent years, mirroring the greater visibility ofnontraditional families in our culture, and that this development is ahealthy one.

Based on my analysis of approximately one hundred children's books,what observations can I make about images of nontraditional families inpopular literature for children?4 First and most importantly, the familiesdepicted in these books are decidedly not like that of June and WardCleaver. Many are single-parent families; some are stepfamilies; othersare extended families including several generations; some are adoptiveand foster families. Some recent stories portray a grandparent, aunt, oruncle who has sole responsibility for his or her grandchild, niece, ornephew. Children's books are beginning to acknowledge the fact that notall families are constituted heterosexually; lesbian and gay families figurein several of the books I've sampled. More books are being written aboutfamilies in which physical, mental, and emotional challenges play a centralrole. Unemployment, poverty, sexual abuse, and the deaths of familymembers are all subjects dealt with in children's books published duringthe past ten to twenty years. In some families, individuals of all ageslive together, unrelated biologically or adoptively. In other cases, olderpersons lovingly care for children who visit rather than live with them.

In contemporary children's books, parent figures are not always pro-tective; children are not always nice; life is not always easy; difficultiesare not always overcome. In short, children's books are breaking silencesabout subjects that were rarely, if ever, explored in depth in the popularliterature of earlier days. Nineteenth-century favorites such as SusanWarner's The Wide, Wide World, Harriet Beecher Stowe's Uncle Tom'sCabin, and Louisa May Alcott's Little Women (all of which addressedfamily problems) were predicated on the model of the heterosexual,marital, nuclear family. Their structures followed the classic pattern:exposition, rising action, climax, falling action, and denouement. Storylines hinged on the problems resulting in adults' and childrens' lives whenthe "model family" broke down, and the resolutions of such storiesdepended on the restoration ofthat model. A "happy ending" necessarilymeant that the reconstituted heterosexual, marital, nuclear family pre-vailed. Not so today.

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One significant kind of children's book published during the past fifteento twenty years deals with children's responses to divorce. Beth Goff'sWhere Is Daddy? The Story of a Divorce (1969) describes the reactionsof a preschool girl, Janeydear, to her parents' divorce. Fears of aban-donment, hostile outbursts, sorrow and grief—all are experienced byJaneydear, whose mother and father try, despite their own distress, toease those feelings. Although the final line of the story is, "Janeydearfelt much better," readers young and old know how deeply her parents'divorce has shaken the little girl.

My Dad Lives in a Downtown Hotel (1973), by Peggy Mann, HowDoes It Feel When Your Parents Get Divorced? (1977), by Terry Berger,and Mommy and Daddy Are Divorced (1978), by Patricia Perry all tryto show, through children's eyes, the adjustments that family membersmust make when a divorce occurs. In all three stories, the father movesout of the family home, and the children are at first afraid and then angry.Photographs and illustrations are essential to each story; readers view theparents arguing, the children looking forlorn, and finally the family mem-bers regaining their ability to feel happy again. Statements like "It didn'tfeel good to see Daddy go, but we knew that we would see him againsoon" (from Mommy and Daddy) and "Although my parents no longerlive together, their feelings for me are the same" (from How Does ItFeel) reinforce the primary message in each book: divorce does occur;shock, sadness, anger, and acceptance are normal; life goes on.

Two more recent books deal with additional complexities found in thedivorced family. In Kathy Stinson's Mom and Dad Don't Live TogetherAny More (1984), the little girl who tells the story moves with her motherand brother to an apartment in the city and visits her father at the family'shouse in the country on weekends. During the course of the story, shelearns that she cannot make her parents happy, despite her desire to, andthat her parents both love her, but "just not together." Michael Prokop'sDivorce Happens to the Nicest Kids (1986), is a self-help book for childrenand adults. It attempts to dispel such myths as "kids are the cause of thedivorce," "kids cannot be happy living with one parent," and "kids cansolve their parents' problems and save their parents' marriage." Alongwith illustrations, it provides a useful glossary of terms related to divorce(e.g., confusion, counselor, guilt, shame, tension). The increasing num-ber of children's books that deal with the subject of divorce reflect ourculture's need to provide guidance for children who must come to termswith families that split apart.

Books about stepfamilies, increasingly visible in American culture,raise intriguing questions about the roles of adults and children in whathave been euphemistically called "blended" families. Several of these

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stories also incorporate variations on the stereotypes of the wicked step-mother and the tyrannical stepfather. Betty Ren Wright's My New Momand Me (1981) traces the stages in a young Hispanic girl's adjustmentto her mother's death and her father's remarriage. Of her new stepmother,the narrator says: "The first day that Elena came to our apartment to live,she tried to hug me. I wouldn't let her." The family cat's disappearanceand subsequent rescue by Elena convinces the girl that it's all right tolove her stepmother: "Then [Elena] put her arm around me, and I leanedagainst her. It felt good—better than I had expected." Significantly, thegirl's mother has died, not divorced her father, and the implication is thatElena will now mother the girl rather than have to compete with the"real" mother for the daughter's love and attention. Nonetheless, MyNew Mom and Me attempts to deal candidly with the conflicting emotionsa child feels when asked to accept a new parental figure.

