Today is the Transgender Day of Visibility, so I’m celebrating by rounding up 25 (!) picture books with transgender and/or nonbinary characters that have been published in 2020 and 2021 alone. (I’ll also show you how to find older trans-inclusive kids’ books and ones for and about trans parents.)
Here’s the list of books—click through to read short (and sometimes long) reviews for each.
- Sam Is My Sister, by Ashley Rhodes-Courter and illustrated by MacKenzie Haley
- The Little Library, by Margaret McNamara and illustrated by G. Brian Karas
- The Bare Naked Book, by Kathy Stinson and illustrated by Melissa Cho
- Toby Wears a Tutu, by Lori Starling and illustrated by Anita Dufalla
- We Are Little Feminists: Families, by Archaa Shrivastav and illustrated by Lindsey Blakely (board book)
- Over the Shop, by JonArno Lawson and illustrated by Qin Leng
- Were I Not a Girl: The Inspiring and True Story of Dr. James Barry, by Lisa Robinson and illustrated by Lauren Simkin Berke
- My Rainbow, by Deshanna and Trinity Neal and illustrated by Art Twink
- My Maddy, by Gayle E. Pitman and illustrated by Violet Tobacco
- Max on the Farm (Max and Friends Book 3), by Kyle Lukoff and illustrated by Luciano Lozano
- She’s My Dad!: A Story for Children Who Have a Transgender Parent or Relative, by Sarah Savage and illustrated by Joules Garcia
- The Name I Call Myself, by Hasan Namir and illustrated by Cathryn John
- Jamie and Bubbie: A Book About People’s Pronouns, by Afsaneh Moradian and illustrated by Maria Bogade
- A More Graceful Shaboom, by Jacinta Bunnell and illustrated by Crystal Vielula
- Sylvia and Marsha Start a Revolution! The Story of the Trans Women of Color Who Made LGBTQ+ History, by Joy Ellison and illustrated by Teshika Silver
- Love Remains: A Rosh Hashanah Story of Transformation, by Jessica Leving, Rabbi Ari Moffic and illustrated by Teddi Garson
- I’m Not a Girl: A Transgender Story, by Jessica Verdi and Maddox Lyons, illustrated by Dana Simpson
- Raven Wild (Promised Land Tales Book 3), by Adam Reynolds, Caitlin Spice, and Chaz Harris, illustrated by Bo Moore and Christine Luiten
- The Fighting Infantryman: The Story of Albert D. J. Cashier, Transgender Civil War Soldier, by Rob Sanders and illustrated by Nabi Ali
- No Voice Too Small: Fourteen Young Americans Making History, edited by Keila V. Dawson and Lindsay H. Metcalf and illustrated by Jeanette Bradley
- My Dad Thinks I’m a Boy?!: A Trans Positive Children’s Book, written and illustrated by Sophie Labelle
- Hooray, What A Day!/¡Viva, Qué Día! written and illustrated by Molly Allis
- Porcupine Cupid, by Jason June and illustrated by Lori Richmond
- Peanut Goes for the Gold, by Jonathan Van Ness and illustrated by Gillian Reid
- My Name Is Troy, by Christian A’Xavier Lovehall and illustrated by Chamar M. Cooper
To search for books in my database published before 2020 with trans and/or nonbinary characters (and there are some good ones!), choose the age category you want, and start typing either “trans” or “nonbinary” into the Tag field. You’ll see a number of options come up (for trans boys, trans girls, etc.). Choose the one you want. Note that if you choose multiple tags at once, the books that appear will be ones that include ALL of those types of characters. That can be useful if you want to match that tag with, say, a tag for a racial or cultural identity (e.g., to find books with Black trans boys), but may also mean that you’ll get fewer results than if you search for one tag at a time. If you’re looking for grown-up books for and about trans (or other LGBTQ) parents, try the Memoir, Anthology, and/or Parenting Guide tags, too.
Even as we celebrate trans lives and trans resilience today and mark the first-ever presidential proclamation of TDOV, let’s remember that there’s still lots of work to do before trans people, from children to elders, attain full equality and inclusion. May we all recommit to continuing the work.
