I've been looking for multicultural books to collect and someday have in my own classroom library. They are not that easy to find, but there are definitely good ones out there! King & King & Family is a great one that explores same sex parents in a way that it's just normal. Too often, society makes assumptions that families are created by one mommy and one daddy. The story creatively challenges those assumptions by starting out with King Lee and King Bertie, who have just gotten married and both they and their families are celebrating. They then get ready to go on their honeymoon to the wild to see some jungle animals. They run into and meet so many, and King Bertie gets a bit afraid of the crocodiles. He also even keeps a travel journal documenting their trip. Finally, they fly back home from their adventures, but to their family's surprise, they brought home a little girl to adopt from the country they were visiting. King Bertie and King Lee are so excited to be home to start their new family with their princess. This is classified as an easy to read picture book for children ages 4-8.
Not only does this expose children to the different kinds of families that exist amongst their peers, authors Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland do it in such a subtle "this is normal" kind of way. The plot is not about a same sex couple. The story is about an adventure a newly wed King & King took and all the different kinds of creatures they meet along the way. In an elementary school classroom, there is no need for teachers to go into detail about same sex marriages and even sex ed. Children at this age simply need to be EXPOSED to the different kinds of mommies, daddies, and families out there; and consider them all normal! The child in the classroom that do have same sex parents would be relieved to see another family that looked like his or hers.
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