Kinship and the Queer Perversions of Six-Dinner Sid and Else-Marie and Her Seven Little Daddies: Imagine (Un)Doing Family

In recent years scholars such as Natasha Hurley and Kenneth Kidd have been calling for a broadening of queer-theorizing within the field of children’s literature beyond questions of identity and same-sex desire. In this paper, I draw upon Judith Butler, Michael Warner, and others to offer a queer reading of two picture books: Six-Dinner Sid and Else-Marie and Her Seven Little Daddies. Through an exploration of family and kinship within these texts, I show how reading perversely is a discursive tool that can destabilize dominant narratives and bring into play the potential for more inclusive and just processes of meaning-making.