Quite a different scenario emerges in Happily Ever After . . . Almost(1982), by Judie Wolkoff. This adolescent novel is narrated by Kitty; herparents have divorced, and each has married someone else. The storycenters on a Caucasian family in which sisters, half-sisters, half-brothers,and stepbrothers figure prominently. The novel chronicles the first yearof Kitty's mother and stepfather's marriage. The opening lines of thestory set its tone: "Well, we made it! We survived our first year. We'realive and well —at least nobody's hospitalized at the moment." Centralto the novel is Kitty and her sister Sarah's growing acceptance of R. J.,their new stepbrother. While the story is basically upbeat, it does containone unpleasant character: R.J.'s mother Kay, the wicked ex-wife (a var-iation on the wicked stepmother) who eventually relinquishes custody ofher son to her ex-husband and moves to London. This is one of only afew stories depicting a custodial father; unfortunately, it reinforces thestereotype that a mother who relinquishes custody of her child must bea nasty person.

Norma Klein's adolescent novel, Mom, the Wolf Man, and Me (1972),incorporates both the stepfamily and the single-parent motifs. Eleven-year-old Brett knows that her mother has never been married and states:"The only part that I really mind about Mom not being married is whenpeople ask questions. Otherwise we have a good time, better in someways than lots of my friends who have mothers and fathers" (16). Brett'sfirst reaction to her mother's news that she will marry Theo (the WolfMan) is "I really felt horribly sick. I can't even describe it" (149).Overwhelmed by all the changes that she knows will take place, Brettwonders at the end of the story what her "new life" will be like.

Brett's perspective is far more somber and less optimistic than Kitty's;

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the two novels balance one another in their portrayals of adolescent girls'adjustments to becoming members of stepfamilies. Both novels, however,verify that stepfamily relationships are fragile and complex, and that nohard and fast rules exist for the way a stepfamily ought to function.5

This same theme runs throughout Barbara Seuling's What Kind ofFamily Is This? A Book About Stepfamilies ( 1985) .6 The opening sentenceof the story asks the reader to imagine what it might be like to becomepart of a stepfamily. The story follows the experiences of Jeff, whosemother has remarried and whose stepfather, Henry, brings two children,Samantha and Scott, to the newly "blended" family. Jeff is angry thathe has to wait to use the bathroom. He and Scott argue over having toshare a bedroom. Finally, Jeff screams at his mother: "What kind offamily is this? I don't have any privacy. I don't want to be here! Whydo we have to live here anyway?" His mother's reply, "It takes time,but you'll get used to it," does little to satisfy Jeff. The rest of the storyfollows all five members of the stepfamily as they slowly learn how tolive together.

Stories dealing with gay and lesbian families are not often found inbookstores or libraries. Apparently, few major publishing houses arewilling to take the risk of publishing overtly gay and lesbian stories forchildren. Similarly, many bookstores and libraries are reluctant to stocksuch stories, fearing negative response from homophobic customers.Nonetheless, such stories provide a valuable perspective on nontraditionalfamilies in children's popular literature. Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin(1983), by Susan Bosche, involves a young girl growing up in her fatherand his lover's home. Jenny's mother lives nearby, and Jenny spendsmany days with her. This story centers on the surprise birthday party thatJenny, her mother, and her father plan for Eric. The book highlights thecaring environment in which Jenny lives, and it subtly reminds readersthat a gay home can be a happy home.

Jane Severance's Lots of Mommies (1983) tells the story of Emily, alittle girl growing up in a home where she receives love and encouragementfrom several female caregivers. The women live cooperatively: Emily'smother, Jill, is her primary parent; Annie Jo helps Emily cook; Vickietakes her to the library; and Shadowoman teaches her sewing and gar-dening. Once again, a nontraditional family is shown to be a happy family,and readers are challenged to expand their perspective on what a healthyfamily is.

Extended families are common in contemporary children's books, par-ticularly families in which grandparent-grandchild relationships figure.Death and dying are central to many of these books. When Grandpa

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Came to Stay (1986), by Judith Caseley, focuses on a grandfather andgrandson in a Jewish family. Grandfather Jacob Levy has come to livewith the Golds (Benny, his mother, and his father) after the death of hiswife, Sarah Levy. Young Benny is initially frightened by his grandfather'stears and sadness, but a special kinship develops between the two afterthey visit the cemetery to lay flowers on Sarah's grave.

Similarly, in Trudy Madler's Why Did Gramdma Die? (1980), a youngCaucasian girl, Heidi, must come to terms with her beloved grandmother'sdeath. Heidi wonders why she and her parents couldn't keep Grandmaalive. Only after viewing her grandmother's body at her funeral and tellingher goodbye is Heidi able to accept death as a part of life.

