Prolific and honored children's book thor and illtrator Tomie Paola died today at age 85 after plitns followg a fall. Among his many works, DePaola, who was gay, wrote one of the earlit picture books to feature a boy who uld be read as queer and “didn’t like to do thgs that boys are supposed to do.” The book was based on his own childhood experienc.
Contents:
- REMEMBERG TOMIE PAOLA, THE GAY CHILDREN’S BOOK AUTHOR WHO PATED CATHOLIC TAL
- THE GAY HISTORY OF AMERI’S CLASSIC CHILDREN’S BOOKS
REMEMBERG TOMIE PAOLA, THE GAY CHILDREN’S BOOK AUTHOR WHO PATED CATHOLIC TAL
Though he was married briefly to a woman the neteen-sixti, Paola was gay, and a special sensivy to the plight of the socially margalized unrgirds his work. In 2019, The New York Tim published a feature on “The Gay History of Ameri’s Classic Children’s Picture Books, ” and noted that Oliver Button was the first picture book to e the word ‘gay’ when was published 1979. In the article, Paola acknowledg the stigma that would have surround him if he had e out as gay earlier life:.
“If beme known you were gay, you’d have a big red ‘G’ on your cht, and schools wouldn’t buy your books anymore. Dpe his great succs and universal populary, was not until 2019 that DePaola me out as gay.
THE GAY HISTORY OF AMERI’S CLASSIC CHILDREN’S BOOKS
Explag why he had taken so long to do so, he told the New York Tim magaze that, for much of his reer: “If beme known you were gay, you’d have a big red ‘G’ on your cht... ” It’s about a t who liv wh two gay men; you n tell by the book, then jt published, was evintly meant to help normalize already borgly normal fai like ours by g the tradnal substutn of animals for people orr to illtrate how much fun havg gay dads n be.
) And if you stopped to thk about , “Lucy” seemed to argue that the gay dads, however full of fun, were aquate: When the pa chips were down, they need rcug, too.
Among gay-themed children’s stori, they preferred “Frog and Toad. ” No, I know: “Frog and Toad” — a seri of four picture books by Arnold Lobel, origally published between 1970 and 1979 — is not gay-themed. But ’s not not gay-themed eher.