There are MANY reasons we decided to self-publish/independently publish our book. Wildflower Books summed it up much better than I ever could have - check it out on their blog! It basically comes down to the five reasons listed in the attached graphic.

Below are some notes about each character!

Charlie

Charlize Maree "Charlie". was a true joy bringer to all who knew and loved her. That joy was infectious and changed us all. ⁠
⁠
Katy and Charlie had a special friendship and so it was important to Katy that Charlie was featured in this book. Charlie passed away a little over a year ago but there is still a hole in all of our hearts. We hope that we are able to help keep her memory alive by having her in our story.

The butterflies in the illustrations are a tribute to Charlie!⁠

Grandma Schanke

On the grandparents day page the woman in the front is Ruth Schanke—a wonderful mother to Julie, grandmother to Katy and Madi, and former wife and dear friend of Robert.

Shakti

Shakti was Katy's best friend when they were young! He really did help Katy out on the day there was a misunderstanding about her grampas …AND cheered when her grampa was introduced to the classroom.

Ava and Elise

Friends of Katy's in real life! Ava is the one running w arms out toward Katy and Elise is on the floor making the banner.

The Red Dress

Each of the girls wore the dress on their first day of kindergarten!

The Girls

When Katy was little and had a STRONG lateral lisp people had a really hard time understanding her. Madi, her older sister, would often have to translate what she was saying.

But that isn't fun to share so instead we are going to let you in on a little secret! We have added some Easter Eggs to the book.  Now some of you may not know what that means...An Easter egg can mean a hidden object hidden in a film, book, or another medium.  Our family loves to find them in books and movies and so decided to include them in our book.

We have included our own surprise on many of the pages...the class hamster - Fluffy rolling through the classroom and going on a bit of an adventure of his own...two examples are below.

We have created some bookmarks and coloring pages - here is one of the bookmarks that is based on the classroom poster with the book and the butterflies, see below - the bookmarks and coloring pages will be mailed to you when we send you the finished book.

Finally, We have also been talking to teachers and creating some lesson plans and fun activities to go with the book. One final fun thing we created - a coloring page to let children draw their own family!

The tradition lives on even 11 years after this article was published. Our family recipe was brought over from Norway in 1897 by Robert’s great grandmother. The recipe has survived over the years even as distance has separated the family. Read the IowaLife article to learn why this recipe is so important to our family!

Keep scrolling for our Family Recipe!

Our Family Recipe

Norwegian Julekake (Christmas Bread)

INGREDIENTS

For the Bread

2 cups scalded milk

1 cup butter (2 sticks)

1 1/3 cups sugar

1 1/3 TB ground cardamom seed (fresh ground is best)

1 TB salt

3 packets active dry yeast plus ¼ cup warm water

8 cups all-purpose flour

(flour amount is an approximation – may need a bit more or a bit less)

2 eggs beaten

1 ½ cups raisins

1 cup citron

Mix For the Glaze

1/3 cup sugar

1/3 cup boiling water

• Pour scalded milk over the butter, sugar, salt and ground cardamom, mix. Cool to lukewarm

• Proof the yeast – Dissolve 1 tsp sugar in 1/2 cup water (water should be warm to the touch, 100-110 degrees) add 3 packets of yeast to the sugar solution and let yeast bloom

• When milk mixture is cool, add well beaten eggs plus the prepped yeast

• Add 4 cups flour – mix well – beat until smooth

• Add remaining flour, citron and raisins – mix into the dough– gently mix until dough pulls away from sides of bowl

Pour onto a lightly floured board, knead for 5 Minutes. You may need to add a bit of flour if the texture is too loose. Cover with a damp cloth and let rise in a warm place until doubled in size – about 1 hour. (I raise the temperature in my house while making the bread – In the past the bread didn't rise since the house was too cold)

Knead lightly to remove gas, let rise 45 minutes more.

Divide loaves into 3 equal parts, place them into well greased round pans.

