When Megan Went Away

Overview

When Megan Went Away is a 1979 picture book by Jane Severance, illustrated by Tea Schook. Shannon and her mother are living after Megan, the mother's partner, has left. Scholarly and specialist sources identify the book as an early, often first, English-language picture book to depict lesbian-parent family life. Unlike later affirmation stories about intact households, this book begins with separation and grief. Its place in the collection is therefore complex: it shows lesbian family life, and it asks a child reader to sit with loss, adult partnership, and repair. Its Lollipop Power publication history, contemporary bulletin trace, illustrator context, and 2023 Korean edition connect the book to feminist publishing, later recovery, and translation.^{[1][2][3][4][5]}

Early Lesbian-Parent Picture Book

The book's chronology is central. Scholarly and specialist sources commonly identify When Megan Went Away as an early, and often first, English-language picture book to depict lesbian-parent family life. It appeared ten years before Heather Has Two Mommies and before the larger 1990s challenge cycle. The wording needs care: the story centers a child, her mother, and Megan's absence after a breakup, while the dedication and later author context identify the lesbian-parent frame. The object is early, quiet, and historically exacting.^[6][3][7][8]

A Story About Separation

The book is not an intact-family affirmation story. Shannon and her mother grieve after Megan leaves, so the child's family appears through absence as well as presence. That makes the item emotionally different from many later LGBTQ-family picture books, which often reassure readers that a two-mother or two-father household is ordinary and stable. When Megan Went Away treats adult partnership, separation, sadness, and conversation as part of family life. Its rarity lies not only in who appears, but in what kind of story is allowed.^[9][2][3]

Lollipop Power

Lollipop Power gives the object a feminist publishing frame. Archive guides describe the press as a collective that published children's books against sex-role stereotypes, and the local catalog links When Megan Went Away to that larger effort. Mombian's retrospective adds the practical path: Severance encountered Lollipop Power books through a women's bookstore and wrote to the Chapel Hill address on the back. The book did not appear from a mainstream children's imprint adding a single inclusive title. It came from a feminist press building a different model of childhood, gender, work, family, and emotional life.^{[10][11][12][9]}

Limited Reception And Later Recovery

The public record suggests niche distribution, brief contemporary notice, and later recovery rather than broad challenge history. The Interracial Books for Children Bulletin listed the title in 1980, giving the object a contemporary trace soon after publication. Later library records, scholarship, archive guides, and retrospective articles do much of the work of keeping the title visible. That recovery pattern matters because the book's historical significance did not come with easy availability. The item shows how a book can be central to a field and still remain difficult to find.^{[1][13][6][3]}

Timeline

1. 1970Lollipop Power beginsLollipop Power develops as a feminist children's-book collective and press.^[10][12]
2. 1979PublicationWhen Megan Went Away is published by Lollipop Power.^[1][17][13]
3. 1989Heather appearsHeather Has Two Mommies later becomes the better-known challenged lesbian-family picture book.^[7][8]
4. 2010Scholarly interviewThomas Crisp's interview with Jane Severance becomes part of the title's scholarly recovery.^[6]
5. 2023Korean editionA Korean edition appears through Banwon.^[14]
6. 2020sLater recovery and translationRetrospective writing and a Korean edition show the title returning to public view after a long period of limited circulation.^[3][14]
7. 1980Contemporary bulletin listingThe Interracial Books for Children Bulletin listed When Megan Went Away among materials reviewed.^[4]
8. 2023Korean crowdfunding campaignBanwon's Tumblbug campaign ran from March 27 to April 26, 2023, before the Korean edition appeared.^[16]

Edition Trail

Related publication and object-history notes for this item.

Citation

When Megan Went Away. Jane Severance; illustrated by Tea Schook. Lollipop Power, 1979. Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection, Mechanics' Institute. Collection ID: KB-142.

Sources

Cover image from Open Library.

1. Open Library record for When Megan Went Away · library
2. Internet Archive scan of When Megan Went Away · library
3. Mombian retrospective on When Megan Went Away · article
4. Interracial Books for Children Bulletin, Volume 11, Issue 1/2 · web
5. Korean Publication Industry Promotion Agency record for the Korean edition · web
6. Thomas Crisp interview metadata for Jane Severance · scholarship
7. The New Yorker on early LGBTQ children's books · news
8. Jennifer Miller profile of LGBTQ children's picture books · scholarship
9. Local collection catalog record for KB-142 · catalog
10. UNC finding aid for Lollipop Power records · archive
11. Duke guide to Lollipop Power · archive
12. WUNC on Lollipop Power · news
13. National Library of Australia record for When Megan Went Away · library
14. Aladin record for Korean edition of When Megan Went Away · bookseller
15. The Center on Colfax, Big Mama Rag archival collections · web
16. Banwon crowdfunding page for the Korean edition · web
17. Google Books record for When Megan Went Away · library
18. ALA sample on LGBTQAI+ books for children and teens · professional