And Tango Makes Three

Author and Illustrator: Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell
BUY – And Tango Makes Three

Roy and Silo are in love. They swim together, dance together and sing to each other.

They don’t know that neither of them can lay an egg and that their only chance of a family lies in an act of kindness and a donor egg.

Based on a true story, the events in this book openly introduce children to a common occurrence in nature. In real life this pair were inseparable for six years.

Roy and Silo are Chinstrap penguins who live in Central Park Zoo.

As is the way of things, each year the boy and girl penguins start to notice each other and pair up to become couples. Roy and Silo are different than the other couples. They are both boy penguins.

They watched the other penguins building nests and collecting stones. They do the same. All seems perfect until they noticed that the girl penguins are laying an egg in each nest. Hope springs eternal! Selecting an egg sized rock they diligent sit on it for a month…but sadly nothing happens.

Their keeper who has been observing their dedicated efforts decides to give them a fertilised egg that needs care.

This heart warming story has a special ending as the penguins hatch the egg and become the fathers of Tango, a little female chick.

Roy and Silo teach Tango how to sing and swim and care for her until she is old enough to find her own mate.

This beautifully illustrated picture book highlights love and commitment in a relationship and the happiness that having a child brings.

Same sex families with adopted children or with a reproductive donor may find this book useful. It may also open discussion to understand other family models.

The first pages open this conversation by talking about the other animal families at the zoo who have a mom and a dad.

And Tango Makes Three is on several banned book lists due to the fearful belief that homosexual behaviour that is considered natural in animals, is unsafe moral content for humans.

For the record… “In 2005, Roy and Silo separated, after some six years of paired behaviour, with Roy remaining single. Silo found another partner, a female called Scrappy.”

The practice of allowing same sex penguin couples to adopt eggs has been repeated in other zoos around the world.