Narva- And Tango Makes Three- LGBTQ

[Caleb]

And Tango Makes Three tells the story of two penguins (Roy and Silo) who live in the zoo in Central Park in New York City. However, these two penguins are different from the rest of the animals in the zoo. Unlike all the other animals that are mommies and daddies. Roy and Silo are two male penguins who like living together and want to start a family just like all the other penguins that they live with. They start by trying to sit on a rock, however they obviously do manage to start a family through this method. It is then that the zookeeper decided to give them an extra egg that needed taking care of. Both penguins take turns sitting on the egg until one day, the egg hatches. It was then that Roy and Silo welcome Tango to their family and Tango makes three.
I thought this the illustrations were completely adorable. This is partially because I love penguins. However, the cartoon versions of the penguins were eye catching and cute. I also fell in love with all the characters of this book. The facial expressions of confusion amongst Silo and Roy when they cannot hatch a chick makes me sad for them, however when they eventually welcome Tango into their family, I burst with happiness for these two dads. Now the language is not very difficult and would be developmentally appropriate for second to third grade readers. However, I think that the message is one that is for all ages.
This book provides an excellent example of how a reader can use this as a mirror into their own lives. It is obvious that this book tackles LGBTQ issues. This can particularly provide a mirror to anyone who identifies with the LGBTQ identities. It teaches them that they too deserve to be happy and that even if you don’t fall into what society considers normal, you are special in your own right and all that matters are love. Love is love! It is for these same reasons that this book provides a window to those who have a lack of exposure to anyone who identifies with the LGBTQ community. It can exemplify to them that it does not matter the gender of the people who love on another, the point is that they love one another. While this book might not completely persuade every reader, I believe that it is like a starter window. It’s gives an extremely simplified glance into the LGBTQ culture.
One specific moment when I can use this book in my class is with my English classes. At the end of the year I like to do a mini unit where we analyze multiple examples of acceptance across media. This could be used as one of my examples that could lead to multiple discussions. Particularly, I could use this for a whole group discussion that could end with students identifying textual evidence over acceptance from the children’s book. A second way that this can be used is using small groups. I would give a copy of the book to each team and have them create a visual over how the theme of acceptance is present in the book. They then would have the opportunity to hang these around the room and then take a handout and create a hodge-podge sheet of information that each student can collect knowledge from the rest of the class.

Richardson, J., & Parnell, P. (2005). and Tango Makes Three. New York, NY, USA: Little Simon.