Customer Reviews

Duke Who Outlawed Jelly Beans (Alyson Wonderland)

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I was so pleased to find this book!

Johnny Valentine writes light hearted children's tales which any child would enjoy. The characters of these stories are no different from any other story book and very subtly, all their parents happen to be gay or lesbian. This is done tastefully and without any mention of sexuality. A perfect opportunity to expose children, ANY children to the concept of same sex relationships, without it being a central focal point.

My own six year old loved the stories and never stopped to question the fact that one character has two mothers. I felt that this created the perfect building blocks of an open mind for my child. With most children's books portraying the stereotypical nuclear, heterosexual family, this book can add a bit of diversity to any children's library .

None of the stories have homosexuality as their main topic. None of the stories have sexual content at all. The stories are funny and moral and just nice kids' stories.

I highly reccomend this book to any parent looking to expose their child to alternative lifestyles in a gentle way. When we can recognize the people around us, in all their beautiful diversity, as the friendly characters from our childhood fairy tales, the world will truly be a more tolerant and loving place. For this reason, I highly reccomend this book to ANY parent

The Duke Who Outlawed Jelly Beans, by Johnny Valentine, is a collection of five original fairy tales: The Frog Prince, The Eagle Rider, the Dragon Sense, The Ogre's Boots and The Duke Who Outlawed Jelly Beans. Embedded within the stories are a cast of gay and lesbian characters.

In The Frog Prince, a little boy is adopted by two fathers. With this little boy's help, a frog becomes a prince again and is also adopted by the fathers. In The Eagle Rider, a young girl fulfills her dream of becoming an Eagle Rider whose job it is to watch out for dragons even though this is a privilege reserved for boys. In Dragon Sense, a young boy and his lesbian mothers are so poor they cannot pay the rent until the boy hears of an old treasure guarded by a dragon. The Ogre's Books tells a story of Little Jenny who is too small to do much, except save one of her mothers from the hungry giant ogre.

The final story is The Duke Who Outlawed Jelly Beans. When the Duke's parents go away an! d leave him in charge, the people of the village are devastated. Not only does he outlaw jelly beans, but anyone who does not have a mother and father is sent to prison. The children of this town see to it that they and their friends are not sent to jail. They strut about the town imitating the Duke and making silly speeches. Horses, for example, are forbidden to burp and pet goldfish have to be toilet trained. As the adults begin to think about these children's comments, they find it difficult to listen to and obey the Duke's speeches.

Many children and adults will find humor in Valentine's fairy tales. These stories are a humorous and needed addition to those which illustrate positive images of gay characters, including gay and lesbian parents. The illustrations are sparsely laid out in the book, but the text is full of imagination. Through the several color illustrations, various races are depicted. The stories do not focus on the gay and lesbian families, except for the! Duke who wants to imprison children who either have too ma! ny mothers or fathers, or not enough. This infusion of lesbian and gay people in peripheral positions in books for children is a refreshing change. These are truly stories for six- and seven-year-old children (and older) because they are not so much explanatory books as they are fanciful tales that all children should be able to relate to.