poly books and stories (also films) for children

Please read this first post before you comment (reason below)

3 points move me to create this thread:

a) There are polyamorous people on here with children.

b) I believe all revolutions are doomed to fail unless they can win over the younger generations. So much of children's culture - where it concerns love - is based on the ideal of a monogamous relationship. ("Happily Ever After" / all children in the stories are children of monogamous parents...)

c) I myself - without having children - write stories for them. [For me, children ("other people's children") are the most precious and important aspect of my life. And I take their literature very seriously. There is so much crap out there!] Although I haven't dealt with polyamory as such in my own stories (yet), I have tried to discourage that fairy-tale ending of "once you have found your one-and-true love, all your problems are solved" and the idea that - until you do find that one REAL love, you are unfulfilled as a person.

I would be intersted in any recommendations - and I can't think of any right now off the top of my head. (Added to which: I have to leave my Internet connection soon - until next week - and have other on-line stuff to deal with.)

Please indicate if the book, short story (in which collection? / can it be found in its entirety on Internet? give link) or film that you recommend presents an actual polyamorous situation in a positive light - code::):):) - has a definite feeling sympathetic to the ideals of polyamory - code: :):) - or is generally questioning (in a positive way) about stereotyped sexual roles - code (you guessed it!): :). In the last case, some explanation would be nice (e.g. "openly sympathetic to non-hetero forms of sexuality"). Please also indicate the target age-range.
 
Please read this first post before you comment (reason below)

Great thread topic and this statement really caught my eye. Do you believe that Poly is a revolution? If so could you start a thread on that so we don't sidetrack your original post?

Take care
 
Yay! Look, I can actually provide real information for once!

Love You Two, by Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli :) :) :)
for Young Adults (the protagonist is 16)

Excerpt from the first customer review on amazon.com: "Love You Two is the first novel from Australian academic and researcher Maria Pallotta-Chiarolli. When an average teenage girl accidentally discovers that her mother is polyamorous - she has a boyfriend in addition to her husband, and all three partners are open and honest about the situation - her rage and confusion drive her into a tale of self-discovery and personal growth, and triggers a chain reaction that brings down the many walls of secrecy among her family and friends."

I should also point out that I haven't read it, but I did hear about the book from the author herself. And an attempt to find books on polyamory for younger children on Amazon brought up books that argue against same-sex marriage and polyamory...my brain feels dirty....
 
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There are three books for younger children listed at http://www.polychromatic.com/kids.html. The reviews there are wonderful and I recommend that you take a look if you're interested, and the links to buy them are there as well.

Else-Marie and Her Seven Little Daddies by Gabrielle Charbonnet and Pija Lindenbaum :) :) :)
Amazon recommends ages 4-7

"Else-Marie and Her Seven Little Daddies recounts the day the seven little daddies get drafted to pick Else-Marie up from play-group..."

Six-Dinner Sid by Inga Moore :) :)
Amazon recommends ages 4-8

"Six-Dinner Sid is a happy cat that has six families in his life, none of who know about each other. He gets six dinners, he has six places to sleep, he's a happy cat, until..."

The Little House That Ran Away From Home :) :) :)
from Strange Stories For Strange Kids (Little Lit, Book 2) by Art Spiegelman
Amazon recommends ages 9-12

"This collection contains the story The Little House that Ran Away From Home, which definitely has a poly theme... "
 
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Else-Marie and Her Seven Little Daddies by Gabrielle Charbonnet and Pija Lindenbaum :) :) :)
Amazon recommends ages 4-7

"Else-Marie and Her Seven Little Daddies recounts the day the seven little daddies get drafted to pick Else-Marie up from play-group..."
I read another book by Pija Lindenbaum, "Mini Mia And Her Darling Uncle" (though I read it in Catalan), which gets a :) - It's about Mia coming to terms with her jealousy over her favourite uncle's new boyfriend.

The Princess Who Stood On Her Own Two Feet” by Jeanne Desy. :) :)
I read it in an anthology of feminist fairy tales, “Don’t Bet On The Prince” (edited by Jack Zipes), but it can also be found on-line at http://www.tallwomen.org/contents/princess.htm . I recommended this story on a polyamory thread on another web-site. It’s not strictly about polyamory, but it does deal critically with one of its characters who expects his fiancée to give up another (non-sexual but very dear and important) friendship.
Warning: there's a typo in both the Zipes book and on that web-site. One sentence reads: "[...]but she could not sleep without slippers and stole through the silent castle[...]". That should read something like: "[...]but she could not sleep without paying another visit to her dear friend. So she put on her slippers and stole through the silent castle[...]"
 
