Freeda the Frog and the Two Mommas Next Door by Nadine Haruni, with illustrations by Tina Modugno; Herndon, Virginia: Mascot Books © 2020; ISBN 9781645-433859; 30 pages; $14.95
SAN DIEGO – Nadine Haruni, a member of the Jewish community, helps children navigate real-life situations. One book in the Freeda the Frog series talks about parents divorcing. Another deals with blended families of different races and religions. A third addresses moving to a new school or neighborhood. This one deals with a child who has same-sex parents, Irene and Morgan.
Freeda’s tadpole children are Frannie, Frank, and Jack whose school friend Jessica invites them to play at her lily pad home. Amid playing such games as trying to catch the biggest fly with their tongues, they meet Jessica’s two mothers. When asked, “Where’s your dad?” Jessica replies “No dad! Just two mommas.”
When they got home for dinner, the children asked their mother Freeda and father Samson whether it was wrong to have two mammas. Samson responded:
“No, it’s not wrong at all, just different than our family. Parents are parents, and isn’t it nice that not every family looks the same?”
Freeda comments, “You know how I love Samson. That’s how Jessica’s moms feel about each other. Love is love. No two families look alike.”
At their children’s urging Freeda and Samson invite Jessica’s family for Friday night dinner. The guests bring blueberry fly pie. The hosts offer them some fly water prior to them all sitting down to eat a frogafly stew.
In author Haruni’s imaginative world, other chef’s specialties are mosquito macaroons, dragonfly lollipops, and fly milk. Puns are toad-ally welcomed
Following the colorfully illustrated story there are games for human children to play. They are invited to add color to black and white outlines of frogs and tadpoles; find words relating to the story within a jumble of letters; color a picture of Freeda and glue her to a popsicle stick; and cut a bookmark from one of the last pages of the book.
There also are discussion questions such as “How would you make different types of families feel included?” and “Do you have any friends who ever felt left out because their family didn’t look like everyone else’s family?”
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Donald H. Harrison is publisher and editor of San Diego Jewish World.