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Tobi Hill-Meyer’s A Princess of Great Daring (2015)
A Princess of Great Daring (2015), written by Tobi Hill-Meyer and illustrated by Elenore Toczynski, is about a transgender girl named Jamie and her friends.
Jamie has not seen her friends all summer and plans on telling them about her gender identity. Her two moms drop her off at her friend’s house as all of her buddies are starting to play a game. They will be princes and will save a princess form distress. Jamie says she would like to be a princess and the boys are excited to have someone to rescue, but she interrupts the traditional narrative declaring that she will be “a princess of great daring.” Concerned that they will have no one to rescue, one of the boys, Liam, volunteers to be captured by a dragon. Continue reading
Amy Fabrikant’s When Kayla was Kyle (2013)
When Kayla was Kyle (2013), written by Amy Fabrikant and illustrated by Jennifer Levine, is a thoughtful book about an unhappy transgender child who bravely confides her gender identity to her parents and begins to transition.
At the start of the book, Kayla’s father polices her gender by pressuring her to play basketball with boys even though she is clearly uncomfortable with masculine gender expression. Although her mother is loving she does not understand what Kayla is experiencing and is unable to support her. Continue reading
Amazing, Creative, GIRLS!
These girls dance, drum, design dresses, create backyard museums, and leave their mark on the world with poetry! Here are some books to inspire little girls and the people who love them!
Patricia Polacco’s In Our Mother’s House (2009)
In Our Mother’s House (2009) by Patricia Polacco is the story of two women who love each other and the family they create together. It’s told in the first-person by one of the couple’s three adopted children who nostalgically recollects her childhood. Polacco’s illustrations are thick with detail, and thoughtfully depict the snapshots of family life narrated. There is no plot, and other than a grumpy homophobic neighbor, there is no conflict. Instead, the story reads like one side of a conversation intimately and slowly told. Reading it seems a bit like eavesdropping. Continue reading
John Farrell’s Dear Child (2008)
Dear Child (2008), written by John Farrell and illustrated by Maurie J. Manning, is a sweet and simple story about the love parents feel for their children. The narrative lyrically unfolds as a letter from a parent to a child. Diverse and inclusive images of families demonstrate the universality of parental love. Continue reading
