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Mechanics' Institute

Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection

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Lots of Mommies cover.

Cover image from Wikimedia.

Image source

Lots of Mommies

Creator

Jane Severance; illustrated by Jan Jones

Date

Lollipop Power, 1983

Format

Book

A feminist small-press picture book about a child cared for by several women.

Communal familyFeminist children's publishingLollipop PowerGender rolesFeminist publishingJane Severance
Contact About AccessBack to catalog

Overview

Lots of Mommies is a 1983 Lollipop Power picture book by Jane Severance, illustrated by Jan Jones, about Emily and the women who help care for her. Its collection role is more subtle than When Megan Went Away. The book does not need to be forced into an explicit lesbian-parent category to matter. Instead, it documents feminist communal-family imagination: care, work, school recognition, and adult authority distributed across several women. That makes it valuable beside both Severance's earlier lesbian-parent picture book and the Feminist Press Dragon editions. The object asks a different question from later two-mother titles. It is less about naming a couple and more about whether a child can claim a family structure that classmates and teachers do not immediately understand.[1][14][7][9]

Communal Care

The book's central claim is that Emily's care is shared among several women. The local description emphasizes that each woman helps take care of her and has distinct skills, work, and forms of attention. That structure matters because it moves family representation away from a single couple model. Lots of Mommies asks whether a child can understand family through reliable care and belonging, even when peers and adults expect a simpler household category. The answer comes through action, not through definition.[1][14]

Careful LGBTQ Reading

Lots of Mommies belongs in an LGBTQ family collection, but it should be described carefully. The text does not appear to define the women explicitly as lesbian parents in the way When Megan Went Away names a mother's partner. Its importance lies in a lesbian-feminist publishing context and in a story of women-centered communal care. That careful wording lets the collection preserve nuance: not every adjacent feminist family text makes the same identity claim.[1][11][13]

School Recognition

The local plot summary makes the school scene important. Emily's classmates laugh at her claim that she has lots of mommies, but a later moment of care forces recognition that her family description is not fantasy. This is a recurring pattern in the collection: children know their family reality before institutions know what to call it. In this book, the question becomes whether school can recognize a caregiving network that falls outside the expected household script and social vocabulary.[1][7]

After When Megan Went Away

Published four years after When Megan Went Away, Lots of Mommies shows that Severance and Lollipop Power did not only produce one landmark text. The later book shifts tone and family structure, moving from grief after a partner leaves to a broader arrangement of adult care. That range matters for researchers. It shows Lollipop Power exploring family and gender roles through different emotional forms: loss, repair, ridicule, recognition, work, and community.[9][14][8]

Timeline

  1. 1970Lollipop Power foundedUNC records place Lollipop Power in a feminist children's publishing movement.[7]
  2. 1971Feminist Press first bookThe Dragon and the Doctor appeared in the early Feminist Press context.[2]
  3. 1979When Megan Went AwaySeverance published an early lesbian-parent picture book with Lollipop Power.[9][11]
  4. 1983Lots of MommiesLots of Mommies appeared as another Severance/Lollipop Power family book.[14][1]
  5. 1986Lollipop Power records closeThe UNC finding aid records the press's active period into the mid-1980s.[7]
  6. 2020sRetrospective recoveryRecent writing continues to recover early feminist and LGBTQ picture-book histories.[11][12]

Explore Connections

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

Linked records

Same author

When Megan Went Away

Severance's earlier Lollipop Power book gives Lots of Mommies a direct author and press connection.

References [9][14]

Small-press context

Lollipop Power

The Lollipop Power archive explains the feminist publishing context around the book.

References [7][8]

Feminist Press pair

The Dragon and the Doctor

The Dragon and the Doctor gives the cluster a related feminist-press origin story.

References [6][7]

Two-mother landmark

Heather Has Two Mommies

Heather later makes two-mother family representation explicit in a different publishing and access-history setting.

References [13][12]

Shared themes

Lollipop Power

Did You Ever?

An early Lollipop Power picture book challenging gendered expectations for children.

Gender roles

The Boy Toy

A late Lollipop Power picture book about a boy, a doll, and gendered rules around care.

Jane Severance

Ghost Pains

A young adult novel by Jane Severance about two sisters, their mother, alcoholism, and lesbian family context.

Lollipop Power

Martin's Father

A Lollipop Power picture book centering nurturing fatherhood and domestic care.

Nearby dates

Published 1980s

Jennifer Has Two Daddies

A children's book about a father and stepfather, useful here as a cautionary context record.

English edition 1983

Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin

A photographic picture book about a girl, her father, and her father's male partner.

First published 1982; local catalog records 1984

Annie on My Mind

A young adult lesbian love story with a major public record in school-library access and censorship history.

Published 1981

Families

The English family-diversity title that anchors the collection's Families / Familias edition trail.

Citation

Lots of Mommies. Jane Severance; illustrated by Jan Jones. Lollipop Power, 1983. Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection, Mechanics' Institute. Collection ID: KB-143.

Showing Plain text citation format.

Sources

Cover image from Wikimedia.

  1. Mechanics Institute local catalog record · catalog
  2. Feminist Press record for The Dragon and the Doctor · publisher
  3. Consortium record for The Dragon and the Doctor · distributor
  4. National Library of Australia record for The Dragon and the Doctor · library
  5. Open Library record for The Dragon and the Doctor · library
  6. Feminist Press history · publisher
  7. UNC finding aid for Lollipop Power records · archive
  8. WUNC feature on Lollipop Power · news
  9. Open Library record for When Megan Went Away · library
  10. National Library of Australia record for When Megan Went Away · library
  11. Mombian retrospective on When Megan Went Away · article
  12. New Yorker article on LGBTQ books for children · article
  13. Lumen profile on LGBTQ children's picture books · education
  14. CiNii record for Lots of Mommies · library
  15. KPIPA metadata for Korean When Megan Went Away · metadata
  16. Aladin hardback record for Korean When Megan Went Away · bookseller
  17. Aladin stapled record for Korean When Megan Went Away · bookseller
  18. Wikimedia Commons portrait of Jane Severance · image