Family Relationships, Motherhood, Homosexuality, General & Miscellaneous Gay & Lesbian Studies, Alternative Families, Parents, Coming Out & Family Life

Zack's Story

Name: Zack's Story
Author: Carol Halebian
ISBN: 9780822525813

by Carol Halebian

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Overview

My name is Zack, and I'm 11. I live in New Jersey with my mom and Margie. I call Margie my second mother. My mom and Margie are lesbians--they fell in love with each other and have a relationship together. Sometimes kids say really mean things about gay people, and I know that some kids think that having lesbian mothers is strange. But I think we live the way every family does. When I'm not in school, I like to play baseball, go on picnics, and go in-line skating.

An eleven-year-old boy describes life as part of a family made up of himself, his mother and her lesbian partner.

About the Author, Carol Halebian

Keith Greenberg

Keith Elliot Greenberg covered the Cynthia George case for Geraldo At Large. He is a writer whose works include true crime and wrestler Ric Flair’s #5 New York Times bestselling autobiography, To Be the Man, for which Greenberg was the co-author.

Detective Vince Felber’s work on the Jeffrey Zack case helped secure murder convictions at trial.

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Editorials

School Library Journal

Gr 4-7Another in a series on growing up in complex families, this full-color photo-essay is narrated by Zack, 11. His parents are divorced; he lives with his mother and her partner, Margie. His father lives within walking distance with his new wife and their baby. Zack feels lucky that, "My dad and my mom are still friendly. He's really cool, and never says ignorant things about gay people." Some of his friends do, though, and he has to confront this. He also dispels the myth that gay parents automatically have gay kids: "I'm not my mother. I'm me. I plan to get married to a woman and have my own family one day." Zack skates in the gay pride parade in New York City with his mothers (they walk), goes to Shea Stadium with his dad, is a regular kid. He calls Margie his "second mother" and says her parents "are like my grandparents." By the book's end, Zack has a second little sister, Margie's child by "a medical procedure, sort of like an operation, but not as complicated. When it was over, Margie was pregnant." In an appendix, artificial insemination is defined as a medical procedure in which "a woman becomes pregnant without any sexual contact." Ann Heron and Meredith Maran's How Would You Feel If Your Dad Was Gay (Alyson, 1991) is fictionalized, and its black-and-white line drawings are not as attractive. A useful addition.Nancy Schimmel, formerly at San Mateo County Library, CA