Traditionally we take a 2 inch round glass and punch it down in the middle of the loaf, then take a knife and cut deeply all the way around the glass. Remove glass

Preheat oven to 350 Degrees

Let rise for another 1 ½ hours – until doubled in size

Bake at 350 for 15 minutes, then at 300 for 45 minutes

Remove from pans and apply glaze while still warm

by Robert A. Schanke

Anyone searching for a children’s picture book that clearly features two gay grandpas will come up empty-handed, or at least confused.

Award-winning blogger Dana Rudolph has praised two recent children’s picture books that she describes “feature queer grandparents.” In the first book, David Hyde Costello’s Little Pig Saves the Ship (Orca Book Publishers, 2017) Grandpa and Poppy visit Little Pig, who is sad because he is too young to accompany his older siblings who are taking off for a week-long sailing camp. Trying to cheer him up, the two men show him how to make a toy ship. Eventually, Poppy takes Little Pig to a stream where they test out the new toy. When a gust of wind blows the ship into a fast current and over a waterfall, they try desperately to catch it. It is a fun story with charming illustrations. The relationship of Grandpa and Poppy, however, is unclear. Are they a gay couple? Or are they simply two grandfathers from both sides of the family? None of the text or dialogue provides an answer. In fact, after the first appearance of both Grandpa and Poppy, Grandpa is not seen again until the very end of the story, and then the two-page illustration has the two men seated in the background. Grandpa does not accompany Poppy and Little Pig on their adventure with the toy ship. If it were not for a short phrase in the text noting that the two men “came over that night” to see Little Pig, a reader might actually think that Poppy was Little Pig’s father and not grandfather. Both men have white hair and facial hair, but that does not mean they are both grandpas. 

No signs of any kind identify their relationship…

In spite of that, a reviewer of the book on Amazon.com warns parents that if they do not want “to introduce their child to LGBTQ stuff,” they should not pick this book and noted the “very subtle inclusion of two gay grandpas.” (Brittany, March 7, 2018) Another reviewer called it “a subtle LGBT-friendly read.” (Tasha Saecker, July 20, 2017) Indeed, so subtle that many readers may not have picked up on it. The book’s Library of Congress cataloging information adds to the confusion. It includes as subjects in the book: juvenile fiction, fathers and sons, brothers and sisters, and even pigs. The list of subjects in the book makes no mention of grandfathers nor of anything suggesting a gay relationship. 

In the second book, Grandad and Pops, the two men in Heather Smith and Brooke Kerrigan’s A Plan for Pops (Charlesbridge, 2019) are described by Rudolph simply as “a couple.” The text clearly identifies the two men as grandparents and that they live together. When their grandson Lou visits them on Saturdays, the three of them always have meals together, and they walk to the library. The rest of their day is usually spent playing with some tools in the workshop, listening to music, or retelling old family stories. One Saturday, Pops falls on the way to the library and is rushed to the hospital. When Pops returns home and learns he is pretty much confined to a wheelchair, he is “too sad to leave his room” and spends a lot of time “in his bed.” It is not identified as “their room,” nor as “their” bed, which would be standard terminology for a gay couple. Also, Pop has a single bed, meant for only one person. So, again, there is no sign of their being a gay couple. Pops does wear a T-shirt with the colorful rainbow on the front of it, but that does not necessarily define his sexuality as gay. 

One reviewer of the book on Amazon referred to Pops as a “great grandfather” and Grandad as Lou’s grandfather. (M. Square, May 9, 2019) Again, the Library of Congress cataloging information lists several subjects included in the book: families, juvenile fiction, grandparents, social themes. But once again there is no mention of anything suggesting any gay subject matter. Even Rudolph admits, “Nowhere is there any indication there are queer characters.” 

So why is there such lack of clarity, why such subtlety in featuring gay grandfathers?

