🟢 Book Review: And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnel
- Ethan Grafton
- Oct 1
- 2 min read
RATING: 🟢 Recommended
REVIEWER: Ethan Graftin
REVIEW METHODOLOGY: Louise Derman-Spark's Guide for Selecting Anti-Bias Children's Books from the Social Justice Books Project, Teaching for Change
And Tango Makes Three, written by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell and illustrated by Henry Cole, is a book following the true story of Roy and Silo, two male penguins living in the Central Park Zoo, Roy and Silo, who successfully raise a chick on their own after being given an egg from their keeper. While the book has almost no human characters, I still found myself incredibly engaged with the story, and that’s because the story itself is very human. It’s a story about the growth of a new family, shown through Silo and Roy raising a penguin chick.
The story’s overall message is that family units come in multiple forms, but that doesn’t make them wrong. The last line in this book puts it perfectly: “There they snuggled together and, like all the other animals in the zoo, and all the families in the big city around them, they went to sleep.” Tango’s family functions just as well as the other families they’re surrounded by; the “traditional” family doesn’t function better than Tango’s because it’s “the norm”, all families function as well as each other through the bond and love each member has for each other.
The artwork is cozy, and without going too far into the cartoonish, the art allows for some personifying of the penguins through facial expressions like smiles and excitement. The book is at a green light, and deserves to be on bookshelves for students to access. This is a real story that’s both charming and human, showing young readers that while a family may look different from their own, they are still just as capable and happy. What resonates with me about this book is how a story like this warrants a ban, because this story deserves to be shared. Children come from so many different backgrounds and familial units, and this book essentially tells them that their family is perfect, as is every other family. A reader with a “traditional” family can read this and gain a better understanding or appreciation for a family that looks different from theirs, while a reader from a family that’s “different from the norm” can read this book and become more confident and proud.
ABOUT THE REVIEWER
REVIEWER BIO: Ethan Grafton was a student at Portland State University and took Zapoura Newton-Calvert's Social Justice in K12 Curriculum course. Their volunteer work was a partnership with Reading Is Resistance and the Social Justice Books Project from Teaching for Change.
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