From Publishers Weekly
This seriously flawed picture book blunders through a sensitive issue--the rights of homosexual parents. A boy is taken to the park by his "two moms," wanders over to the zoo where he meets a Zark (a sort of brontosaurus), discovers he's lost, and is picked up by Mr. and Mrs. McFink--ultraconservatives who go ballistic over his family's domestic arrangements: "It's wrong! It's a sin! Not at all how I think! / The only true family's a family like ours: / With a mom, and a dad, and two kids, and two cars." At last the Zark intervenes, routing the McFinks and reuniting the boy with his parents. Valentine's rhyming text is uneven and, highlighting as it does one of childhood's worst fears--being lost--has a nightmarish quality that's exacerbated by the weird proportions and skewed perspectives of Lopez's cartoonish illustrations. Lopez pictures McFink as a Jesse Helms lookalike, and just in case readers don't understand how rotten he and his wife really are (which would be difficult, given their perpetually nasty expressions), the McFinks are initially shown brandishing sharp instruments--although just exactly what they're doing at the zoo with an evil-looking nail file and a potato peeler is never explained. All in all, it's a mean-spirited, sniping approach to a topic that deserves thoughtful treatment. Ages 4-8.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From School Library Journal
Grade 1-4-A child is separated from his parents, two mothers, at the park and gets lectures from the well-meaning adults he turns to for help. There ends the basic story line, and there begins "the message," which looms over everything that happens. The first couple he meets are self-righteous bullies who think only a traditional nuclear family is proper. The next parents he runs into have several adopted children, are all-out liberal, and preach the acceptance of every kind of family as long as there is love. Appearing throughout is the Zark, a friendly creature who lives in the park zoo and helps the boy get away from the first couple (but whose main purpose seems to be to complete the forced rhyme of the text). The illustrations are more caricatures than pictures, and often look like reflections in the fun-house mirrors at a fair. They have a strange mixture of details, such as a large knife and potato in the hand of the self-righteous man, that have nothing to do with the story. The book's basic message is fine. However, the use of stereotypes; the forced, wordy text; and the exaggerated, grotesque illustrations corrupt the credibility of that message.
Nancy A. Gifford, Schenectady County Public Library, NY
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
Nancy A. Gifford, Schenectady County Public Library, NY
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.
