@ Christine Whelan: Ah, Belinda’s Bouquet! Now that you mention it, I remember that one from my preschool teacher days in the early 1990s. Very didactic but the right message. (And yes, it’s great to see same sex parents in a book where that’s not the blatant message.)

I’ve had the worst couple of days with my daughter. She was upset and didn’t want me to come into school because she was afraid people would say “mean things” about me. She’s in the FIRST GRADE, for pete’s sake! I didn’t expect that this would start for 2 or 3 years at least.

After talking about this in my blog, a friend pointed me in this direction. I’ve always been so careful to make sure that all of her dolls and books show variety in gender and ethnicity and family styles… and I realize that having a fabulous fat mother isn’t enough. I need some fat friendly books and movies too. I’m very excited to read some of these. And equally sad that the first two I looked up (“Starring Hillary” and “Hotter than a Hot Dog!”) are both out of print. Yes, I can get them used but it’s still sad. And then further saddened by the re-imaging of the last one mentioned.

For Catgal: While looking at another book on Amazon, it suggested “Dumpy La Rue” and it appears to be a pig boy who wants to dance. Might be a good one to check out.

@ SSarah: I’ve just ordered Big Momma Makes the World from the library — thank you.

@ bigmovesbabe: Nope, these books are not all new. I just happen not to have read Pinkwater. (It’s the other post that addresses chapter books, though, not this one.)

@ those of you mentioning fat animal characters: it’s an interesting thing when naturally-fat types of animals are anthropomorphized in picture books. The pig (Olivia), elephant (Horton), badger (Frances), and hippos (George & Martha) mentioned upthread are fat, it’s true, but I’m not sure that I find them to be especially FA. They certainly aren’t the opposite — they’re not anti-fat, they’re lovely. But I personally don’t find them to give any particular message about human fatness, or at least, I don’t find them to give that message to readers who aren’t looking for it already. (The two books in the top section of the post feature anthorpomorphized animals, but those books address fatpol blatantly.)

Of course they hated each other at first because each thought their way was the RIGHT way to be and they didn’t understand each other, but when they reconciled at the end they each learned to appreciate and even take on some of the others’ qualities.

Maybe 5 out of 10 then? :-)