Review: Uncle Bobby’s Wedding

Brannen, Sarah S. Uncle Bobby’s Wedding. Putnam, 2008.

There’s been a buzz about this new picture book for several months, which must be an indication of just how hungry we are for queer books for younger kids. And this one is clearly aimed at the youngest audience yet. The cast is sweet, furry, and non-threatening, and the text is easy enough that it could be read aloud to any two year old with a reasonably good attention span.

As a picture-book species, guinea pigs might just be more open-minded than mice, rabbits, bears, and — most certainly — humans. No one bats a beady eye at the prospect of Chloe’s Uncle Bobby marrying his boyfriend, Jamie. Instead, songs are sung, dances are danced, and tears of joy are shed at their garden wedding, attended by a small group of family and close friends. The wedding guests are as conventional-looking as guinea pigs dressed in clothes can be. The newlyweds are the only same-sex couple we see at the wedding, unless you count the cake-topper on their wedding cake. There may be just a hint of counter culture coming from the three rabbit band members who entertain at the reception after the wedding, all dressed in brightly colored Hawaiian shirts with their ears slightly askew, but that’s it.

Chloe injects the only bit of conflict into the story by saying to her mother: “I don’t understand! How can Uncle Bobby get married?” Her mother replies, simply: “Bobby and Jamie love each other. When grown-up people love each other that much, they want to be married.” It turns out that Chloe is merely concerned about losing Uncle Bobby’s attention and affection, a reasonable worry for someone her age, and one that’s soon put to rest by Uncle Bobby and Jamie taking her to the ballet, the soda shop, on a sail boat ride, and spending a quiet evening at home together, playing board games and roasting marshmallows. Uncle Bobby assures her that now she’ll have two special uncles, and he invites her to serve as the flower girl at their wedding.

I can’t imagine a more innocuous picture book about family diversity and yet this one is likely to raise the ire of would-be censors, just as And Tango Makes Three, Heather Has Two Mommies, and Daddy’s Roommate have in the past — even more so, perhaps, because of the story’s over-all sweetness and lack of conflict. Bobby and Jamie’s love for each other and their wedding is presented as the most ordinary thing in the world. Perhaps we have something to learn from guinea pigs.