Pedro & Daniel

About Pedro & Daniel

Pedro & Daniel is a book by Federico Erebia, published in 2023. It is part of a small but growing body of picture books and early reader works published for young audiences by presses focused on LGBTQ+ and Latinx representation — books written with the specific intention of ensuring that children from families like the ones depicted see themselves in the stories available to them.

The title names two characters, and the simplest framing of the book is the same as any picture book about two people who care about each other: a story about relationship, about togetherness, about what it looks like when two people build a life in each other's presence. The fact that Pedro and Daniel are two men has made the book a target in school districts conducting broad reviews of LGBTQ+ content.

The Importance of Representation in Children's Literature

Children's literature has long operated on the understanding that seeing yourself in a story matters. The expansion of representation in picture books and early readers over the past several decades has been driven by the same recognition: that children from every kind of family deserve to encounter stories that reflect their lives, and that children from all backgrounds benefit from seeing the full range of human relationships and experiences in the books available to them.

Books like Pedro & Daniel serve a function that extends beyond the children of same-sex couples. They tell every child who reads them something about what the world contains, and about what families can look like. That kind of early normalization has measurable effects on how children relate to difference, to empathy, and to the understanding that love takes many forms.

Why Pedro & Daniel Has Been Banned

The book has been restricted in Katy Independent School District in Texas. Katy ISD has removed a substantial number of titles from its school libraries, with a heavy concentration on books featuring LGBTQ+ characters and relationships. For a picture book with two male characters at its center, the path to removal in this district is short.

The challenge to Pedro & Daniel is not, in any practical sense, about protecting children from harm. It is about visibility. It is about whether the children of same-sex couples are allowed to see their families reflected in their school library. And it is about whether other children are allowed to learn, early and in a natural way, that families come in many forms. The book's banning is a statement that they should not.