Grandmama 's Joy (1980), by Eloise Greenfield, deals with the reactionsof a little African-American girl, Rhondy, as she comes to accept thedeaths of her parents. Because they died when Rhondy was a baby, shehas no memory of them, and she is puzzled by her grandmother's sadness.Rhondy, who has heard the story of her parents' deaths before, listensintently as her grandmother retells the story. Rhondy especially looksforward to the way her grandmother ends the story:

"You'll always be my joy," [Grandmama] said. Rhondy didn't have to lifther head to look at Grandmama's face to know that she was smiling a realsmile and that the lines between her eyebrows had gone away. . . . Shefelt so happy in her grandmama's arms because as much as she wasGrandmama's joy, Grandmama was her joy, too.

The impact of AIDS on family relationships is explored in MaryKayeJordan's Losing Uncle Tim (1989). The story is told from the perspectiveof young Daniel,, whose favorite uncle slowly wastes away and eventuallydies. The story deals honestly with Daniel's growing understanding thathe can't "catch" AIDS from Uncle Tim; in so doing, the book attemptsto educate readers about the realities of HIV infection. In portrayingTim's death and Daniel's grief, the book does not gloss over the harshrealities of a beloved uncle's death from AIDS and its impact on thosewho survive.

In addition to these stories, several others highlight affectionate grand-parent-grandchild relationships. In Matt's Grandfather (1970), by MaxLundgren, young Matt goes with his parents to the "old people's home"to help his grandfather, who is growing senile, celebrate his eighty-fifthbirthday. The story gives children a realistic glimpse into what old agecan be like. In so doing, it parallels other recent children's books suchas Freddy My Grandfather (1979), by NoIa Langner, and Jesse and Abe(1981), by Rachel Isadora.

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Norma Farber's How Does It Feel to Be Old? (1979) is one of ourfamily's favorites. Told in the form of a poem, this story depicts therelationship between a grandmother and granddaughter. Trina Schart Hy-man's sepia-tone line drawings are effective in superimposing imagesfrom the grandmother's past on her present, creating a visual memorycollage. The book portrays the difficulties inherent in growing old as wellas the joys of passing on one's stories and memories to a beloved grand-daughter. The story concludes with the grandmother's prophecy: "Soonyou'll be knowing / that Grandma has died / while you are still growing /in inches and pride."

Annie and the Old One (1971), by Miska Miles, centers on the Navajoworld of young Annie and her aging grandmother, who shows Anniehow to light a fire in the hogan, make fry bread, and weave traditionalNavajo rugs. Weaving becomes Annie's means of preserving her matri-linear heritage and of facing her grandmother's approaching death. Annieand the Old One is poignant, yet it is also vibrantly alive with Annie'sknowledge of belonging to her culture —a knowledge passed on to herby her grandmother.

Two novels by Hadley Irwin, What About Grandma? (1982) and TheLilith Summer (1979), present positive images of grandmother-grand-daughter relationships for adolescent readers. In the first novel, sixteen-year-old Rhys, whose parents had divorced when she was a baby, travelswith her mother Eve to visit Grandma Wyn for part of the summer. Therefamily secrets are uncovered, and a close bond among grandmother,daughter, and granddaughter is cemented. In the second novel, reluctanttwelve-year-old Ellen takes care of seventy-seven-year-old Lilith Adams,and the two become fast friends.

Grandma Gets Grumpy (1988), by Anne Grossnickle Hines, depictsan overnight stay at Grandma's for Lassen and her four cousins. Althoughtheir grandmother is delighted to have her young guests, they try herpatience, and eventually she "gets grumpy," leading Lassen to whisper,"She sounds just like my mom."

"You bet I do," Grandma replies. "That's because I taught Lassen'smom, and Brian's mom and Casey's dad everything they know aboutbeing grumpy. And I'm older, so I've had more practice." As the fivegrandchildren watch Grandma's grumpiness pass and her tenderness to-ward them return, young readers learn about the realities of interactingwith a grandparent who displays a normal range of emotions.

All of these grandparent-grandchild stories belie the myth of the gen-eration gap and compassionately portray the difficulties as well as thedelights of intergenerational relationships. Such stories are complemented

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by children's books that feature independent older people who are happywith their lives. Barbara Cooney's Miss Rumphius (1982) is perhaps thebest-known example. Miss Rumphius, known as the Lupine Lady, livesin a seashore cottage. As a young woman named Alice, she had livedon her own, worked as a librarian, and traveled to faraway lands. Now,as an old woman, she sows lupine seeds each spring and encourageschildren like her great-niece, little Alice, to "do something to make theworld more beautiful."

Charlotte Zolotow's / Know a Lady (1984) is narrated by a young girlnamed Sally who makes friends with an old woman on their block. Sallywatches her plant flowers, feed the birds, and make Christmas cookiesfor the neighborhood children. Sally muses, "I wonder what she was likewhen she was a little girl," and she concludes, "If I was an old lady andshe was a little girl, I would love her a lot the way I do now."

