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Lucy Goes to the Country (Alyson Wonderland, $15.95)

John Canemaker and Joseph Kennedy talk about their children's book and their life together

What makes a family? Lucy Goes to the Country adds one definition: the loving familial bond between gay men and their pets. Bright, light, and cheerful, Lucy nevertheless ventures into new territory for children's books, and author Joseph Kennedy and his lover---the book's illustrator, animator John Canemaker--planned it that way.

"Joe and I have talked about doing a children's book for some time," says Canemaker from the Manhattan apartment the couple shares with the real Lucy, a friendly feline they rescued from the ASPCA a dozen years ago. "But we wanted to tell a story that made a statement."

Kennedy, a freelance writer, and Canemaker, one of the world's foremost authorities on animation history and chairman of the animation program of New York University's film school, settled on a moral that resonates with both of them. "Lucy's message is that there are all kinds of families," Canemaker says. "The definition of family has changed, and kids need to know that before they go out into the world today."

Lucy is drawn as a caustic kitty, for ever rolling her big yellow eyes and tossing off asides about her "two Big Guys," who in real life have been a couple for 26 years. In contrast to earlier gay-related children's classics like Heather Has Two Mommies, this straightforward story makes little of the fact that Lucy's "parents" are both men. When the pair are shown in bed together, it's from a cat's-eye view, with only two pairs of feet sticking out from under the covers. Then it's on to more important matters, like chasing dogs.

"We didn't want to obscure the nature of the gay relationship in the story," Kennedy says, "but we didn't want the whole book to be about it either. John has done a wonderful job showing that the guys are in a caring, committed relationship in a way that's accessible for kids."

While Lucy is meant for a wide audience, Kennedy wrote with a particular readership in mind. "There are more and more gay people with children," he says. "We wanted to do a book their kids could identify with but that kids from a straight family could enjoy too."

Both Kennedy and Canemaker (and presumably Lucy) believe in choosing one's own family "There's room for all kinds of family units," Canemaker says. "Whether it's a mother and father and 3.2 kids or two guys and a cat, a family is about love. That's the whole point of our book, and that message is aimed at adults as well as kids."

Pela is the Arizona ails correspondent for National Public Radio.