Author Arnold Lobel, who lived wh AIDS, picted his beloved characters Frog and Toad as gay, acrdg to his dghter Adrianne" emprop="scriptn
Contents:
- ARE FROG AND TOAD GAY? AUTHOR'S DGHTER SPEAKS UP
- ARE FROG AND TOAD GAY? BELOVED CHILDREN'S BOOKS WERE 'THE BEGNG OF COMG OUT' FOR AUTHOR ARNOLD LOBEL, DGHTER SAYS
- APPLE TV+ SAYS GAY RIGHTS, MAK FROG AND TOAD SHOW
- THE GAY HISTORY OF AMERI’S CLASSIC CHILDREN’S BOOKS
ARE FROG AND TOAD GAY? AUTHOR'S DGHTER SPEAKS UP
More than 45 years after we first learned that Frog and Toad Are Friends, Arnold Lobel's dghter, Adrianne, has suggted that Frog and Toad are gay. The late thor me out to his fay 1974, four years after he published the first of his… * are frog and toad gay *
More than 45 years after we first learned that Frog and Toad Are Friends, Arnold Lobel's dghter, Adrianne, has suggted that Frog and Toad are gay. Are Frog and Toad Gay?
Lobel's dghter Adrianne – who illtrated two of the late thor's books after his ath – suggted to The New Yorker that the pair may have been gay. Rowlg Has Perfect Rponse to Cric of Gay Dumbledore. Apple TV+ Says Gay Rights, Mak Frog and Toad Show.
” 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.
ARE FROG AND TOAD GAY? BELOVED CHILDREN'S BOOKS WERE 'THE BEGNG OF COMG OUT' FOR AUTHOR ARNOLD LOBEL, DGHTER SAYS
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. They get to scrap separately but get out of them together, which is not a bad fn of left: Jam Marshall, “Gee and Martha, ” urty of Houghton Miffl Harurt; Arnold Lobel, “Frog and Toad are Friends” © 1970 Arnold Lobel, ed by permissn of HarperColls Publishers; Jam Marshall, “Miss Nelson is Missg!, ” urty of Houghton Miffl HarurtOur boys loved the stori, as did we — but not bee Lobel was gay. They ntued to make books together for years: a Frog and Toad tale if ever there was, Lobel’s gayns, when I learned of much later, seemed like somethg I should have known all along; lurked everywhere his words and pictur.
Which is not to say Frog and Toad uld turn you gay. They suggted, no ls to as gay parents than to our sons wh their polar personali, how separatens uld bee solidary and oddns acmodatn. However d the books’ gay ntent, was no surprise once d.
APPLE TV+ SAYS GAY RIGHTS, MAK FROG AND TOAD SHOW
It’s also that all of their thors were gay. As if that weren’t enough, he referred to the gay muny, who took him as one of their own whether he liked or not, as “l boys.
Sss and Shel Silverste were prumably heterosexual, no matter that Silverste glowered om the photos on his book jackets like a hot Scff by permissn of HarperColls, urty of Children’s Lerature Collectn, UMNBut remas the se that the thors of many of the most succsful and fluential works of children’s lerature the middle years of the last century — works that were formative for baby boomers, Gen-Xers, lennials and beyond — were gay. At a time when those wrers wouldn’t dare (as Paola recently told me) walk hand hand wh a lover, when only a straight children’s thor like Silverste uld get away wh publishg a story Playboy about life the homophile En that is Fire Island P, they won Caltt and Newbery Medals for books that, whout ever directly speakg their tth, sent out a secret language that was somehow accsible to those who need to receive .
The works forted the proto-gay but also tenrized the proto-straight a way no other lerature ABOUT WHAT was happeng unr the ver of children’s lerature. The msage: Leave me alone wh my imagatn and I’ll be mt have lighted Sendak to know that, spe the ocsnal censorship kerfuffle, an Ameri terrified of gay fluence on children was vourg his ovre as fast as he uld whip up.
THE GAY HISTORY OF AMERI’S CLASSIC CHILDREN’S BOOKS
) While the Save Our Children csar Ana Bryant and the Foc on the Fay attack dog Jam Dobson were huntg down homosexual propaganda schools and stateho, Sendak and the others were hidg the one place no one bothered to look: on their children’s night this wasn’t a liberate strategy of subversn, wasn’t a cince eher. Photos by Joshua Stt; Tomie Paola, “Oliver Button is a Sissy, ” urty of Houghton Miffl Harurt But wrg om a gay perspective for the unr-12 set was tricky.
The first young adult novel to pict a homosexual enunter — John Donovan’s “I’ll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip” — did not e out until 1969; the first picture book to get near the word “gay” was Paola’s “Oliver Button Is a Sissy, ” 1979. Roughly enpassg the first 10 years of the morn gay rights movement, the books (and their thors) uld only dream of a world which “Lucy Go to the Country, ” by a male uple who announce themselv as such on the flap, would seem monplace, or which a picture book lled “Stonewall: A Buildg.
(“If beme known you were gay, you’d have a big red ‘G’ on your cht, ” Paola rells, “and schools wouldn’t buy your books anymore.