I’m thrilled to have been chosen to present the cover reveal of ‘Twas the Night Before Pride, an upcoming picture book from Candlewick Press that combines the meter of the classic poem with a child’s-eye look at the feelings and history of Pride.
‘Twas the Night Before Pride, by Joanna McClintick and illustrated by the Pura Belpré Award-winning Juana Medina, stars a child with two moms who is getting ready for the Pride parade and happily retelling the history of Pride to their younger sibling. One mom has light skin, the other dark, and the children’s are shades in between. Additionally, one of the moms is “that kind of mom who’s more boyish than girly”—a nice bit of representation that we don’t always get to see.
McClintick and Medina—both queer moms—drew on queer historians, archives, and museums to develop the Pride history that the child narrates. It’s an abbreviated version of the events that happened at the Stonewall Inn, but captures the key points: Stonewall as a place of refuge for queer people in “less fair” times, people fighting back against police harassment, the start of a worldwide movement that grew from “gay liberation” to encompass transgender rights and the fight against AIDS, and that we are still in some places fighting for respect and acceptance. The illustrations show the gender and racial diversity of the participants and the central role of transgender women of color.
The child then observes that Pride isn’t just about festive outfits, but also about “rights for queers and all our beautiful genders.” McClintick lightens the lesson, though, with a reminder that Pride celebrations may be crowded and long—acknowledging how a child may perceive the day.
After the retelling, before drifting off to sleep, the child reflects that to them, Pride is all about the joy in being oneself. The final spread shows the family attending a Pride march along with people of diverse genders, sexual orientations, skin tones, ethnic backgrounds, and physical abilities.
Notably, too, one character has a medical venous port on their arm, which Medina told me (through her publicist) was inspired by two children she knows who have ports for diabetes treatment and ongoing chemotherapy, respectively. The port in the book was not meant to be for a specific purpose, but Medina said “I thought it could be helpful for them to find an identifiable aspect of their lives (which is often highlighted with more somber connotations and/or limited mostly to clinical literature) shown unapologetically within the pages of this book.” This is a small detail, but speaks to the care the creators took in crafting an inclusive tale.
There are a growing number of books about Pride for young children, but this one stands out for capturing the meaning and history of the event with just the right amount of detail for the age range, while blending it with a relatable family story and joyful illustrations.
The book will be published on May 10, 2022, just in time for next Pride season, but is available now for preorder at most major online bookstores—and preorders tell publishers just how much we want to see these kinds of books! If you purchase it through this link to Amazon or this link to Bookshop, in both cases where I earn a small fee from qualifying purchases, you’ll also help me keep the lights on here at Mombian. (It will also be available in Spanish!) Regardless of where you purchase, though (or even if you just recommend it to your local library), thank you for supporting LGBTQ-inclusive kids’ content by LGBTQ creators!