...“The Princess Who Stood On Her Own Two Feet” by Jeanne Desy. :) :)
I read it in an anthology of feminist fairy tales, “Don’t Bet On The Prince” (edited by Jack Zipes)...

I have much love for The Practical Princess, another collection of feminist fairytales, but sadly it's both out of print and models monogamous relationship styles, so doesn't qualify.
 
well i also love the stories of The Practical Princess, and really i am a big fan of childrean cartoons and movies and you did a great job here and thanks for sharing with us and in this forum i am very happy their is a large collection of children stories are available .
 
Okay, I'm going to have to check out some of these! The only one I've read is Six Dinner Sid...and it is a favorite in our house! Love that book! Okay, I'm going to have to say that I absolutely loved the ending. lol It's a spoiler, so if you don't want to know, don't read.

(spoiler)
So, my favorite thing about this book is that in the end, the book emphasizes that even though his old set of families said he had to change, his new set of families all talked to each other, so Sid can be Sid, and "because everyone knows...no one minds." Isn't this what so many people here stress? The importance of open communication, and not needing to sneak around to be yourself?
 
thank you, this thread is great! :)
i'm going to read something and translate for my daughter (while my son can read in english).

thanks again!

p.s. i finish telling "biancarosa e rosella" by Grimm in the poly-way:
the bear changed into a wonderful prince after the course was broken and he married both sisters that he loved so much :rolleyes:
i mean, who is this prince' brother coming up at the end, who has ever seen him?! why should rosella marry a perfect stranger while biancarosa keeps on flirting with the friend they hosted and enjoyed during the whole winter time?!! ;)
 
what a great thread! thank you for posting this. I will happily be looking into the above mentioned ones to read to my girls :)

you mentioned stereotyped sexual roles. might you also be interested in stereotyped gender roles? if so, there are some themes in the paper bag princess by Robert Munsch that might be relevant to what you are looking for. Its about a princess who rescues a prince, and then when she finally does realizes that her dignity is more important than the prince is and she runs off into the sunset by herself. The target age range is younger children...

as a side note, I think its great that you are writing stories that challenge (is that right word? i don't know) the dominant cultural idea of one true love solving all your problems. I wish you the best of luck in your writing :)
 
p.s. i finish telling "biancarosa e rosella" by Grimm in the poly-way:
the bear changed into a wonderful prince after the course was broken and he married both sisters that he loved so much :rolleyes:
i mean, who is this prince' brother coming up at the end, who has ever seen him?! why should rosella marry a perfect stranger while biancarosa keeps on flirting with the friend they hosted and enjoyed during the whole winter time?!! ;)
I like the idea of changing stories when we tell them to children. But children can be SOOOOOOOO conservative!
If they've already had the story read to them a few times in its usual way and you try to change a single detail, they often protest: "NO NO NO! That's not the way it goes..."
 
what a great thread! thank you for posting this. I will happily be looking into the above mentioned ones to read to my girls :)

you mentioned stereotyped sexual roles. might you also be interested in stereotyped gender roles? if so, there are some themes in the paper bag princess by Robert Munsch that might be relevant to what you are looking for. Its about a princess who rescues a prince, and then when she finally does realizes that her dignity is more important than the prince is and she runs off into the sunset by herself. The target age range is younger children...

as a side note, I think its great that you are writing stories that challenge (is that right word? i don't know) the dominant cultural idea of one true love solving all your problems. I wish you the best of luck in your writing :)
I'm in 2 minds about The Paper Bag Princess (Story by Robert N. Munsch; Illustrations by Michael Martchenko) Although the challenging of gender roles is excellent and it portrays a princess who can look after herself very well, thank you very much... it includes a cunning trap (set by the princess) which displays a dismaying lack of ecological awareness. (She tricks the dragon into burning 150 forests with its fiery breath, thus exhausting its fuel supply.) I've Googled it and it can be found (although I'm not sure that this is the whole text: there seem to be bits missing; also the wonderful illustrations are missing) at http://cculc.ccu.edu.tw/pdf/paper.pdf

