A children’s picture book about a family with two dads has made history. And its author knows a thing or two about firsts.
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Papa’s Coming Home, written by Chasten Buttigieg and illustrated by Dan Taylor, debuted this week among the top-selling children’s picture books in the country, coming in at number 4 on the New York Times Best Sellers list. Published on May 20 by Philomel Books, an imprint of Penguin Random House, the story follows siblings Rosie and Jojo as they prepare a welcome-home surprise for their beloved Papa, who has been away on a trip. With help from Daddy, the kids bake a cake, pick flowers, and pack their car with everything they think Papa missed, only to realize there may not be room for him to sit.
Related: Why Chasten Buttigieg wrote a new children’s book about two dads that isn’t about being different
The book’s sweetness is deliberate. Rather than centering trauma or difference, it celebrates an ordinary moment with an extraordinary heart.
But Buttigieg’s lighthearted story arrives in a time of heavy scrutiny. According to PEN America, books about LGBTQ+ people and characters accounted for 39 percent of titles banned in U.S. public schools during the 2023–2024 school year. That’s nearly two in five banned books. In total, PEN recorded over 10,000 instances of book bans across 29 states and 220 districts — more than in any previous year since the organization began tracking such incidents.
Book-banning campaigns, fueled by anti-LGBTQ+ rhetoric and restrictive new state laws, have taken particular aim at books depicting queer families, gender diversity, or inclusive sex education.
Related: Chasten Buttigieg’s new children’s book celebrates LGBTQ+ families like his
Against that backdrop, Papa’s Coming Home isn’t just a success — it’s a signal. The book’s placement on the Times list shows that families are hungry for stories that reflect the diversity of their lives.
“We know how important it is for young children to see themselves and their families in stories — and how equally important it is for them to see families different from theirs in stories as well,” Jill Santopolo, vice president and publisher of Philomel Books, said in a statement to The Advocate. “We’re so glad Papa’s Coming Home has been able to give children who have two dads the chance to feel seen and give children who don’t the chance to learn and understand that all kinds of families are filled with love."
She added, “We are so proud that this book is one of the first books with same-sex parents to make the New York Times Best Seller list and hope it paves the way for many more books to come.”
Buttigieg, a former middle school teacher and the husband of former U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, said their own home life inspired the story of the nearly 4-year-old twins, Gus and Penelope, who are Black. He told The Advocate that he wrote Papa’s Coming Home in part because he couldn’t find a picture book that reflected the kind of love and routine his family shares. "I didn’t want the book to always be about difference,” he said. “I just wanted it to be a lighthearted, day-in-the-life, cute, funny, engaging story that we would enjoy — and that our kids could see themselves in.”
Young readers of all backgrounds are seeing themselves in it too. One early reader, a Black girl with straight parents, smiled at the story’s end and told The Advocate, “They really love their daddy.”
