Prince and farmer’s son fall in love in new LGBT children’s book ‘Promised Land’
Two authors from Wellington, New Zealand created a crowdfunding campaign to publish their fairytale storybook in which a prince and a farmboy meet in a forest and fall in love.
Promised Land is aimed at children between 5-10 years old and up, and is described as: “A fantastical story about friendship, adventure, responsibility and love.”-
On their Kickstarter page for the project, Adam Reynolds and Chaz Harris describe their desire to create something that their younger selves could have used growing up.
“Growing up with very little in the way of LGBT stories in print or on screen, we decided to write the story that our eight year old selves needed.”
They expressed, “During our childhoods and teen years, we had no role models or stories that represented the notion that “happily ever after” could even exist if you’re gay. As such, we felt there should be more stories like that, and so we wrote one together.”
They hope that the book will be a useful tool for parents to demonstrate that anybody can fall in love with anybody, regardless of gender. Thus, it is “not just a story for gay youth. The sexuality of our main characters is never questioned – they merely happen to be two young men who meet and fall in love.”
The book has a target release date of 11 October 2016, which is recognised as National Coming Out Day. The authors need to reach a target of $25,000 by 14th April.
“Our goal has always been to create a story that provides understanding and acceptance by showing young people that, regardless of what gender they are attracted to, love is love.”
Words: Georgios Hadjimichael
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