Cardiff mum inspires new children’s picture book which helps to normalise same-sex parenting
A Cardiff mum-of-two has been the inspiration behind a new children’s picture book which helps to normalise same-sex partnerships for children.
Emma Lane, mum to eight-year-old Lily and three-year-old Jac, was so concerned about the lack of children’s books which featured same-sex parents that she called upon close friend and author Phil Burrows to address the issue.
Although a Sci-Fi writer Wrexham-based author Mr Burrows took up the challenge and earlier this month published ‘Emily’s First Pet’ – the first in the ‘Emily and her Mums’ series.
Officially launched online at Amazon on November 9, the book became a bestseller in just a few hours of being launched.
The 49-year-old, who writes under the name P N Burrows and is also the writer behind the popular Sci-Fi collection ‘The Mineran Series,’ said: “Emma has two children from a same-sex relationship and has many times tried to find books which feature same-sex parents. There are a few out there but many of them focus on explaining same-sex relationships as opposed to just featuring them in the story.
“This new series ‘Emily and Her Mums’ deals with the fact she has two mums in a very matter of fact way. The aim of the books is to try and normalise same-sex parenting for children as much as possible.
“We live in a very liberal world and families come in all shapes and sizes and this should be reflected more in children’s literature.”
Miss Lane is delighted to see the new book in print and is now planning on approaching local authorities to get the book stocked in local schools.
She said: “I think Phil has done an incredible job with the book and I cannot thank him enough. Many of the books out there tackling the subject of same-sex parenting are extremely outdated. We don’t want to be reading books to our children that explain why someone has two mums or two dads – we just want to read stories which normalise same-sex parenting and Phil’s new book does this brilliantly.
“I for one certainly hope local education authorities start to rethink the types of books they have in their school library and I will certainly be encouraging my children’s school to stock Phil’s new book. Literature is a wonderful way to expose children to the world and having access to books such as Phil’s goes a long way to celebrating family diversity.”
As well as addressing same-sex relationships, ‘Emily’s First Pet’ is also a multicultural book and is printed using a special font which makes it easier for dyslexic children and adults to read.
The book, which is available to purchase online at Amazon, has been illustrated by Doug Lawrence and published with the support of Team Author UK – an alliance of professionals providing services to indie authors.
Each book in the series contains a secret website address which children can use to download uncoloured pages of the book, which they can then colour in.
For more information about author P N Burrows and the ‘Emily and Her Mums’ series visit https://emilyandhermums.co.uk. More information about his sci-fi novels can be found at https://pnburrows.com/ and authors looking for an author website can get in touch with Mr Burrows by email at [email protected] or by visiting https://novel-websites.co.uk.
