GAY PEOPLE'S CHRONICLE

JUNE 26, 1998

Evenings Out

Lucy has

two daddies

In this children's book, the little one is a cat

Lucy Goes to the Country Written by Joseph Kennedy Illustrated by John Canemaker Alyson, $15.95 hardcover

by Harriet L. Schwartz

Recent news confirms that the battle over gay-related children's books in public libraries continues. Most recently, a Baptist minister in Texas attempted to keep Heather Has Two Mommies and Daddy's Roommate out of circulation by checking them out, then "losing" them and attempting to pay for them, instead of returning them.

However publicity in the town's newspaper magnified local interest in the books, forcing the library to obtain extra copies, which several people donated.

Anti-gay forces have another book to battle since Alyson Wonderland released Lucy Goes to the Country this-June, which is Gay and Lesbian Book Month.

Written by Joseph Kennedy and illustrated by his partner John Canemaker, the book tells the story of a cat who lives with two gay men. But Kennedy says the nature of the book may delay any potential backlash.

"There is a level of subtlety to the book so I don't think [the gay content] is immediately apparent," Kennedy says. "I think you could make the argument, perhaps not entirely persuasively, 'What do you mean this is a book about homosexuality? No, it's a book about a cat, and it's told from the cat's point of view.'

Lucy Goes to the Country is a vividly illustrated book that follows the story of Lucy the cat as she travels to the country with her "two Big Guys." Children will follow Lucy's funny encounters with birds, guests, and a dog, while adults will catch a second level of humor.

Both Kennedy and Canemaker say that the children's books they most admire are those that offer a strong story for children and an equally compelling tale for adults. Author Kennedy said he used fun-sounding words like baba ganoush (which of course a lesbian couple in the book brings to a picnic) to make the text appeal to children.

While the more subtle adult jokes seemed to come naturally for Kennedy and Canemaker, they had to work harder on the essence of their children's story. They agree that their editors offered important guidance.

tor, claiming an Academy Award for the HBO documentary You Don't Have to Die and a Peabody Award for the CBS documentary Break the Silence: Kids Against Child Abuse. He is also a renowned authority on animation history and has written several books on Disney animation.

Canemaker's artistry as an animator influenced the process that he and Kennedy followed in developing their book.

"There was a criticism that it took too long to get to the country," Canemaker says. "And then when he got to the country there were these bucolic scenes of Lucy wandering around the flowers. I even had this dream sequence that she wanted to fly so much, like the birds, that she sprouted butterfly wings and was flying up in the air. But it was a little too slow, had a little less action. So we went back and re-did it and got to the country faster and had one thing happen after another. I think it's much more lively and fun now, probably more interesting."

Canemaker is an award-winning anima-

"We actually created a storyboard, like it was an animated film," he says. "I have a corkboard that we would pin animated sketches on and then we would work with the pictures, as opposed to the image, and then we would move things around as you would for an animated film. So there was flow to it."

Kennedy is a public relations consultant and writer, who previously directed public relations for BBC Worldwide Americas. He is also a trustee of the National Academy of Television Arts and Sciences.

However, Kennedy's more distant background as a schoolteacher may have been the most relevant resource as he wrote the text for his first children's book.

"It was a little bit difficult, figuring out the right voice, how to tell the story," Kennedy says. "Originally, it started out as a third-person story, but I didn't like that so then we came to the first-person where Lucy

is narrating the story. I think that works very well.

"We came up with one storyline which was a lot about the cat and her relationship with the two guys and not a lot about her going to the country. When we discussed it with our editors, they suggested bringing more plot line into it, more action. We went back to the drawing board, literally, and it evolved into the story wee have now which I think work very well."

Kennedy and Canemaker, partners of 26 years (the two men share a New York City apartment with Lucy), agree that working together wasn't always easy. “It was fun, it was challenging," Kennedy says. "We had some difficult times working together, but I think that would be the case in any collaboration. In some ways it was good because we could talk about it all day and all night. So it

wasn't jus

· KAAR..

John Canemaker, left, and Joseph Kennedy with Lucy.

LUCY

COES TO THE

COUNTRY

something we did as a

project, it became part of our lives. John was always making little sketches and saying, 'How does this look,' 'How does that look.' It was a very fertile, creative time."

Kennedy and Canemaker have ideas for future Lucy stories as well as other children's books. However, in the short term they are both working on other projects and will gauge response to Lucy Goes to the Country before beginning serious work on a second children's project Kennedy and Canemaker believe that the book is positive and will garner mostly enthusiastic reviews, however they also expect some backlash.

"I think times are changing," Canemaker

says. "It's different than when Leslea Newman bravely published Heather Has Two Mommies.

(Based on her experiences, Newman said if the authors are lucky, "Rush Limbaugh will mention it in fundraising letters, Pat Robertson will hold it up on television, and Newt Gingrich will read it on the House floor.")

"But you never know, Canemaker added. "There's still a lot of stuff going on. There's always struggle about freedom of speech and I'm sure it will continue on even with this charming, innocuous book."