Daddy's Roommate

Daddy's Roomate is a perfect book for children that may not quite understand having gay or lesbian parents. I thoroughly enjoyed this picture book for many reasons. For children at a young age this concept might be hard to understand or they may be confused. The author does a wonderful job of using

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simplistic language so that a young child can understand. The author uses the voice of a child to reach the reader. For example, "My mommy and daddy got a divorce last year. Now there;s somebody new at daddy's home." This is a short and simple way to explain what is happening and can easily understood by the reader as well as easily explained. The illustrations also helped to tell the story. On each page they showed what the family was doing together. For example, when the little child was telling how they went to the grocery store and baseball game there were pictures to show both. The story goes on to tell that the "new roommate" is another man. The book gives the message to children that no matter who is with who if they love each other than that's all that matters.

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A book about a family who is a bit different than others. It is written in the young boys point of veiw and talks about his relationship with his father and his father's partner.

Hasn't aged well, since it was from the pre-gay marriage days. "Daddy's Roommate" would today be called "Daddy's partner" or "Daddy's boyfriend" without so much hedging. But valuable for what it was.

This is a great way to tech children about different sexual orientations.

This book is a great why to enlighten kids on families with same sex parents.

Review: A young boys parents get divorced and he observes his father having a roommate that is a guy. He positively discovers that gay marriage is another way of love by his mom.
Source: Pierce College library
Age: 4-6 (Topic is sensitive and could be confusing to younger children, shouldn't be

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taught in group setting.)

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Summary:
This contemporary fiction children’s book is written and illustrated by Michael Willhoite. This book starts off by a young boy giving his views of his mommy and daddy getting a divorce. This story takes a controversial ride when the boy explains how his father has a new relationship with

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his roommate frank.

Personal Reaction:
The simple picture design has a strong effect that a lot of children can relate to.

Classroom Extension Ideas:
1. I would use this book to teach children about the importance of not judging a book by its cover.
2. I would use this book to also teach children about non-traditional relationships.

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A story about a child having to understand that their dad has a male partner.

Age: 5, 6, 7
Source: ECE Classroom

I like this book because it talks about a difficult or confusing topic for children. This book is about a little boy's parents getting divorced and his dad then living with a man. I think the illustrations in this book are realistic and help the reader better understand the story. "Now theres

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somebody new at Daddy's house. Daddy and his roommate Frank live together." I like this line from the book because it shows how children might perceive two men living together originally. The book then goes on to explain that they are gay. The story is told in first person by the little boy, which I think is helpful to the reader. It helps the reader better understand and possibly connect to the story. When the little boy finds out that his dad is gay, he immediately accepts it without hesitation, which I think is extremely important. Homosexuality is a very sensitive subject and I believe it is very important to come off positive, especially in a children's picture book. "Being gay is just one more kind of love and love is the best kind of happiness." I absolutely love this quote and think it is a perfect example to be teaching children. The part of the book that I do not like is how the mother is portrayed in the text and illustrations. She comes off angry and annoyed. I believe this is inappropriate. This book demonstrates an important topic for all children to learn and understand and promotes acceptance.

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this book is about a child coming to terms with his father being gay and the new living arrangements

“Daddy’s Roommate” is a great read that deals with the changing dynamics of families in today’s society. This book is about a young boy’s mother and father who get divorced. The boy later finds out that his father is gay. The message of this story is that love is the most important thing

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in a family. The author makes his point in several ways. The book is told from the boy’s point of view which I think made the story extremely relatable to younger children. You can tell that the boy seems rather confused at the situation between his father and his father’s roommate but remains happy because they both love him so much. I think that it was good that the author used the word “gay” and didn’t try to dance around the subject which is what younger children need. Another way that the author helped conveys his message was by going through an average day of the father and his partner. By doing this and showing specific “normal” activities that they do together kids can see that being gay is “normal.” Also, by having the mother support her ex-husbands relationship it further helped shows that their relationship was nothing to be ashamed of. My favorite quote that supports the author’s message came from the boy’s mom to him when she said “Being gay is just one more kind of love.”

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This book was a good read. I think I mostly enjoyed it because of the concepts it discussed. I have rarely read children's books on gender roles, specifically a child with gay parents. I think it is an extremely important topic and felt this aided my enjoyment of the read. I liked the first person

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perspective of the little boy because it helped you to see his thought processes. After his parents got divorced and his dad married a man, the child viewed the activities as very normal. He describes home his "dad's roommate" was just like his dad and was actively involved in his life and all the trips they went on. He saw nothing wrong with their relationship. Again, I love seeing things through the eyes of the child. I also liked the conclusion of the book because it shows his mom discussing with him what being gay is and how he continues to enjoy his dad and his partner's relationship even after being exposed to the topic. I would say the main idea of the book is acceptance because the boy accepted the divorce of his parents and the different type of relationship his dad had and embraced it.

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“Daddy's Roommate” is a picture book that explains life with a gay father. I enjoyed the simplicity of this book, I think that is what made the point so clear. The book was almost dull for me to read because everything the child was doing was something children tend to do with their

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parent(s)/guardian(s), there was no surprise. The best part for me in the book was when the mom had to explain what was going on with Dad and his roommate. She basically states the main point of the book in one sentence, “Being gay is just one more kind of love.”. The main idea of this book is that although their relationship appears to be weird or different it is actually the same it just looks different from societies standards. Because this is the main idea, the simplicity makes sense. However, this bore me so I think that this book would be better for younger children to read alone.