Like these two stories, Wendy Kesselman's Emma (1980) and QuentinBlake's Mrs. Armitage on Wheels (1987) center on older women whohave many talents. Seventy-two-year-old Emma takes up painting, sur-prising her children and grandchildren and curing her loneliness. Mrs.Armitage travels through the countryside on a bicycle which she hasequipped with horns, umbrella, sails, and dog seat. When her bicyclecrashes under its own weight, she calmly picks herself up and sets offagain—this time on roller skates. By picturing older women who areenergetic and enterprising, all four books help to dispel the myth of thefragile, helpless "old lady."

Still more children's books portray mutually supportive relationshipsbetween an adult and a child. Jeannette Caines's Just Us Women (1982)tells the story of a young African-American girl and her Aunt Martha asthey embark on a car trip through North Carolina, stopping wherever andwhenever they choose and thoroughly enjoying themselves. Another suchstory is My Dad Is Really Something (1983), by Lois Osborn, in whichHarry George, a young Caucasian boy, befriends Ron, a new boy in theclass who perpetually brags about his father. When Harry George learnsthat Ron's father has actually died years earlier, he offers to share hisown father with Ron.

Allen Morgan's Daddy-Care (1986) is a wish-fulfillment story thatfollows a day in the life of Danny and his dad as they exchange roles.Danny takes his father to "Daddy-care," where he and his friends workon cars, eat lunch together, take naps on their cots, and argue whileplaying poker. The story concludes with Danny reading his dad a bedtimestory, singing him a song, and turning out the light. In Daddy-Carereaders see a loving, secure single-parent family. Morgan's story works

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well as a tongue-in-cheek look at the power dynamics of parent-childrelationships.

A Chair for My Mother (1982), by Vera B. Williams, portrays aworking-class family of women (Grandma, Aunt Ida, Aunt Sally, Mama,and her young daughter Rosa) who join forces to save money for a newoverstuffed chair to replace the one destroyed when Mama and her daugh-ter's house burned down. A Chair for My Mother is the first in a seriesof stories that focus on the same family; in each case, Williams's lushillustrations and text reinforce the idea that a multigenerational family isa loving, respectful environment in which a child can grown up.

The variety of stories about nontraditional families is not exhausted bythose discussed thus far. Many books focus on the adoptive family.Adoption Is For Always (1986), by Linda Girard, goes much further thanearlier books like Valentine Wasson's The Chosen Baby (1939, 1967) indiscussing the role of the birthmother as well as that of the adoptiveparents. In Adoption Is for Always, Celia fantasizes about her birthmother,Susan. Her adoptive mother and father reassure Celia that being adoptedmeans being loved. Crossracial adoption is the subject of Chinese Eyes(1974), by Marjorie Ann Waybill, and We Don't Look Like Our Momand Dad (1984), by Harriet Langsam Sobol. Both stories revolve aroundthe adoption of Asian children by Caucasian heterosexual couples.7 WeDon't Look Like Our Mom and Dad concludes by expressing a themecommon to stories about nontraditional families; no one family is typical,and each is a family because its members choose to be one.

Mama One, Mama Two (1982), by Patricia MacLachlan, is one of thefirst contemporary children's books to depict a young girl's life in fostercare. Maudie's foster mother ("Mama Two") tells her a bedtime storyabout Maudie's mother ("Mama One"). The story reveals that, althoughMaudie's mother loves her very much, the family's poverty leads to hermother's depression and eventual hospitalization. Maudie goes to staywith Katherine, a foster mother who has a small baby. Tom, a socialworker, visits Maudie and Katherine regularly, and they call the fosterhome Maudie's "for-a-while" home. Although Maudie's biologicalmother is not physically present in the story, her spirit is present; andthe implication is that someday Maudie will return to Mama One, takingwith her warm memories of Mama Two.

Michèle Maria Surat's Angel Child, Dragon Child (1983) emphasizesthe strength of family ties across cultures. The book tells the story ofNguyen Hoa, a little girl who has come from Vietnam to the UnitedStates with her father and older sisters. Nguyen Hoa, called "Ut" (for"smallest daughter") by her family, longs for her mother, still far away

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in Vietnam. Ut remembers her mother's musical voice, telling her to "Bemy brave little Dragon," and she looks at the tiny photograph of hermother which she keeps in a matchbox. Although she feels like an outcastat school, Ut is eventually befriended by an American boy named Ray-mond, who helps her write stories about her life in Vietnam. On the lastday of school in the spring, Ut and Raymond run to her home to greether mother, who has just arrived. Colorful, detailed illustrations by Vo-Dinh Mai, a native of Vietnam, make this book especially realistic —andpoignant. The author's note explains that Surat based the book (her firstchildren's book) on a story told to her by a Vietnamese child and thatSurat's goal was to "create a story that would promote understandingbetween Vietnamese children and their American peers."

Many contemporary children's books consider issues not often touchedon in earlier children's books. My Daddy Don't Go to Work (1978), byMadeena Spray Nolan, and Tight Times (1979), by Barbara Shook Hazen,offer a child's perspective on a parent's unemployment. So does MyMother Lost Her Job Today (1980), by Judy Delton, which focuses onBarbara Anne, a little girl whose single-parent mother has just been laidoff from work. The story portrays the fears of both mother and daughteras they talk about what they will do to get by until the mother can findanother job. This book is especially good at showing that the loss of ajob often has very little to do with competence or performance —and farmore to do with economics.

