My Maddy
$14.99 USD
Hardcover
Most mommies are girls. Most daddies are boys. But lots of parents are like my Maddy.
My Maddy has hazel eyes which are not brown or green. And my Maddy likes sporks because they are not quite a spoon or a fork.
The best things in the world are not one thing or the other. They are something in between and entirely their own.
Gayle E. Pitman, PhD, is a professor of psychology and women’s studies at Sacramento City College. Her teaching and writing focuses on gender and sexual orientation, and she has worked extensively with the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBTQ+) community.
She is the author of This Day in June, When You Look Out the Window, Feminism From A to Z, and Sewing the Rainbow. This Day in June was the winner of 2015 Stonewall Book Award – Mike Morgan and Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Award and Top Ten Title, ALA Rainbow List. In 2019, it was named as an 11 Most Frequently Challenged Books of 2018 List book by ALA’s Office of Intellectual Freedom.
She lives in California.
Violet Tobacco illustrates from her townhome in north Atlanta.
As a coffee enthusiast, she enjoys traveling her city to explore different cafes from which she can work. Having a background in theatre, she has translated her adoration for storytelling into illustration.
When taking it easy, Violet and her wife watch animated films and play video games in the company of their three grumpy cats and cloud-shaped pup. Violet has the great fortune to work with other creative individuals and create wild and whimsical worlds that help us better understand who we are.
I love the depiction of a non-binary parent. It is a very nice celebration of the relationship between a parent and child, each of them being as they are.
—Kiss the Book
Tobacco's crisp, richly detailed illustrations depict a parent and child moving through their days with warmth and love, snuggling and reading. Pitman's affirming text highlights the joy of in-between things—hazel eyes, sporks, sunrises, motorcycles ('It's not a car or a bicycle. It’s kind of both, and it’s something all its own') —gently illuminating the idea that people, too, can exist beyond categorization.
—Publishers Weekly
My Maddy is a heartfelt narrative that marries refreshingly unapologetic LGBTQ illustrations with text that many child readers will be able to relate to. This celebration of nonconforming parents is a nuanced and noteworthy addition to any home, classroom, or library.
—Booklist Starred Review
The latest in Pitman’s LGBTQ books for children introduces young readers to a parent whose gender identity and expression are ‘entirely fantastically their own’—not a mommy or a daddy, but ‘my Maddy….’ Such positive images of gender-nonconforming presentations are rare in children’s literature, making this a valuable addition to any school, public, or personal library for its engaging art and accessible representation for a wide age range…. Much needed in the landscape of family-oriented picture books.
—Kirkus Reviews
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