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And Tango Makes Three ISBN: 9781847381484
Cole, Henry, Parnell, Peter and Richardson, Justin
Published by Simon & Schuster Childrens Books, 2007
Set in Central Park Zoo in New York City, this true story of a gay penguin family is heart-warming and quite lovely. We meet first a number of the other animal families in the zoo - monkeys, toucans, and tamarins, etc., and then we meet the penguins. It is explained that every year the boy and girl penguins start to 'notice' each other, make nests and raise a family. But two penguins, Roy and Silo, are both boys. They do everything together, just like the other couples, but their attempts at nest-building and sitting on a rock as a substitute for an egg come to nothing. An understanding keeper at the zoo notices their problem, and having an extra egg from two penguins who can only manage to raise one chick at a time, he puts the egg in Roy and Silo's nest. The two fathers promptly do all the right things - sit on the egg to keep it warm and wait for it to hatch, which it does. The baby is named Tango 'because it takes two to make a Tango', says the keeper, and Roy and Silo look after their baby just like the other families. Tango flourishes and becomes, with her two fathers, one of the sights of the zoo. This is a splendid story, told beautifully and with delicate illustrations to match.
Age: 4+