Child sexual abuse, a timely subject, figures prominently in severalchildren's books. Recent statistics indicate that one girl in four and oneboy in nine will be victims of childhood sexual abuse. This subject iscentral to Pamela Russell and Beth Stone's Do You Have a Secret? (1986)and Judith Janee's It's Not Your Fault (1985). Please Tell (1991), pub-lished by the Hazelden Foundation, tells Jessie's story in her own words,accompanied by her own crayon illustrations. Her story begins, "Dearfriends everywhere, I was hurt by someone I loved and trusted, when Iwas four. He was my uncle and my godfather." Jessie speaks to otherchildren, emphasizing how important it is to "Keep telling until someonehelps you. You don't have to live in a bad dream anymore."

All three of these picture books make clear that sexual abuse does notalways take the form of intercourse—that it can include inappropriatetouching, language, and threats. These books also dispel the myth thatperpetrators of sexual abuse are strangers; in actuality, the abuser is oftena family member.8 The importance of children's breaking silences aboutforms of abuses is at the heart of each story —along with the importance

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of adults' believing those children and reporting allegations of sexualabuse to child protection authorities.

Other children's books examine the dynamics of families whose chil-dren are differently abled. For instance, in Elizabeth Fanshawe's Rachel(1975), the title character, a young Caucasian girl, is in a wheelchair; inMargaret Waiden Froelich's Hide Crawford Quick (1983), twelve-year-old Gracie Prayther, her parents, and siblings learn to deal with the factthat their new baby, Crawford, has been born with only one foot. MySister Is Different (1981), by Betty Ren Wright, describes a boy's re-lationship with his older, retarded sister; while My Friend Jacob (1980),by Lucille Clifton, portrays an interracial friendship between young Sam,who is African-American, and his older retarded friend, Jacob, who isCaucasian.

Some children's books poke gentle fun at traditional notions of whata family should be. Nancy Carlson's The Perfect Family (1985) hasLouanne, a piglet who is bored with being an only child, spending theweekend with her friend, George, a bunny who lives next door with hismother, father, five sisters, and four brothers. Louanne has to struggleto get enough food to eat and a place to sleep in the overcrowded house-hold. The story concludes with Louanne's grateful return to her own homeand her avowal to her mother that "you and Daddy are the perfect familyfor me." Your Family, My Family (1980), by Joan Drescher, and HowWe Live (1977), by Anita Harper, portray children living in diverse typesof families ranging from biological nuclear families to adoptive familiesto extended families to stepfamilies to foster families to single-parentfamilies. Both picture books imply that no one "best" type of familyexists and that all types are just fine.

Fantasy books for children offer one of the most fruitful avenues forstudying "nontraditional" families.9 Books about witches are particularlyintriguing in terms of how they portray the notion of family. Severalcurrent books take issue with the stereotypes of the wicked witch. NormanBridwell's The Witch Grows Up (1979) and Babette Cole's The Troublewith Mom (1983) feature benevolent witches in heterosexual nuclearfamilies, making friends with neighborhood children and casting benev-olent spells to rescue those in danger. Marc Brown's Witches Four (1980)is about four little girl witches who apparently live without benefit ofparents in a purple and pink Victorian-style house. They "brush theirteeth with spider paste" and "eat bat-wing sandwiches. They like thetaste!" A Woggle of Witches (1971), by Adrienne Adams, describes theHalloween festivities of a charming "woggle" (or group) of witches who

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live in the forest, fly to the moon on their brooms, and get frightened bychildren in Halloween costumes.

And not all witches are depicted as women. Donna Lugy Pape's TaffyFinds a Halloween Witch (1975) tells the story of an orange cat adoptedon Halloween by a young boy dressed as a witch. Books about witches,like those about imaginary animals, Utopian societies, and journeys tofar-off worlds, serve an important function in the world of children's andadolescents' books. Such books present authors and readers with oppor-tunities for imagining new types of family structures, ones where bound-aries between parents' and children's traditional roles are blurred, if notdone away with altogether, and ones where insights gained by readingcan be applied to real-life families.

As all of the stories cited above illustrate, children's literature is in-creasingly demonstrating that families cannot so easily be dichotomizedas "traditional" or "nontraditional" and that no one family is "normal,""typical," or representative of all families. In doing this study, my in-tention has been to be exploratory rather than dogmatic, selective ratherthan comprehensive. I have set out to celebrate the expanding boundariesof children's literature while making a personal and scholarly foray intouncharted territory. I believe that it is essential to our children's and ourown development that we open the gate and walk beyond the tiny, fenced-in reading yard of the old Dick, Jane, and Sally stories.

