The Roos, a Home for Baby
David Baker
Published 2005
Book
A Lulu picture book about two Daddyroos adopting a Babyroo and finding a way to carry the child.
Overview
The Roos, a Home for Baby is a 2005 picture book by David Baker, publicly recorded by Open Library and bookseller metadata as a Lulu Press title. The local catalog describes a story in which two Daddyroos adopt a Babyroo, then seek a practical way to carry the child because male kangaroos do not have pouches. Its public trail is smaller than that of many trade-published collection items, but the record is still useful. It shows how early 2000s family-diversity stories moved through self-publishing channels, using animal figures and adoption plots to imagine two-father family formation for young readers.[1][2][3][4]
Adoption As Practical Care
The local description gives the story a clear practical center. The Daddyroos want a child, adopt a Babyroo, and then face the problem of how to carry the baby without a pouch. That problem is modest but revealing. The story turns family formation into a sequence of care tasks rather than an abstract debate about legitimacy. For young readers, the family becomes visible through what the adults do after adoption: ask for help, adapt, and welcome the child into ordinary bodily closeness.[1][2]
Animal Allegory And Two Fathers
Animal-family stories can soften social questions without erasing them. Here, kangaroo bodies make the parenting question concrete: the fathers need another way to hold their child. The device is narrower than a broad many-family book, but it gives the title a distinct place in the collection. It asks how two-father adoption can be represented through a child-readable image of adaptation. That makes it a useful companion to later and more fully documented family-formation books.[1][4][3]
A Self-Published Family Book
The public record points to Lulu, which matters for collection interpretation. Many LGBTQ-family picture books were not issued through large trade publishers. Some circulated through small presses, community presses, or print-on-demand channels. The Roos belongs to that quieter publishing history. Its modest source trail is not incidental; it shows how families and authors used available tools to create books for needs that mainstream children's publishing did not always meet at scale.[2][3][4]
A Kangaroo Family Pair
The local catalog links this title to The Baby Kangaroo Treasure Hunt, another collection item using kangaroo imagery for a gay-parenting story. The pair gives the collection a small but concrete subtheme: animal allegory, adoption or family creation, and two-father representation. The Roos should therefore be read both as its own item and as part of a miniature cluster. That approach respects the thin public record while still making the object searchable and meaningful.[1][4]
Timeline
- 2005PublicationOpen Library records The Roos, a Home for Baby as a 2005 Lulu Press title.[2]
- 2005Bookseller metadataTextbookX gives July 1, 2005, Lulu.com, and ISBN details for the book.[3]
- 2010sChecklist circulationA family-resource checklist lists the title among picture books portraying LGBT parents.[4]
Known Record Trail
The record is supported by Lulu-linked metadata and family-resource bibliography evidence.
2005
Lulu Press title
Open Library and bookseller records preserve the ISBN and publisher.
2010s
Resource checklist
The title appears in a children's books checklist for LGBT-parent representation.
Undated
Collection copy
The held item adds plot evidence about adoption, the Daddyroos, and Babyroo.
Explore Connections
Browse direct links, shared themes, and nearby publication dates.
Linked records
The Baby Kangaroo Treasure Hunt, a Gay Parenting Story
Both titles use kangaroo imagery in gay-parenting or two-father family stories.
How My Family Came to Be: Daddy, Papa and Me
Both books belong to the collection's child-facing accounts of two-father family formation.
STORK M.I.A.
Both records sit near the print-on-demand and self-published lane of LGBTQ-family picture books.
References [4]
Our Subway Baby
The two titles can be compared as adoption stories, though they use very different visual and publication forms.
References [4]
Shared themes
Prism: Daddy and Papa
A periodical record centered on parenting, gay fatherhood, and adoption in LGBTQ print culture.
That's My Daddy and Pop
A two-father adoption story in a small companion set about how lesbian and gay parent families are formed.
The Advocate: "Gay Dad. Alternative Ways You Can Become a Father"
A periodical record about gay fatherhood and family formation in late-1980s LGBTQ journalism.
Families, a Coloring Book
A Michael Willhoite coloring book that presents many family structures, including two mothers and two fathers.
Nearby dates
And Tango Makes Three
A Simon & Schuster picture book based on two male chinstrap penguins at the Central Park Zoo and the chick they helped hatch.
Antonio's Card / La tarjeta de Antonio
A bilingual Children's Book Press picture book about art, Mother's Day, and a child naming his two-mother family.
Emma and Meesha My Boy
A two-mother early-reader picture book in which family structure appears inside an ordinary pet-care story.
Koalas on Parade
An Australian Learn to Include early reader presenting same-sex-parent families through ordinary child activities.
Citation
The Roos, a Home for Baby. David Baker. Lulu Press, 2005. Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection, Mechanics' Institute. Collection ID: KB-041.
Showing Plain text citation format.
Sources
Image from Open Library.
- Local collection catalog record for The Roos, a Home for Baby · catalog
- Open Library ISBN record for The Roos, a Home for Baby · library
- TextbookX listing for The Roos, a Home for Baby · bookseller
- Children's Books Portraying LGBT Parents checklist · bibliography
- Open Library record for family-formation comparison titles · library