Super Power Baby Shower is a project I’ve been quietly been doing in the background for a while, and now they are printed delivered! Super Power Baby Shower is children’s book I co-wrote with Tobi Hill-Meyer. It is about a three parent family of superheroes inside a diverse and loving community. Janine Carrington brought our story to vivid life with her dynamic illustrations.
Roark flies, Nova can make fire, and Victoria can talk with her mind. Now, they’re also having a baby! At the baby shower, an urgent call comes in to Granny Awesome for help at the wolf sanctuary. The guests fly off to give their assistance and return to a wonderful surprise.
Photograph of a stack of Super Power Baby Shower books fanned out on a sunset colored carpet. The title is in bold yellow letters, with “Written by Tobi Hill-Meyer and Fay Onyx, Illustrated by Janine Carrington” in smaller white letters at the bottom. Below and on both sides of the title are a dynamic collection of fourteen characters who are all doing different things (most of them are smiling). The group is centered around a young child who is looking at the viewer. The is great deal of diversity present (include disability, diverse races, cultures, gender, sexual orientations, and ages).
Here are the details:
Super Power Baby Shower is part of a six book bundle published by Flamingo Rampant. This bundle is a collection of racially diverse books featuring LGBT2Q kids and families with celebratory, joyful story lines. There really aren’t enough of these kinds of books in the world and I am overjoyed to part of this project. Right now their website is being redesigned, but you can purchase the books here.
The other books in the bundle are:
- 47,000 Beads: a pow wow story of a 2 Spirit kid, and the beautiful community that coalesces to support that kid’s desire to live (and dance!) authentically.
- Bell’s Knock Knock Birthday: a birthday party counting book featuring a gender independent kid with sound effects, kids, and cake – together!
- Moondragon in the Mosque Garden: a mischeivous and magical story set at a community Eid celebration, featuring two gay dads and their twins.
- The Last Place You Look: a charming Passover Seder story of two lesbian bubbies and a lost afikomen that cannot be found.
- Rachel’s Christmas Boat: a Christmas story of a young girl who goes to great lengths to make the holiday wonderful for her parent who has come out as trans during Advent.
- I would also like to add that they now have one of these books available in Spanish (¿Es de Chica o de Chico?) and one available in French (Rachel et son bateau de Noel), both of which can be purchased individually.
Why a bundle? Bundling a book is a method used by Flamingo Rampant to center marginalized stories. Because the books are bundled, people don’t have the option of getting all of the books except the one about a Muslim family or all of the books except the one about a three parent family. I encourage everyone who can, to buy the bundle.
Of course, the downside of bundling is that it makes it harder for low income people to access these books (the bundle costs $100). However, Flamingo Rampant sells to a lot of schools and libraries. For example, the Seattle Public Library has purchased a bundle from Flamingo Rampant in the past and I am hopeful they will purchase this bundle as well. If you live near a progressive library I urge you to put in a purchase request for Super Power Baby Shower and the whole bundle (ISBN: 978-1-7750840-0-6).
Note: Because I am an author of this book I do have a limited number of copies of Super Power Baby Shower to sell. They are $20 each. Please let me know if you want one.
There are so many things we did in this book that I love! There is representation of disability and neurodiversity in addition to age, gender, sexual orientation, cultural, and racial diversity. The superheroes take direction from those they are helping, which is something that we both feel is really important to model. And Janine’s illustrations are funny and cute and just full of life.