Sasha Alyson founded Alyson Books, one of the earliest publishing companies to focus on gay and lesbian themes, in 1980; by the early 1990s it had grown to become the largest such publisher. Under his ownership the company published ground-breaking works which included books by and about gay youth (One Teenager In Ten, Reflections of a Rock Lobster), black gay men (In the Life, Brother to Brother), history (The Men with the Pink Triangle, The Trouble with Harry Hay), and transgender issues (From Female To Male: The Life of Jack Bee Garland). Most controversial was the Alyson Wonderland imprint: Children's books depicting families with lesbian and gay parents. The American Library Association listed one of these titles, Daddy's Roommate, as the most challenged library book in the country in both 1993 and 1994. Heather Has Two Mommies and The Duke Who Outlawed Jelly Beans were also challenged in many libraries and became a focus of controversy in the New York City school system. In a New York Times op-ed, Alyson responded that "The parents who protest the Rainbow curriculum grew up at a time when gay people were invisible. But their children will live in a different world." Alyson received the first Lambda Literary Award for Publisher's Service in 1988, and in 1994 he and his company were named "Publisher of the Year" by the New England Booksellers Association. He sold Alyson Books in 1995. In 2003 Alyson moved to Laos and worked with Lao colleagues to create Big Brother Mouse, publishing children's books intended to "Make Literacy Fun." Later this focus broadened, with recent titles including cookbooks, history, and Anne Frank's Diary of a Young Girl. As they tested reading skills in schools, the Big Brother Mouse staff found a great need for different approaches to teaching; of children entering grade 3, they found that 81% couldn't even read a single word. Consequently the organization created a learn-to-read series and started a school, Big Sister Mouse, which develops methods for providing better education at an affordable cost for both children and young adults.