Families

Overview

Families is the 1981 English family-diversity picture book by Meredith Tax, illustrated by Marylin Hafner. The local collection record identifies it as an early many-family book with a coded lesbian-family scene involving Susie, her mother, and her godmother. Public review evidence supports the broader many-family structure, while the local interpretation requires page inspection before stronger language. The item is especially useful because the collection also holds Familias, the 1998 Spanish Feminist Press edition. Together, the records show a work moving from an English first edition through feminist reprint and Spanish translation, while also entering classroom-access debates. The English copy should therefore be treated as an edition-chain anchor rather than a duplicate of the Spanish page.^[3][4][1][8]

English First Edition

The 1981 English edition begins the work's public trail. Open Library and Kirkus place Families with Little, Brown / Atlantic-Little, Brown, before the later Feminist Press and Spanish-language editions. That first-edition context matters because the title was not originally a Spanish translation object or a Feminist Press title. It began as an English many-family picture book from a mainstream publisher, then acquired new meaning as it moved through feminist reprint, translation, and classroom-access debates.^[3][4]

Many-Families Form

Families uses a survey structure rather than a single-problem plot. Kirkus describes Angie learning about varied households, while the local catalog identifies divorce, stepfamilies, adoption, single-parent households, and the Susie scene as part of the field. The form is important because it can include a lesbian-family reading without making that family the explicit center. The book's method is breadth: it asks children to recognize many household arrangements, and that structure creates space for both named and implied family differences.^[4][1][9]

Coded Lesbian-Family Reading

The local catalog's reading of Susie, her mother, and her godmother is important but must remain carefully phrased. The record reads the scene as an implied lesbian-parent household, while public sources do not state that interpretation as directly. This makes the book valuable precisely because it shows how early family-diversity titles could work through implication, image, and alternate labels. The coded reading belongs in the public record as a local collection interpretation, not as a claim that the text explicitly names lesbian motherhood.^[1][4]

Classroom Access

The Fairfax controversy gives Families a later institutional history. Reporting from 1994 describes disputes over using the book in school settings, and related censorship notes place the title within adult concern over children encountering family-diversity materials. That context matters because a broad many-family book still became contested when placed in classrooms. The item therefore connects ordinary picture-book form to school governance, parent objection, and the professional question of how children’s books move from shelves into instruction.^[5][6][13]

Timeline

1. 1981English editionFamilies appears in English from Little, Brown / Atlantic-Little, Brown.^[3][4]
2. 1981Review recordKirkus reviews the book in the year of publication.^[4]
3. 1994Fairfax debateNews reports document controversy over classroom use of Families.^[5][6]
4. 1996Feminist Press reprintOpen Library records a Feminist Press reprint of the English book.^[7]
5. 1998Spanish editionFamilias appears from Feminist Press.^[8][9]
6. 2008Hafner rememberedBiographical sources record Hafner's career and death context.^[12]
7. 2022Tax rememberedThe Nation publishes an obituary and appraisal of Meredith Tax.^[10]

Families / Familias Trail

The work moved from English first edition to feminist reprint and Spanish translation.

Citation

Families. Meredith Tax; illustrated by Marylin Hafner. Little, Brown / Atlantic-Little, Brown, 1981. Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection, Mechanics' Institute. Collection ID: KB-071.

Sources

Cover image from Open Library.

1. Local collection catalog record for Families (1st ed. hardcover) · catalog
2. Existing v3 record for Familias · internal
3. Open Library ISBN record for Families · library
4. Kirkus review of Families · review
5. Virginian-Pilot/AP report on Fairfax use of Families · news
6. Washington Post local report on Fairfax materials debate · news
7. Open Library ISBN record for 1996 Families reprint · library
8. Open Library ISBN record for Familias · library
9. Google Books record for Familias · library
10. The Nation obituary for Meredith Tax · news
11. Poets & Writers directory entry for Meredith Tax · creator
12. Encyclopedia.com profile for Marylin Hafner · creator
13. Feminist Press censorship note · publisher
14. Open Library record for Heather Has Two Mommies · library