If you buy just one kids’ book for Pride this year, make it Robin Stevenson’s new Pride Puppy! It’s an alphabet book with a fun story arc, plus a seek-and-find game, all wrapped up in a package bursting with diversity across LGBTQ and other identities. The main family that we follow through the book includes a female parent and a nonbinary parent, their two kids, and of course their dog—but they’re just a few of the many characters portrayed here.
“A for awake, animals and all,” Pride Puppy! (Orca Books) begins, as we see a young child, a baby, and their two parents waking up in the morning. The family dog and cat are there, too, along with a happy clutter of toys. They move on to Breakfast and into their Car, along with the Dog, off to meet Grandma at the march. One parent is Black and reads as female; the other is White and reads as nonbinary—a button near them on the table at breakfast says “They/them.” One child appears White and the other Black; Grandma appears White.
Each rhyming page takes us onward through the alphabet and through the family’s trip to the Pride march, where Julie McLaughlin’s bright and colorful drawings show people of various ages, body types, skin tones, cultures, physical abilities, religions, and LGBTQ identities. There are drag queens and motorcycles; transgender and genderqueer characters; same-sex couples; parents, kids, and elders; earrings, nose rings, and lip rings; colored hair, and lots and lots of tattoos. There’s a school bus with a “Pride Club” banner and characters holding other signs reading “Two Spirit Pride,” “Love Thy Neighbor,” “Love Knows No Gender,” “The Future is Intersectional,” and more. There’s even a contingent of Queer Farmers.
Partway through the day, though, the puppy gets loose. It romps merrily across subsequent pages with the family in pursuit. This provides a narrative through line lacking in many ABC books, which will likely make the book more engaging for young readers as they follow the puppy and its antics across the pages. The story concludes with ZZZs as the family falls asleep after their exciting adventures.
The book also offers a “seek-and-find” scavenger hunt on each page, with additional items for readers to espy, each starting with the featured letter (kites on the K page, for example). The illustrations are detailed enough to make this a fun challenge for young (and even old) readers. At the end of the book is a word list in case you need a little help.
As with any book that offers a slice of diverse life, there are bound to be a few identities left out (I didn’t spot any clearly Jewish characters, though there are ones from several other major religions), but there are more identities represented here than in many other picture books, and the overall effect is to convey the grand diversity of the LGBTQ community.
There are happily a growing number of picture books about Pride; Pride Puppy! will likely become one that readers reach for often. Share it with your kids after Stevenson’s Pride Colors, for the very youngest tots, and before her Pride: The Celebration and the Struggle, a history and guide for middle graders and up. (Those with teens should also check out her new young adult novel When You Get the Chance (Amazon; Bookshop), about two teen cousins, both queer, reconnecting and trying to take a break from family obligations with a road trip to Toronto Pride.)