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Mechanics' Institute

Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection

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Cover of Families, a Coloring Book.

Cover image from Open Library.

Image source

Families, a Coloring Book

Creator

Michael Willhoite

Date

Published 1991

Format

Book

A Michael Willhoite coloring book that presents many family structures, including two mothers and two fathers.

Many kinds of familiesTwo mothersTwo fathersAdoptionDisabilityColoring books
Contact About AccessBack to catalog

Overview

Families, a Coloring Book is a 1991 Michael Willhoite title published by Alyson Wonderland / Alyson Books. Open Library records the book as a 32-page paperback with ISBN 9781555831929, and an ERIC-hosted bibliography lists Families: A Coloring Book as an Alyson Wonderland resource. The collection record describes a many-family coloring book with single, divorced, adopted, small, extended, two-mother, and two-father households, as well as a father with a disability. Its importance is not the challenge history of Willhoite's better-known Daddy's Roommate, but the way it turns early gay-family and family-diversity representation into an activity-book format for children.[1][2][3][5][4][7]

Many-Family Coloring Book

The collection record describes the book as a coloring book showing many family structures: single, divorced, adopted, small, extended, two-mother, and two-father families. That breadth is central. The title does not isolate same-sex parents as the only subject; it asks children to encounter many kinds of households through pages they can color. This places the item in the collection's activity-book and family-diversity line.[1][2][5]

Willhoite Beyond Daddy's Roommate

Michael Willhoite is most often remembered through Daddy's Roommate and Daddy's Wedding. Families, a Coloring Book adds another dimension: it shows Willhoite making family diversity participatory, not only narrative. That distinction matters for researchers because the item helps reconstruct the range of Alyson children's publishing, from controversial picture books to lower-cost activity books aimed at children and classrooms.[2][7][5]

Resource-List Circulation

The ERIC-hosted bibliography lists Families: A Coloring Book with Alyson Wonderland, Boston, 1991, and describes it as pages to color featuring a variety of families. That resource-list evidence is modest but useful. It shows the book's circulation in an educational and bibliographic context, which is different from review-driven reception but important for children's-book access.[5]

Alyson Early-1990s Cluster

The item belongs with nearby Alyson records from the same period. Gloria Goes to Gay Pride also appears in 1991, A Beach Party with Alexis follows in 1993, and Daddy's Roommate anchors Willhoite's better-known gay-parent picture-book work. Read together, these records show Alyson's early children's publishing as more varied than a single title: Pride story, family story, coloring book, and social-context object.[8][9][2][7]

Timeline

  1. 1990Daddy's RoommateWillhoite's Daddy's Roommate appears as a major early Alyson gay-parent picture-book anchor.[7]
  2. 1991PublicationOpen Library dates Families by Michael Willhoite to 1991.[2]
  3. 1991Education BibliographyAn ERIC-hosted bibliography lists Families: A Coloring Book as an Alyson Wonderland title.[5]
  4. 1991Gloria Goes to Gay PrideGloria Goes to Gay Pride appears in the same Alyson children's-book period.[8]
  5. 1993A Beach Party with AlexisAlyson Publications issued another story-coloring book in the same activity-book lane.[9]
  6. 2005Alyson ContextPublishers Weekly later described Alyson's role in gay and lesbian publishing history.[7]

Willhoite / Alyson Context

The item sits between better-known Willhoite gay-parent picture books and Alyson family-diversity activity books.

1990

Daddy's Roommate

Willhoite's major early gay-parent picture-book anchor.

1991

Families, a Coloring Book

The collection item.

1996

Daddy's Wedding

Later Willhoite / Alyson family title.

Explore Connections

Browse direct links, shared themes, and nearby publication dates.

Linked records

Activity-book pair

A Beach Party with Alexis

Both items are early 1990s coloring or activity books connected to Alyson and to child-facing LGBTQ family representation.

References [2][9][1]

Willhoite anchor

Daddy's Roommate

Daddy's Roommate is Willhoite's best-known early gay-parent picture book; Families, a Coloring Book shows the same creator working in participatory family-diversity form.

References [2][7]

Willhoite family title

Daddy’s Wedding

Both records connect to Willhoite and Alyson's early gay-family publishing network, though one is a family-diversity coloring book and the other a wedding story.

References [2][7]

Same-year Alyson context

Gloria Goes to Gay Pride

Both titles appear in 1991 within the Alyson children's-book environment, connecting Pride representation with family-diversity activity-book form.

References [8][2]

Shared themes

Two fathers

My Family, Your Family, Our Family

A community coloring book representing lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender parent families.

Adoption

Families Like Yours and Mine: Volume 1

A coloring and activity book about adoption and same-sex-parent family life.

Adoption

Families Like Yours and Mine: Volume 2

A coloring and activity book about two adoptive families with same-sex parents.

Adoption

Fostering and Adoption (Let's Talk About)

A photo-illustrated nonfiction book for children about fostering and adoption, with local evidence of same-sex adoptive-parent language.

Nearby dates

Published 1991

Athletic Shorts

A young adult sports-story collection with LGBTQ family, AIDS, award, and challenge-history contexts.

Published 1991

Belinda's Bouquet

A body-acceptance picture book in which Daniel's two mothers help Belinda understand that bodies, like flowers, need different kinds of care.

Published 1991

Bonjour, Mr. Satie

A Tomie dePaola picture book read here as coded gay-uncle representation through companion language and Stein-Toklas allusion.

Published in English 1991

Else-Marie and Her Seven Little Daddies

A Swedish alternative-family picture book whose English edition broadens the collection's many-kinds-of-families context.

Citation

Families, a Coloring Book. Michael Willhoite. Alyson Wonderland / Alyson Books, 1991. Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection, Mechanics' Institute. Collection ID: KB-107.

Showing Plain text citation format.

Sources

Cover image from Open Library.

  1. Tarpey-Schwed catalog seed record · catalog
  2. Open Library ISBN record for Families · library metadata
  3. Open Library book page for Families · library metadata
  4. Internet Archive record for Families by Michael Willhoite · archive catalog
  5. ERIC-hosted bibliography with Families: A Coloring Book · education bibliography
  6. Wisconsin Light PDF with Alyson children's-book promotion · periodical
  7. Publishers Weekly context on Alyson and gay and lesbian publishing · trade context
  8. Open Library ISBN record for Gloria Goes to Gay Pride · library metadata
  9. Open Library ISBN record for A Beach Party with Alexis · library metadata