Perhaps the vagueness is a remnant of the 1990s policy of “don’t ask, don’t tell” when it advised that LGBTQ military members not to disclose their sexuality for fear of being discharged. That policy lasted until 2011, and though it was intended specifically for the military, it has influenced the greater society. Even openly gay men tended to keep their personal lives private; they would not tell. So perhaps some authors of children’s books create their grandparents so they appear the way the grandparents of an earlier generation would have lived, trying to pass for straight. 

Of course, the amount of subtlety in the characters depends on the goal and mission of the author and what responses the author wants readers to have. In an email written by David Hyde Costello, he explained his goal: 

My personal agenda for portraying that relationship (in Little Pig Saves the Ship) was simply to create a world where it's totally normal and accepted that gay people exist in a child's world. So, it was subtle by design, but with a very deliberate intention. On a personal note, I am not gay, but grew up in the 70s and 80s in small towns in the Northeast where, even in progressive circles, homosexuality was treated as a punchline or a liability - in popular culture, and in person. I distinctly remember this being emotionally confusing when I was a boy, so I wanted to present a different and better picture for kids growing up today, whatever their own sexual orientation might be when they grow up.

The subtlety was intended, and the author certainly achieved his goal. The book is a charmer with the characters showing love and concern for each other. They enjoy being together and sharing their days. It is a loving, modern family, but not clearly gay.

Heather Smith has also explained her goal:

I never intended the relationship to be unclear. In fact, I think it’s quite obvious that Grandad and Pops are a loving married couple. It is never mentioned in the text because having the grandparents be Grandad and Pops as opposed to Grandma and Grandpa is inconsequential to the story. It just is what it is! 

And yet, keeping the gay identity of characters so disguised, so camouflaged, as they presently are in children’s picture books seems to limit the potential of the stories. Library media specialist Dan Liljedahl has emphasized that “in reading fiction we begin to see others, and that builds empathy. It is important for children to see themselves in the books they are reading.” We need some children’s picture books wherein the gay characters are more open about their sexuality, especially now that same-sex marriage is legal, same-sex couples can adopt, and discrimination in the workplace is prohibited. Since today’s gay grandfathers are experiencing these changes, the stories being written need to reflect them more openly. The sexual identity of these grandfathers and the lives they are leading should not be ignored.

The children who are read these books could benefit by seeing more full representation--families like theirs, and / or families of friends, and perhaps even people like themselves. 

The choice for an author who wants to create a children’s picture book with queer grandparents does not have to be limited to an either/or choice about the issues and challenges of being LGBTQ, or a story that ignores its existence. The new book Katy Has Two Grampas, written by Julie Schanke Lyford and her father Robert Schanke, reveals the experience of a first-grade girl with a lisp who is misunderstood by her classmates and teacher. When she talks about her two gay grandpas, (or “grampas,” as Katy says) she is frustrated when her teacher thinks she means to say “grandpa and grandma” and when other students tease her. Because she has such love for her gay grampas, she unexpectedly shines when introducing them as a married couple at a classroom celebration of Grandparents Day. The story does not conceal their sexuality, neither does it focus on it. To quote Rudolph again, “We need more books that show LGBTQ characters and their families but aren’t ‘about’ being LGBTQ per se. . . .  We need more books . . . which show LGBTQ families simply as a part of a wider world.” Katy Has Two Grampas does this.

Sources:

https://www.mombian.com/2019/05/02/dont-miss-this-picture-book-featuring-a-child-and-their-queer-grandfathers/

Continuity is the principle of making sure that all details are consistent from scene to scene.  This has been something we've had to really be aware of for our story.   Things like:

• The story covers three different days so the main characters need different outfits each day

• Speaking of outfits - being sure the details ON the outfits carried through from page to page

•  Keeping an eye on WHERE they were in the classroom and what should be on the walls 

I have attached a few examples below:

This is a time I have been VERY happy to have a theatre background, it has really helped me tell the story in pictures, not just in words.  

