Sometimes, a picture book will just put a smile on my face. This week, two new titles have done that, one bouncy and energetic, one whimsical and soothing.
Good Dream Dragon, by Jacky Davis, illustrated by Courtney Dawson (Little, Brown). I first mentioned this book last spring in my roundup of LGBTQ-inclusive bedtime tales, and it’s finally available! In the story, a child (who uses they/them pronouns) is worried about having bad dreams. (A picture with a transgender flag hanging behind the child’s bed implies that the child is trans.) One of their two moms reminds them they can always call on the Good Dream Dragon. After struggling to sleep, they call out to the dragon and it appears—a friendly creature who flies the child to a mountaintop in Dreamland.
There, the child has gentle adventures sitting on a giant teapot, skipping cookies across a lake, and visiting a town “built entirely of books.” They read a book about a child helped by a dragon, who searches through the galaxies for good dreams—a lovely meta moment. Soon they feel sleepy, and the dragon flies them home. Although they want the dragon to stay, the dragon tells them they have proven their courage by flying on a dragon, and don’t need the dragon anymore. The child agrees, and snuggles down to sleep. As the dragon flies away, it affirms that the child can still call “Whenever you need me.”
This is a whimsical and sweet book, with lush illustrations and soothing words. Children of all genders and family types should appreciate its theme of overcoming nighttime fears; for trans and nonbinary ones, it also offers much needed representation. It is also one of very few picture books to feature queer parents with a queer child. (And yes, it’s a myth that queer parents “make” their kids queer—but statistically, some of us are going to have queer kids anyway.) A welcome addition to any bookshelf.
The You Kind of Kind, by Nina West, illustrated by Hayden Evans (Princeton Architectural Press). Drag queen Nina West’s first picture book is a bold, bright celebration of kindness. We journey with a young girl (later revealed to be Nina herself) “to find Kind… or all the kinds of Kind we can.” She starts by putting on her “adventure gear”—a favorite outfit, a backpack filled with notepad, crayons, and more. Her energy and enthusiasm are contagious. West also gives her protagonist a love of wordplay—the girl uses her notebook “to docufy the OUTSTANDABLE and BIGANTIC things we find along the way,” for example. She addresses readers directly with information about herself and asks them questions as well, such as inquiring about whether they’ve ever made up words themselves. It’s an interactive approach that would make this book a winning choice for read-alouds (whether by drag queen or an ordinary parent or teacher).
As the girl travels her neighborhood (which includes a two-woman couple), she points out examples of kindness, like saying hello, making jokes, and helping each other, but does so with a kind of frenetic, anthropological zeal, taking the pedantic edge off her observations and continuing the wordplay and fun. There’s one somber moment when she encounters a boy being bullied (for unspecified reasons), but assures him he is valuable before telling the bully, “Have you had a bad day? You don’t get to take it out on someone else.” She adds, “Hearing what someone else has to say is one of the very best kinds of Kind. Let’s call this Phonic Friend-o-gram.”
In the end, she thanks readers for helping her be her best self and naming kindness where it was found. “Being ourselves is the greatest kind of Kind we can be because there is no other you out there,” she concludes, before settling in to sleep.
While there is little clearly queer representation here (aside from the two-woman couple in the background), combine that with West’s authorship and a use of rainbow iconography, plus a message that will resonate with many queer folks, and it’s enough to warrant inclusion in my database. It’s a joyous book for any audience.