Apparently, the editors of Penguin Books have realized this, too, forthey have published Marc Gregory Gallant's "all-new primer," More Funwith Dick and Jane (1986). Its intended audience includes "the millionsof people who readily recall that immortal line: 'See Spot Run.' " Thepreface to this primer explains what happened to the title characters andtheir little sister Sally when they all grew up.10 Dick has become a systemsengineer for a public utility; he's married to Susan, and they have threesons. Jane, who is divorced, lives with her two daughters in a suburb ofDayton, Ohio. She works as a loan officer, selling Amway in her sparetime. Sally has been married and divorced twice; child-free, she is publicrelations director for a large winery in Mill Valley, California. Fatherdied in 1981, and Mother now lives in a retirement home outside Dayton.Puff and Puff are also deceased, and Spot's namesake lives with Dick,who never takes him for a walk without the indispensable pooper-scooper.

Stories in More Fun with Dick and Jane include "A Good Guess"

(Dick, Susan, and their sons buy an Apple Macintosh) and "Fair Trade"(Dick's son Adam trades his G.I. Joe to Jane's daughter Jessica for herBarbie doll). Also included are "Can You Guess?" (Jessica spray-paints

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her hair green and becomes a punk rocker) and "An Evening with Sally"(Sally treats her significant other, Craig, to wild mushroom salad withradiccio and radish sprouts, followed by cold poached chicken with walnutand basil pesto). The tongue-in-cheek humor of More Fun With Dick andJane will strike a chord with "baby boomers" who are ready and ableto poke fun at themselves. Gallant's re-vision of the Dick and Jane storieseffectively lays to rest the time-worn maxim, "Some things neverchange."

In the world of popular literature for children, things are changing allthe time, and portrayals of many family configurations are steadily in-creasing. These stories cross boundaries of race, ethnicity, class, sexualorientation, age, and bloodlines. In fact, children's literature strikes meas far more progressive in redefining the family and in reshaping culturalattitudes toward the family than the current crop of "family films" nowin theaters (and video stores) everywhere. Like many kindergartners, mydaughter Rachel loves movies that feature children, especially little girls.During the past two months, we have seen "All I Want for Christmas,""Curly Sue," "Baby Boom," "Three Men and a Baby," "Three Menand a Little Lady," "The Maid," and "Trading Hearts." Each of thesemovies has a little girl as a central character, and each storyline initiallyfeatures a single-parent family." But not for long. By the end of eachmovie, the little girl and her mother or father have invariably been matchedup with another parent of the opposite gender. Together they dance, stroll,skip, or drive off into the proverbial sunset—"happily," as they say,"ever after."

"Mommy, does that always happen?" Rachel asked, as we walkedhome after one such movie.

"No, honey," I shook my head. "Most of those movies aren't likereal life."

"Or else you just never see that they don't stay together after the movieends," she concluded solemnly.

I repeated this conversation to a good friend who is also a single parent.She chuckled, "I wonder why kids catch on so fast and it takes us adultsso much longer?"

I nodded. I think I've caught on. Given the tenor of our times and thecurrent emphasis on a return to "traditional family values," many film-makers have a difficult time finding financial backing for their moviesunless the storylines feature heterosexual, married (or soon-to-be-married)couples—with or without children. I know that financial exigency andmarket appeal are central factors in why many contemporary films take

128 Suzanne Bunkers

so limited a view of family life. Still, I can't help but wonder how itaffects a child's sense of self to see his or her kind of family treated asthough something is wrong with it that needs "fixing."

That's one reason I spend a good deal of time searching for children'sstories that feature diverse kinds of families —stories that don't alwaysend in a rosy glow. I believe it's worthwhile for children to be exposedto more than one "script" for life's relationships. It isn't always easy tofind children's books that feature diverse types of families, but it is wellworth the effort. Now, if I go into a bookstore and observe that it doesn'tcarry children's books that portray many kinds of families, I recommendsome titles to the manager. If I notice that a library's books offer a limitedrange of portrayals of families, I ask the children's librarian to look intoordering ones that do. After all, they are out there. And those of us wholive in nontraditional families, as well as many of us who don't, are gladof it.

Notes

' Ironically, the concept of the traditional family—that is, the heterosexual, two-parent, marital, nuclear family with the mother caring for children at home andthe father working outside the home—is itself a relatively recent phenomenon(Lamb 2-3). Extended, single-parent, lesbian, gay, adoptive, foster, and othertypes of families have existed through the ages. These types of families, however,have generally not been validated by Western societies and thus have remainedinvisible in official historical accounts.

In examining the axioms on which the superiority of the traditional family hasbeen based, Lamb asserts not only that a "diverse array of nontraditional familytypes" does exist but also that the study of them can "help to illustrate thecomplexities and potential variability of developmental processes" (Lamb 10-H).

2 Fun Wherever We Are, the third Pre-Primer of the New Basic Reading Program,contains stories about the family at home, at the shopping center, and in thefamily car. The eighteen stories in this Pre-Primer use a total vocabulary ofseventy-two words, and, as the authors state in the afterword, "join to providea book that encourages steady growth in interpretive abilities" (78).

Interestingly, the authors do not address the question of what kinds of inter-pretive abilities, in addition to those of plot structure and syntax, the storiesencourage in young readers.

