Superheroic author doing it for diversity

Superheroic author doing it for diversity

A new children’s book about two gay dads and their young daughter has been released this month.

My Two Super Dads is the second in a series of books by Victorian writer Bronny Fallens and illustrated by Spaniard Muntsa Vicente.

Fallens, a single mother, found when she went looking for stories for her daughter, it was difficult to find any that reflected her life.

This set her on a path to write a series of books — My Super Family — about diverse families.

Fallens grew up with a gay father and said, initially, she felt closeted.

“When I felt comfortable and able to say, ‘My dad is gay’, I kind of came out myself, which was great,” she said.

She said she could then fully understand the courage behind her father’s coming out.

“He was born in 1936, in country Victoria. That was a different time. In the ’80s, he acknowledged who he was.

“In the ’90s, when I was a bit older and understood better, I felt very proud of him.”

Fallens insists that while My Two Super Dads features gay parents, the focus of the book, and the rest of the series, is “more about being loved, feeling safe and secure”.

“The message in the book is that this is just the way it is. “It is not strange or unusual. It’s fun, there is love, and that’s normal. Everybody’s normal is different.”

Fallens said she hopes the books will help children who feel isolated due to their family circumstances, to feel more confident about themselves and their families.

When comparing her book to the controversy surrounding the 2005 release of And Tango Makes Three — about a pair of male penguins raising a chick — Fallens recalled that when My Super Single Mum hit the shelves, the Family Council of Victoria’s Bill Muehlenberg commented, “The kids are too young to need to know about these minorities”.

She said she felt the comment was an insult to millions of mothers worldwide.

The production of the book is also unusual with Fallens and Vicente being an example of creative forces coming together in the modern age. The two have never met in person, but connected through an online artistic community in 2006.

They have created the entire My Super Family series by communicating in cyberspace. Fallens said other titles in the series will hit shelves soon, including My Groovy Gran, My Two Super Mums and My Rainbow Family.

INFO: My Two Super Dads is available in selected bookstores and online.

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