To answer your original question:
might you also be interested in [challenging] stereotyped gender roles?
In general I'm VERY interested, but there are quite a lot of excellent stories doing that. [Have a look at the Zipes book just for starters. It contains 3 sections: stories for younger readers, stories for older readers, and essays about fairy tales. It also includes a bibliography where you can find LOADS of stories - and novels - that challenge stereotyped gender roles.] So - back to your question - in order not to swamp this thread with recommendations about challenging stereotyped gender roles, I'd like to keep it about culture for children that challenges stereotyped sexual dynamics (and hope that poly-friendly stories for children will be pointed out to me).

And thanks for the side note!
 
I like the idea of changing stories when we tell them to children. But children can be SOOOOOOOO conservative!
If they've already had the story read to them a few times in its usual way and you try to change a single detail, they often protest: "NO NO NO! That's not the way it goes..."
yes :D that's it!
when my kids were very young they asked me many times to invent a story and next they were asking me to repeate them word by word!

concerning that Grimms tale i quoted as changed by me in the final part, well... i somehow "asked" to my kids something like:
"don't you agree with me that it's not nice that the prince is obliged for morality to chose one and leave the second one to a kind of stranger to her?! the prince same says for hte whole story that he loves both sisters who are so kind and generous and beautiful.."
well, in italy i'd say: ho giocato sporco...:rolleyes: that doesn't mean cheating, really.

with Pinocchio by Collodi often i absolutely had to "translate" while reading to the kids the original text changing or omitting some very heavy sentences born from our severe Middle-age :rolleyes:
but this has nothing to do with the main thread.
 
No, no... just playing dirty!
:D ok, i try to recover... :D :
yes, i do not want to hide certain "things" to my kids (well, they are no more kids, they both passed their 11th birthday now), but, in general, i don't even want to "form" completely their ideas in a direct, theorical way: they SEE me in my life, i think that's more important than LISTENing.
what i'm trying to say is that i often try to give them the opportunity of knowing (so that they'll be able to chose at a certain point) suggesting clever solutions instead of strongly despising their opposite.
sameway, i did not give them a religious formation, but a spiritual pagan example; up to them in few years if to ask christian baptism or join bards in the North or anything else..

maybe it goes bit out of topic (but if i have it right it doesn't), but i re-discovered this song (that i vaguely reminded from my childhood)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qkNhaRtAFTE
and it's another different example of lovingchosing :)
 
well, in italy i'd say: ho giocato sporco...:rolleyes: that doesn't mean cheating, really.
No, no... just playing dirty!
For those of you who don't understand Italian, I want to point out that I wasn't criticising neegoola (wouldn't dream of doing so). I probably should have added a:), a;), a:p, or a:D to make that clear. She wrote "i'd say: ho giocato sporco". That translates as "I've played dirty". Then went on: "...:rolleyes: that doesn't mean cheating, really." I was just sharing the joke.
 
i worked a bit in telling my kids that the original version of Cinderella really seeded the sense of sacrifice within women till amputating parts of their body.. you remember it?:mad:

"Cinderella made more catastrophes than Mother Mary" i heard few weeks ago coming out from a christian woman mouth. i think i agree.

umpf...sorry, today i don't have any positive proposal, just bit of nihilism for undirect constructivness..(does this word exist?!)

I was just sharing the joke.

p.s. mrFFR, for me everything was clear from your first exlamation mark "no, no, just playing dirty!" :)
 
Raf and the Robots poly kids' book

Could I also raise awareness of an excellent poly kids' book by my partner Sarah called Raf and the Robots?
Her website is http://storiesforuniquefamilies.com

It's not a book about Polyamory per se, but a story of a boy who can't get his busy family to read his book at the moment he wants to - and then learns that all he has to do is wait a moment. It's set in an unlabelled family of 2 women and a man, which could be a poly family or a blended family, or a couple with a donor or surrogate.

A preview is available here: http://www.amazon.com/Raf-Robots-Sarah-J-Corner-ebook/dp/B00NL6PLTU
 
Alas I don't know of any poly-friendly kids' books.
 
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