3I use the terms "traditional" and "nontraditional" advisedly because I do notbelieve that such an artificial and potentially harmful distinction can or shouldbe made. Jean Belovich defines twelve different family structures which she seesoperating in the United States today:

Nontraditional Families 129

There is the traditional family, where Mom stays home and Dad goes to work; theDad-stays-home-and-Mom-works family; the both-spouses-work family; the single-parent family; the remarried family; the homosexual family; the unwed-teenager-with-child family; the nonmarital family; the foster care family; the interreligiousfamily; the interracial family; and the communal family, (xv)

Although Belovich explains that many more family structures might exist, sheasserts that "all families strive for similar goals: financial stability, cooperation,harmony, emotional support, trust, and unconditional love" (xv).

4I would note that, while the majority of books in my sample are children'spicture books, some juvenile and young adult novels are also included. Completecitations are in works cited.

5 Elizabeth Einstein makes this point:

One of the most complex of family relationships is the stepfamily—a configurationresulting from remarriage with children. Its very existence is a product of death ordivorce. No one forgets this; fear of its recurrence is part of the stepfamily's fragilefoundation. This family faces a challenging task. Yet few people understand itsspecial dynamics, and this lack of knowledge can lead unsuspecting stepfamiliesinto chaos." (xiii)

6In a "Note to Parents" preceding the story, the editors explain that the purposeof the story is to "show your child that he or she is not the only one who hasworries or uncertainties about becoming part of a new family." The editors' notegoes on to encourage readers to use the book as a starting point for discussionabout fears involving the dynamics of the stepfamily.

7 The subject of crossracial adoption has become much more controversial in theyears since these books were published. In Minnesota, for instance, the courtnow presumes that a child's best interests will be met by intraracial rather thaninterracial adoption. Children's books dealing with this aspect of adoption areyet to be published.

8 Mankato, Minnesota is in Blue Earth County. The 1991 statistics on sexualabuse in our county, compiled by Blue Earth County Sexual Assault Services,indicate that twenty-three cases involving sexual abuse (maltreatment) had beensubstantiated. Of these, 89 percent were perpetrated by males, 11 percent byfemales; 90 percent of the victims were female, 10 percent male. The most frequentperpetrators included stepfathers, brothers, uncles, friend/acquaintances, andbabysitters.

91 would like to thank Natalie Rosinsky for bringing this idea to my attention.

130 Suzanne Bunkers

10 More Fun With Dick and Jane is the first of the New Contemporary ReadingSeries, according to its publishers. It contains both formal and colloquial Englishand introduces 242 words not used in any previous primer program.

" The movies mentioned here, like the books cited above, reflect choices madeby our family. An interesting topic for another essay would be an analysis ofhow contemporary "little girl" films compare with "little boy" films in terms ofplot lines, family structures, and thematic emphases.

Works Cited *

Adams, Adrienne. A Woggle of Witches. New York: Scribner's, 1971.Belovich, Jean. "Preface." Making Re-marriage Work. Lexington, MA: Heath,

1987. xv-xvii.

Berger, Terry (and Miriam Shapiro). How Does It Feel When Your Parents GetDivorced? New York: Simon, 1977.

Blake, Quentin. Mrs. Armitage on Wheels. London: Collins Picture Lions Books.1990.

Bosche, Susan (and Andreas Hansen). Jenny Lives With Eric and Martin. London:Gay Men's Press, 1983.

Bridwell, Norman. The Witch Grows Up. New York: Scholastic, 1979.Brown, Marc. Witches Four. New York: Parents Magazine Press, 1980.Caines, Jeannette (and PatCummings). Just Us Women. New York: Harper. 1982.Carlson, Nancy. The Perfect Family. Minneapolis: Carolrhoda, 1985.Caseley, Judith. When Grandpa Came to Stay. New York: Morrow, 1986.Clifton, Lucille (and Thomas DiGrazia). My Friend Jacob. New York: Dutton.

1980.

Cole, Babette. The Trouble With Mom. New York: Coward-McCann, 1983.

Cooney, Barbara. Miss Rumphius. Viking Penguin Puffin Books, 1982.Delton, Judy (and Irene Trivas). My Mother Lost Her Job Today. Chicago:

Whitman, 1980.

Drescher, Joan. Your Family, My Family. New York: Walker, 1980.Einstein, Elizabeth. The Stepfamily: Living, Loving & Learning. Boston: Sham-

bhala, 1985.

* Author's Note: Names of illustrators or photographers are in parentheses following nameof author.

Nontraditional Families 131

Fanshawe, Elizabeth (and Michael Charlton). Rachel. Scarsdale, NY: BradburyPress, 1975.

Färber, Norma (and Trina Schart Hyman). How Does It Feel to be Old? NewYork: Dutton, 1979.

Froelich, Margaret Waiden. Hide Crawford Quick. Boston: Houghton, 1983.Gallant, Marc Gregory. More Fun With Dick and Jane. New York: Viking

Penguin, 1986.Girard, Linda Walvoord (and Judith Friedman). Adoption Is for Always. Niles,

IL: Whitman, 1986.

