123: A Family Counting Book

Overview

123: A Family Counting Book is Bobbie Combs’s Two Lives Publishing concept book that teaches counting from one to twenty through scenes of children, parents, and pets in LGBTQ-parent families. The local catalog’s key point is that this pair does not first introduce a conventional mother-father family and then add same-sex-parent households as exceptions. Instead, the books center families with two mothers or two fathers as the ordinary world of the concept-book exercise. Two Lives later described the original idea as depicting children and their LGBT parents in a normalized way, with no issue plot and no struggle. That publishing intention connects the book to the broader early-2000s demand for family books where representation could be background, repetitive, and everyday. The item therefore matters as form: alphabet or counting instruction becomes family recognition.^[4][2][9][1]

Concept-Book Form

The book’s form is simple by design. It teaches counting from one to twenty while showing families with same-sex parents doing ordinary things. That makes the representation structurally different from a plot about coming out, prejudice, or family explanation. A child using the book is practicing letters or numbers while seeing two-mother and two-father households as the expected visual world. Teaching guides and family bibliographies preserve that use context. For the collection, the concept-book form is the interpretation: recurrence and normality do the representational work.^[4][1][18]

Exclusive Family Frame

The local catalog emphasizes that ABC and 123 portray two-mother and two-father families without first centering a traditional mother-father household. That is a sharper claim than simply saying the books are inclusive. The pair reverses the common many-families pattern, where LGBTQ families appear as one example among many. Here, LGBTQ-parent families are the whole frame for alphabet or counting play, which gives the books a distinct role in the collection's map of representation strategies and early-childhood materials.^[1][2][18]

Two Lives Intention

Two Lives Publishing later described the founding idea behind the alphabet and counting books: to depict children and their LGBT parents in a normalized way, without issues or struggles. Publishers Weekly's 2005 discussion of LGBTQ-family publishing quotes Bobbie Combs on reader desire for books that normalize the family rather than address it as the issue. Family Equality and other bibliographies show that this intention translated into practical reading-list use. The books belonged to a clear publishing strategy for families.^{[2][9][10][18]}

Creator And Publisher

Bobbie Combs’s own professional biography matters because she was not only the author. Her career includes children’s bookselling, distribution, marketing, website work, Two Lives Publishing, and children’s-book consulting. That background helps explain why the books are functional concept books as well as representation objects. WorldCat and publisher records stabilize the bibliographic trail, while Combs’s career context explains why availability, audience, distribution, ordinary family visibility, and practical classroom use were part of the project from the start.^{[10][11][2][21]}

Timeline

1. 2000 / 2001Concept-book pairBibliographic records place ABC and 123 around 2000-2001 from Two Lives Publishing.^[5][6]
2. 2001Local collection datesThe catalog records both companion books in the collection.^[1]
3. 2005Market discussionPublishers Weekly quotes Combs on demand for normalized LGBTQ-family books.^[9]
4. 2018Book Nook listingFamily Equality lists the companion books for early elementary LGBTQ-family reading.^[18]
5. 2010sEducator bibliographyFamily Equality lists the titles for early-elementary readers.^[12]
6. 2019Alphabet-book comparisonMombian identifies ABC as an earlier LGBTQ alphabet book when reviewing a later title.^[13]
7. 2020sBibliography afterlifeFamily and LGBTQ bibliographies keep the titles available as family-recognition resources.^[22][23]
8. 2025ABC revisionTwo Lives describes a revised ABC edition and publisher note.^[3]

ABC / 123 Companion Pair

The companion books use concept-book repetition to normalize LGBTQ-parent families.

Citation

123: A Family Counting Book. Bobbie Combs. Two Lives Publishing, 2001. Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection, Mechanics' Institute. Collection ID: KB-038.

Sources

Cover image from Two Lives Publishing.

1. Local collection catalog record for 123: A Family Counting Book · catalog
2. Two Lives home and publisher history · publisher
3. Two Lives page for ABC: A Family Alphabet Book · publisher
4. Two Lives page for 123: A Family Counting Book · publisher
5. Open Library record for ABC: A Family Alphabet Book · library
6. Open Library ISBN record for 123: A Family Counting Book · library
7. Google Books record for ABC: A Family Alphabet Book · library
8. Google Books record for 123: A Family Counting Book · library
9. Publishers Weekly, Diversity Breeds Controversy · trade
10. Bobbie Combs official site · creator
11. Children's Book Council Unscripted bio for Bobbie Combs · creator
12. Family Equality Book Nook list · bibliography
13. Mombian on LGBTQ alphabet books · commentary
14. Encyclopedia.com entry on Danamarie Hosler · reference
15. AllBookstores record for 123: A Family Counting Book · bookseller
16. AllBookstores record for ABC: A Family Alphabet Book · bookseller
17. Early Pride Matters teaching guide for ABC: A Family Alphabet Book · education
18. Family Equality Book Nook early elementary list · bibliography
19. WorldCat record for ABC: A Family Alphabet Book · library
20. Best Kids' Books entry for ABC: A Family Alphabet Book · bibliography
21. WorldCat ISBN search for 123: A Family Counting Book · library
22. Children's books with LGBT parents bibliography · bibliography
23. LGBTQ+ Family Coalition bibliography · bibliography