If I Had a Hundred Mummies

Overview

If I Had a Hundred Mummies is an Onlywomen Press early-years picture book connected to the Out For Our Children resource network. The local record places it among titles about children with two mothers and mixed-race or visibly diverse households. OFOC describes a child imagining one hundred mummies before deciding she is happy with the two she has. The University of Worcester blog emphasizes the book's rhyme, comic excess, and usefulness for questions about two mothers. Its value is strongest as part of a small UK cluster rather than as a standalone landmark. Out For Our Children preserved the title in book-list and teaching-pack contexts, which makes the item useful for understanding how inclusive picture books circulated through parent, teacher, and advocacy networks. Read with Spacegirl Pukes and If I Had a Hundred Mummies, it shows a lighter domestic and comic idiom for two-mother representation after the more conflict-driven books of the 1990s.^[1][2][3]

Out For Our Children Context

Out For Our Children is central to this record. Its book list and foundation-stage teaching materials preserve evidence of how these titles were meant to be used with young children. The point was not only to own a story with two mothers, but to make that story available in nurseries, reception classrooms, family groups, and early-years discussion. This resource context helps explain why the collection should keep several modest Onlywomen titles together rather than judging each one in isolation. OFOC's origin as a parent and education network makes the teaching context part of the title's meaning, not a later accessory.^[2][3]

Onlywomen Press Cluster

Onlywomen Press gives the record its publication frame. The press appears repeatedly in this small group of early-years titles, including Spacegirl Pukes and If I Had a Hundred Mummies. That shared imprint is useful because it marks a UK route for family-diversity books at a time when many inclusive titles circulated through specialist lists and small publishers. The cluster shows an alternative to U.S. Alyson, Two Lives, and later mainstream trade publication. Onlywomen's lesbian-feminist publishing history gives these small books a broader print-culture setting.^{[2][4][8][18][19]}

Ordinary And Comic Domestic Mode

These books do not primarily argue for recognition through court cases, school disputes, or adult explanation. They use ordinary childhood situations: breakfast demands, a space mission interrupted by sickness, or comic imagining about too many mothers. That mode matters because it lets the two-mother household function as a setting for ordinary early-years comedy. The representation is visible, but the plots are about familiar child experiences. This gives the cluster a different tone from many earlier problem-centered records. That evidence keeps the record useful for researchers because it marks circulation, intended audience, and collection role rather than treating the title as a simple recommendation.^[2][3][7]

Resource-List Afterlife

The public evidence for these books is strongest in resource lists, teaching materials, bibliographies, and specialist recommendations rather than in large review journals. That afterlife should be treated as evidence, not as a weakness. Books for young children with same-sex parents often moved through communities that needed them practically. Their bibliographic traces show how families and educators found titles that could make lesbian-parent households ordinary within everyday reading. That practical afterlife is why several low-profile titles become powerful when read as a group.^{[2][8][10][17]}

Timeline

1. 2007PublicationPublic records and resource lists place If I Had a Hundred Mummies in the Onlywomen Press cluster.^[2]
2. 2000sOut For Our Children listingOFOC listed the title for early-years or primary audiences.^[2]
3. 2000sFoundation-stage teaching contextThe OFOC teaching pack used the cluster as classroom material.^[3]
4. 2000sOnlywomen clusterSpacegirl Pukes and If I Had a Hundred Mummies appear with the same imprint context.^[4][8]
5. 2007Resource publicationOFOC lists the title as a 2007 Onlywomen Press book for ages four to eight.^[2]
6. 2010sEducation discussionThe University of Worcester blog uses the book as an example for discussing difficult family questions.^[7]
7. Collection contextTwo-mother clusterThe item connects to the collection's two-mother classroom and incidental-representation records.^[11][12]
8. 2007Books for Keeps contextBooks for Keeps later placed the title among picture books valuing diverse families.^[17]

Onlywomen And Out For Our Children Cluster

These records show a UK early-years route for two-mother picture books.

Citation

If I Had a Hundred Mummies. Vanda Carter. Onlywomen Press, 2007. Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection, Mechanics' Institute. Collection ID: KB-091.

Sources

Cover image from Out For Our Children.

1. Local collection catalog record for If I Had a Hundred Mummies · catalog
2. Out For Our Children book list · education
3. Out For Our Children Foundation Stage teaching pack · education
4. Open Library work record for Spacegirl Pukes · library
5. Goodreads record for Spacegirl Pukes · reader_catalog
6. AbeBooks record for 2017 Spacegirl Pukes reissue · bookseller
7. University of Worcester blog on If I Had a Hundred Mummies · education
8. University of Worcester page on the Family Diversities Reading Resource · education
9. Books for Keeps list including If I Had a Hundred Mummies · review
10. Susie Day list of children's books with same-sex parents · review
11. Existing v3 record for Asha's Mums · internal
12. Existing v3 record for Flying Free · internal
13. Open Library record for Molly's Family · library
14. Women's Bookshop record for Want Toast · bookseller
15. Guardian obituary for Katy Watson · creator
16. Guardian Vanda Carter picture-book gallery · creator
17. Books for Keeps diverse families list · review
18. Lesbian History Group note on Onlywomen Press · publisher_context
19. Lesbian History Group note on Onlywomen Press · publisher_context
20. Gay's The Word record for the Spacegirl Pukes reissue · bookseller