Goff, Beth (and Susan Perl). Where Is Daddy? Boston: Beacon Press, 1969.Greenfield, Eloise (and Carole Byard). Grandmama's Joy. New York: Collins,

1980.

Harper, Anita (and Christine Roche). How We Live. New York: Harper, 1977.

Hazen, Barbara Shook (and Trine Schart Hyman). Tight Times. New York: Viking,1979.

Hines, Anne Grossnickle. Grandma Gets Grumpy. New York: Ticknor and Fields,1988.

Irwin, Hadley. The Lilith Summer. Old Westbury, NY: Feminist Press, 1979.______What About Grandma? New York: Atheneum, 1982.

Isadora, Rachel. Jesse and Abe. New York: Morrow, 1981.

Janee, Judith A. (and Mariana Megale). It's Not Your Fault. Edmonds, WA:Franklin Press, 1985.

Jessie. Please Tell: A Child's Story about Sexual Abuse. Center City, MN: Hazel-den, 1991.

Jordan, MaryKaye (and Judith Friedman). Losing Uncle Tim. Niles, IL: Whitman,1989.

Kesselman, Wendy (and Barbara Cooney). Emma. New York: Harper, 1980.Klein, Norma. Mom, the Wolf Man, and Me. New York: Pantheon, 1972.Lamb, Michael. "Parental Behavior and Child Development in Nontraditional

Families: An Introduction." Nontraditional Families: Parenting and Child De-velopment. Ed. Michael Lamb. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum Associates,1982. 1-12.

Langner, NoIa. Freddy My Grandfather. New York: Four Winds Press, 1979.Lundgren, Max (and Fibben HaId). Matt's Grandfather. Trans. Ann Pyk. Stock-

holm, 1970. New York: Putnam's, 1972.MacLachlan, Patricia (and Ruth Lercher Bornstein). Mama One, Mama Two.

New York: Harper, 1982.

132 Suzanne Bunkers

Madler, Trudy (and Gwen Connelly). Why Did Grandma Die? Milwaukee: Rain-tree, 1980.

Mann, Peggy (and Richard Cuffori). My Dad Lives in a Downtown Hotel. GardenCity, NY: Doubleday, 1973.

Miles, Miska (and Peter Parnall). Annie and the Old One. Boston: Little, Brown,1971.

Morgan, Allen (and John Richmond). Daddy-Care. Toronto: Annick Press, 1986.Munsch, Robert N. (and Michael Martchenko). The Paper Egg Princess. Toronto:

Annick Press, 1980.

Nolan, Madeena Spray (and Jim LaMarche). My Daddy Don't Go to Work.Minneapolis: Carolrhoda, 1978.

Osborn, Lois (and Rodney Pete). My Dad Is Really Something. Niles, IL: Whit-man, 1983.

Pape, Donna Lugy (and Carol Nicklaus). Taffy Finds a Halloween Witch. Cham-paign, IL: Garrard, 1975.

Perry, Patricia, and Marietta Lynch. Mommy and Daddy are Divorced. NewYork: Dial, 1978.

Prokop, Michael S. (and Dennis McCullough). Divorce Happens to the NicestKids. Warren, OH: Alegra, 1986.

Robinson, Helen M., Marion Monroe, A. Sterl Artley (and Bob Childress). FunWherever We Are. Glenview, IL: Scott, Foresman, 1962.

Russell, Pamela, Beth Stone (and Mary McKee). Do You Have a Secret? Min-neapolis: CompCare, 1986.

Seuling, Barbara (and J. Ellen Dolce). What Kind of Family Is This? A BookAbout Stepfamilies. Racine, WI: Western, 1985.

Severance, Jane (and Jan Jones). Lots of Mommies. Chapel Hill, NC: LollipopPower, 1983.

Sobol, Harriet Langsam (and Patricia Agre). We Don't Look Like Our Mom andDad. New York: Coward-McCann, 1984.

Stinson, Kathy (and Nancy Lou Reynolds). Mom and Dad Don't Live TogetherAny More. Toronto: Annick Press, 1984.

Surat, Michèle Maria (and Vo-Dinh Mai). Angel Child, Dragon Child. New York:Scholastic, 1983.

Wasson, Valentine (and GIo Coalson). The Chosen Baby. 1939. Philadelphia,PA: Lippincott, 1977.

Waybill, Marjorie Ann (and Pauline Cutrell). Chinese Eyes. Scottsdale, PA: HeraldPress, 1974.

Nontraditional Families 133

Williams, Vera B. A Chair for My Mother. New York: Morrow, 1982.Wolkoff, Judie. Happily Ever After . . . Almost. Scarsdale, NY: Bradbury Press,

1982.

Wright, Betty Ren (and Betsy Day). My New Mom and Me. Milwaukee: Raintree,1981.

______(and Helen Cogancherry). My Sister Is Different. Milwaukee: Raintree,1981.

Zolotow, Charlotte (and James Stevenson). / Know a Lady. New York: VikingPenguin Puffin Books, 1984.