Daddy's Roommate

Willhoite, M. (1991). Daddy’s roommate. New York, NY: Alyson Books.

Bookspot.com’s Challenged Books List

In Michael Willhoite’s Daddy’s Roommate, a young boy recounts how his parents got divorced last year and that his father now lives with his roommate Frank.  He relates how they work, eat, sleep, shave, fight, and make up together.  He tells how Frank tells him jokes, catches bugs, reads to him, makes peanut butter sandwiches, and chases away nightmares with him.  On his weekend visits, the boy, his daddy, and Frank go to ball games, the zoo, the beach, shop, sing at the piano, and work in the yard.  At the end, he tells how his mommy explained that his daddy and Frank are gay and that being gay is just another kind of love, and love is the best kind of happiness.  The boy says that his daddy and Frank are very happy and that he is happy, too. 

This book features very kid friendly, colorful illustrations and short sentences.  Willhoite expertly tackles the controversial subject matter and puts it on a child’s level.  Whether you agree with the lifestyle or not, I think it is important that it talks about the difficult topic in a simple, childlike way for kids who are living a life similar to the book’s main character to understand.  In my research, I discovered that Daddy’s Roommate was one of the first children’s books to portray homosexuality in a positive light.  Challengers of the book objected that Daddy and Frank were doing all the things heterosexual couples do, and it was subsequently taken out of libraries in the 1990s to keep it out of the children’s hands.  I find it interesting that over two decades later this book is still on this list.  Whether it graces the shelves of our public school libraries or not, I am thankful that it is still out there, offering a tool for parents who need to talk to their children about this complex subject matter.