"[3] Lollipop Power, an independent press founded in 1970 with the goal of counteracting "sex-stereotyped behavior and role models presented by society to young children" published Lots of Mommies, Severance's second picture book, in 1983 as a 35-page paperback illustrated by Jan Jones in green and beige.

Although it received no reviews in major industry publications, Ann Martin-Leff in 1984 wrote in New Directions for Women that Lots of Mommies was a well illustrated and "warm and caring book".

[1] Some scholars and authors have disagreed about whether there is enough textual evidence to assert that Emily's parents are lesbians, and consequently whether Lots of Mommies should be construed as an LGBTQ picture book at all.

[4] The researcher Virginia Wolf wrote that no evidence in the text of the work that "proves that any or all of the women are lesbians, although clearly their living arrangements raise the possibility.

"[8] Researcher Dianna Laurent wrote that the story does not address Emily's caregivers' relationships to one another and describes her parents as being a "communal women's group".

[1] The children's literature scholar Thomas Crisp has likewise written in favor of considering Lots of Mommies an LGBTQ picture book, stating "it is the semiotics that make the text queer".

[4] Regardless of its contested status as a lesbian picture book, Lots of Mommies has also been noted for its depiction of a non-traditional (non-nuclear) family.