Thanks again for coming on this journey with us! - Julie & Bob  

(buttons are missing on the original image - Mariia added them in on the second image)

Written By Robert Schanke

Some readers of Katy Has Two Grampas may think that activism is a recent interest of my daughter, Julie Schanke Lyford, who is the co-author of our book. Not true. It began when she was only two years old!

On October 15, 1969, my then wife and I took her in a little stroller to the Bryant Park Moratorium Rally in New York City. This anti-Vietnam war rally was a national day of protest taking place in over 200 cities and included over two million people. The 40,000 protesters assembled at Bryant Park at 4:30 that afternoon held up their fingers with the peace sign, carried posters, waved banners, and cheered when inspired by Senator Eugene McCarthy, Shirley Maclaine, Helen Hayes, Mayor John Lindsay, Congresswoman Shirley Chisholm, and most notably, the Reverend William Sloan Coffin who had become a national icon of the anti-war movement.

    When it concluded, the crowd chanted and sang as they marched to Rockefeller Plaza for a candlelight vigil. Fearing they might be trampled by the energetic crowds, however, Julie’s parents returned home to New Jersey rather than participate in the vigil.

    What effect could this have had on little, two-year-old Julie? Naysayers would say none, that she could not have understood a word and was probably frightened by the noisy crowds. But I think otherwise. In some mysterious way, it was the catalyst for her years of activism.

     Now Julie’s children are standing up and making sure they are heard!  They made their own signs and went to the Minnesota Capitol to witness the passing of Marriage Equity in Minnesota!  (Photos Below)

I have been working with Mariia Luzina, a fantastic Ukrainian illustrator who currently lives in Pomigliano D`Arco,  Italy.  Its been a fascinating journey as we communicate exclusively via email and instant messages.  Luckily Mariia is FLUENT in English.

Here are the steps we have been following as we create our illustrations...

First Dad and I crafted the text for the page: "Katy has soooo many fun memories, she has a hard time figuring out which thing to choose."   

To have our illustrator create the image we were looking for I had to figure out a way to show Mariia what we were thinking - I can NOT draw AT ALL so that wasn't an option, I had to come up with something else.  Luckily, while in theatre, we often used inspiration boards to get ideas across to the designers, so I tapped into that process to communicate with our illustrator.

Mariia then sent us a sketch, this is all happening via instant messages!  The timing is always a bit tricky since there is a 7 hour time difference between Italy and Minnesota.  Luckily Mariia is a night owl so we often chat in the early evening. 

Below is the sketch she sent us from the ideas we gave her.  

 We loved a lot of it but wanted some things changed...

• Katy needed to look more happy, rather than confused

• The upper thought bubble w grandpa was adjusted to show both of the girls more clearly  

• Finally, the bottom image of Katy and Jack was updated to them grilling together - Mariia had replaced Bob w Jack in the image so that we included both of them in Katy's thoughts.  However, as many of you may know, Jack is NOT the chef in their marriage!  But he IS the grilling king and has taught the girls how to grill.

Once again, thank you so much for supporting our dream project. And we will be in touch w more behind-the-scenes updates soon.

We are excited to share that dad and I were FINALLY able to meet up in person to work on the book.  ALL of our work thus far has been over the phone, in a million emails and countless google shared docs.  It has been quite the online experience due to the COVID restrictions for visiting one another.  

For those not aware, I live in Saint Paul, Minnesota, and Dad lives in Des Moines, Iowa which is a four-hour drive away.  So, I rented an Airbnb in Des Moines that has a HUGE back yard so that we could have privacy and we worked on the final layouts for MANY hours.

We are to the final stages, the text typesetting is occurring right now and we should have proofs in the next couple of weeks.  Then everything will go through many proofreads by various editors and after any final changes, it will all go off to the printer.

If you know of anyone 'of note' who may be interested/willing to read the book and provide some quotes that could be used for the back cover and/or promotional purposes - let us know!