David Milgrim’s Time to Get Up, Time to Go (2006) follows a little boy and his doll throughout their day.  The boy’s daily activities pivot around homemaking and include cleaning and cooking. Simple, whimsical illustrations and rhyming text make the  book accessible to very young children to whom the cheerful illustrations will likely appeal. 

The book is a sweet and subtle representation of a little boy disrupting gender stereotypes without even knowing it. Because of the simplicity of text and image this book would work well for the under three-year-old crowd but the things that make it great for toddlers mean older children won’t find it very engaging.

This review is part of my “Snapshots of LGBTQ Kid Lit” project. I’m working on a book, The Transformative Potential of LGBTQ+ Children’s Picture Books, which is forthcoming with the University Press of Mississippi. Part of my research is identifying and interpreting English-language children’s picture books with LGBTQ+ content published in the US and Canada between 1979 and 2019. Follow my blog to follow my journey!