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I enjoyed reading this book due to its storytelling perspective and main idea. This book is told from the son’s perspective which I really enjoyed. This makes the book very relatable to young children and shows them how other children may feel if in the same situation as the boy in the story.

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Also, I enjoyed that this book portrayed the relationship between the boy’s father and his father’s partner as a completely normal, healthy, and loving relationship. The main message of this text is that homosexual relationships are normal and full love as much as heterosexual relationships are.

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Daddy and his boyfriend (roommate) started to live and do everything together. Nick didn't know why they were living together and his mom told him they were gay, and then had to explain to him what they meant.

Age: 2-5

Source: Pierce College ECE

The boy in the story had parents in divorce, He lived with his dad, his dad have a friend live together. They were happy together even his daddy and his daddy's friend gay.
Age group 3-4
Pierce college library

This book addresses the concepts of same sex relationships and helping children learninmng to identify,cope and define them.

I think this is a somewhat okay book for children that describes homosexuality. The book tells the story from a child's perspective. Throughout the book the child describes all of the fun stuff that his dad and his "roommate" do. The couple do many normal activities, just like anyone else, and the

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child still loves his father and thinks it's great. The only thing I'm not sure about in this book is the fact that his fathers boyfriend is called a roommate.

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Personal Response: I enjoyed reading this book. I think it would be appropriate for older children as well, because older children are aware of the sociocultural context.
Curricular Connection: In a first or second grade classroom, children could read this book and then discuss their own families.

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Students could write a short story about the people they live with.

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Daddy’s Roommate is a short picture book describing the relationships between a boy and his gay father and his father’s partner, Frank. It is told from the boy’s perspective. The boy, whose tells us that his parents were divorced a year ago, spends time with his father and Frank taking part

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in fun activities as well as normal routines. Essentially the book is reinforcing the fact that a gay couple is as functional, responsible, and happy as a heterosexual couple. The book is not so much persuasive as it is informative. The illustrations are bold and colorful, but a little stereotypical. However, in this age of the Gay Rights marriage movement, it is an important book to any household.

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this book gives children an understanding about homosexuality and acceptance of divorce in families, and having same sex parents

In my opinion, this is a great book. I feel this way mainly because of the illustrations and the point of view from which the story is told. I feel that the illustrations made the wording on the pages come alive. Being that each page only had a few words on it, the pictures helped me to visualize

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what the little boy was going through when his parents got divorced, and the environment in which he lived with his father. In addition, the illustrations helped me to understand that homosexuals live just as ordinary a lifestyle as do heterosexuals. I feel the story being told in first person is also crucial to its profound meaning. I was able to see how the boy felt about Frank, and him living with his father, from his point of view. Often, the voices of children who live with homosexuals are rarely heard, so I felt it to be significant that the voice of the little boy in this story was. The message of this story is gay acceptance. It is important for adults and children to embrace the many different shades the term “love” appears in.

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I believe that the message of this story is that not all families are the same on the outside, but they don't need to be. No two families are the same, yet all families share a special, loving bond. It describes that "being gay is just one more kind of love. And love is the best kind of happiness".

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Although Nick's father has a new "roommate", the household is just as equally loving. The book remains positive throughout.

In my opinion, this is a good read for children of a wide variety of ages. The book discusses a very common situation that is only becoming more common in todays society, a child with homosexual parents. Whether two fathers (like portrayed in this book) or two mothers, the situation is far from the mainstream "normal family". I think that is why I did enjoy the book. The characters and the situation is very relatable to todays society.

I also really enjoyed the illustrations. The pictures are very colorful, bright, and framed. The illustrations are done in an almost water-color style that reminds me of a comic-book. The illustrations fit perfectly with the text. In fact, I believe that this story could be told with these illustrations as a wordless picture book. The pictures show exactly what is occurring, such as all the things that "daddy and his new roommate Frank" do together. These actions include sleeping together, shaving together, working together, and even fighting together. Just like the text, the picture remain positive throughout the story.

I believe that this story pushes the reader to put themselves in the shoes of Nick, the main character. His life changed when his parents got a divorce, yet he is still living a very positive life. The story teaches the reader about acceptance, that "gay is just another kind of love".

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Summary: The main character's parents got a divorce and his dad got a roommate. his dad and new roommate did everything together. The little boy spent the weekends with his dad and his roommate Frank. He found out that his dad and Frank were gay, but that they both loved him very much.

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Evaluation/Argument: This book did a good job of approaching the topic of gay marriage and divorce in the general sense. I don't think that the pictures added much to the text overall though. I think that if the illustrations were updated they would be able to add more to the text as a whole. The simple sentences will allow readers to easily follow along and understand the text though. This book could be more effective if from the start he told readers that his dad was gay and explained what that looked like in their family. It just sounds weird personally when saying that there was someone new in his dad's house. The author wrote that there was someone new in his dad's house at the beginning of the story. I liked the approach to this topic, but the organization could be done differently. For students who have never been introduced to this topic this book would be a good way to bring up the topic.
The central message of this book is that gay couples are still loving and should be accepted by all, especially any children involved. The children involved should always feel loved. As long as everyone in the relationship is happy that is all that matters.

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