For Transgender Awareness Week, here’s a recap of some of the best children’s books published this year that have transgender protagonists or significant trans characters. Add them to your bookshelf or library for any day of any week!
I’m including here only books published this year that have clearly transgender characters; there are a few others that show gender creative characters who aren’t necessarily transgender. I’m also sticking with picture books and middle grade ones; young adult books form a separate genre that as a one-person operation I unfortunately don’t have the time to cover in depth. As always, check my database where you can find books published in other years and search or filter by various identities and topics.
Click the title links for fuller reviews.
Picture Books – Fiction About Trans Children
- Calvin, by JR Ford and Vanessa Ford, illustrated by Kayla Harren (G.P. Putnam’s Sons). The story of a transgender boy who transitions with the love and support of his family, teachers, and friends, showing how a community can work together to empower a trans child. Authors JR and Vanessa Ford, parents of a transgender child themselves, deftly capture Calvin’s quiet joy in becoming himself.
- Born Ready: The True Story of a Boy Named Penelope, by Jodie Patterson, illustrated by Charnelle Pinkney Barlow (Crown). Penelope is “no ordinary kid.” Penelope is a ninja—strong and smart, with ninja moves. It’s hard to be a ninja with a name like “Penelope,” though, when everyone calls you “cute.” And no one sees that Penelope is a boy—so he has to tell them, in an affirming picture book that is also a true story, written by the real boy’s mother.
- The Loudest Bark, by Gail M. Schwartz and Lucie Gagnon, illustrated by Amélie Ayotte (Rebel Mountain Press). The a sweet story of a child coming out as a transgender girl and socially transitioning with the support of a neighbor and the acceptance of parents. Also available in French.
- Guthli Has Wings, by Kanak Shashi (Tulika Publishers). The story of a child name Guthli, growing up in India, who has to convince her parents that she is a girl, not a boy as everyone believes. The plot doesn’t stray far from other books about transgender girls and gender creative boys who want to wear dresses and face opposition from family or peers, but stands out for its warmth, setting, and focus on an Indian family, as well as for the bright, textured, cutout illustrations.
Picture Books – Fiction About Siblings of Trans Children
- Sam Is My Sister, by Ashley Rhodes-Courter, illustrated by MacKenzie Haley (Albert Whitman). A young boy isn’t quite sure what’s happening when his younger sibling, whom he thought was a boy, begins to want long hair and to wear dresses, but he ultimately realizes that she’s still the same person. By the mother of a transgender daughter.
- My Sister, Daisy, by Adria Karlsson and illustrated by Linus Curci (Capstone Editions). A boy addresses his sibling and describes his response when she told him she was a girl, not a boy as people had assumed. While he struggles sometimes to remember to use the right name and pronouns for her, and sometimes resents the extra attention she seems to be receiving, he ultimately realizes that they can still have fun together and he loves her as his sister. By the parent of a trans child.
Picture Books – Fiction About Trans Parents or Other Trans Adults
- He’s My Mom!: A Story for Children Who Have a Transgender Parent or Relative, by Sarah Savage, illustrated by Joules Garcia (Jessica Kingsley). The child protagonist introduces readers to their mom, a transgender man, and their fun and loving life together. (See also Savage’s She’s My Dad, published last year.)
- Over the Shop, by JonArno Lawson and illustrated by Qin Leng (Candlewick). A beautifully illustrated wordless tale about found family. In it, a girl and her gender-ambiguous grandparent rent out the apartment over their run-down shop to a queer couple, one of whom reads as a woman; the other as nonbinary, a transgender man, or a butch/masculine woman. (The author’s dedication “To trans activists of all ages” imply that the character was meant as trans, but without any words in the text, I think this is open to reader interpretation.) The couple help fix up the building and brighten both the grandparent’s grumpy attitude and the whole neighborhood.
- Worth a mention, too, although the focus is not on trans characters per se, are two books about bodies that have clear representation of trans men with top surgery scars, among people of many other identities (queer and not): Bodies Are Cool, by Tyler Feder (Dial), and The Bare Naked Book, by Kathy Stinson, illustrated by Melissa Cho (Annick Press).
Picture Books – Non-fiction
- The lauded “A Kids Book About’’ series (named to Oprah’s Favorite Things list in 2020) published three books this year by “champions” of the GenderCool Project, a youth-led movement of transgender and non-binary teens. The books are aimed at children ages 5 to 9 and include A Kids Book About Being Transgender, by Gia Parr, and A Kids Book About Being Inclusive, by Ashton Mota and Rebekah Bruesehoff (who are both trans) (as well as A Kids Book About Being Non-binary, by Hunter Chinn-Raicht). One other from the same publisher is A Kids Book About Gender, by Dale Mueller, a non-binary trans adult. In each volume, the authors talk directly to readers as they share their personal stories and illuminate their book’s core concepts. The books use bright backgrounds and a variety of fonts rather than pictures, keeping the focus on the words and the conversational feel. They are geared towards generating new conversations, too, and all note, “This book is best read together, grownup and kid.”
- Being You: A First Conversation About Gender, by Jessica Ralli and Megan Madison, and illustrated by Anne/Andy Passchier. A board book offering a simple but thoughtful overview of gender identity and expression as well as gender stereotypes and myths. While slightly advanced for a board book, it nevertheless feels like an excellent first book for pre-K and up.
Middle Grade
- Growing Up Trans: In Our Own Words, ed. by Kate Fry and Lindsay Herriot (Orca). A vibrant collection of stories, essays, art, and poems by trans youth ages 11 to 18. (This slips into young adult territory, but I think it is still appropriate and useful for middle graders.)
- Too Bright to See, by Kyle Lukoff (Dial). Shortlisted for the National Book Award for Young People’s Literature, this is a coming-of-age story about a trans boy and a mystery rolled into one—the first middle-grade novel from the author of the Stonewall Award-winning When Aidan Became a Brother and the Max and Friends series.
- Obie Is Man Enough, by Schuyler Bailar (Crown), the first transgender athlete to compete on an NCAA Division I men’s team. The fictional story of a Korean-American transgender seventh grader hoping for a fresh start with a new swim team after the abusive transphobic coach at his previous one kicked him out. Obie still worries about being “man enough,” and must also deal with a former friend who becomes a transphobic bully and another who becomes distant in the shifting social dynamics of middle school. While the bullying and deadnaming that Obie endures may be triggering or disturbing for some readers, Obie also has a solid support system in his family, teacher, and new coach. This, plus his sweet budding romance with a cisgender girl, offer a sense of possibility and hope. An important book given the vicious current attacks against trans athletes.
- Frankie & Bug, by Gayle Forman (Aladdin). This middle grade story, set in 1987, is told from the perspective of a 10-year-old girl whose new friend turns out to be a transgender boy. The book is not “about” him being trans, however, although Forman shows how his identity impacts his responses to people and events. Rather, the book focuses on broader themes of friendship, family, justice, and allyship, across lines of gender identity, sexual orientation, and racial/ethnic identity.
