Daddy's roommate is the story about a young boy whose parents are divorced. His dad has a new roommate who lives with him and it is another man. His dad and his dad's roommate do many things together like sleep together, shave together, and sometimes even fight. The boy also spends time with his dad and his dad's roommate at the park, the zoo, baseball ball games, and many other fun activities. His mother told him that his dad and his dad's roommate Frank are gay. His mother explained what that meant to him. She explained that being gay is another kind of love and it makes his dad happy. If his dad is happy then he is happy too.
If I had read this book as a child, I may have been confused at first seeing a dad with another man. The book does a nice job of explaining what being gay means in a way that a child can understand. This is a tough topic to talk about with young kids depending on their backgrounds as well as explaining it in a way that they can understand. I would be a little hesitant about including this in my classroom library simply because some parents may have more conservative background and not feel comfortable with their kids reading books about this subject. I personally feel that this book explains homosexuality in a mature and easy to understand manner. Their are going to be students in my classroom from all different kinds of families and this book explains one kind. If a student with homosexual parents sees this book they may feel comforted by it.
I am hesitant to include this book simply because I would not want parents to complain, however I think that this topic is important for kids to understand. They do not have to agree or disagree with it, but just to learn that their are different kinds of families out there that may look different then their own. This book is for preK-2nd graders. I think learning about this topic at a young age may make children more aware and more accepting of homosexuality. Though it is a sensitive subject, children will need to learn about it sooner or later, so why not sooner.
I agree that children need to learn about the topic of homosexuality at a younger age. I think that this would eliminate some of the foul words like gay or faggot in a child's vocabulary when they really think that these words just mean stupid. I like the subject but am a little hesitant about how it is presented. This situation makes things very complicated because the story opens up a lot more questions. The little kid might ask, "well why does the boy have a mommy and a daddy?". I think the child would be confused that the dad was once married to the mom. I would definetely be hesitant about bringing this up to my class for the same reason that parents may complain.
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