By John Mack Freeman
Classic children’s book Heather Has Two Mommies by Leslea Newman has been updated with new illustrations to make the book more contemporary and accessible to a new generation of young readers.
A playful picture book about a little girl named Heather and her two happy mommies was a cultural and legal flashpoint 25 years ago, angering conservatives over the morality of same-sex parenting and landing libraries at the center of community battles over placement in the children’s stacks.
Today, Heather – of “Heather Has Two Mommies” – has a lot more company in books for young kids about different kinds of families, but hers was out of print and seemed visually dated. That’s why creator Leslea Newman decided on a new version, updating the look of her watershed story with fresh illustrations from a new artist and tweaking the text to streamline.
There’s one big change, but you have to squint to notice: Heather’s Mama Kate and Mama Jane wear little matching rings on their marriage fingers.
“I don’t specifically say that they’re married but they are,” Newman explained from her home just outside Northampton, Massachusetts. “I don’t know where I could have smoothly inserted that into the text. That’s not what the story is about. The story is really about Heather.”
