The flood of LGBTQ-inclusive kids’ books just keeps coming! This week’s new titles, including a middle-grade biography of trans icon Sylvia Rivera and a picture book about a boy who wants long hair, feel particularly affirming!
Click titles or images for full reviews and more!
Picture Books
The Good Hair Day, by Christian Trimmer, illustrated by J Yang (Abrams). There’s only one thing Noah really wants for his birthday: long hair. He dreams of “long, beautiful, wavy hair” that he could pile on his head or toss while dancing; hair that would flow behind him in the wind. After his pre-birthday haircut is particularly short and he bursts into tears, his parents realize his desire and buy him a wig. He tries it on and declares, “I’m gorgeous!” A fast-forward to a year later shows us Noah with his real hair grown out. This is a lovely book about a gender creative child whose family paid attention and helped to affirm his identity.
Oh No, the Aunts Are Here, by Adam Rex, illustrated by Lian Cho (Chronicle Books). Do you hear that? “They’re snapping shut their purses and stepping out of shuttles from the airport.” It’s the aunts (including one who could be trans or nonbinary), ready to enthusiastically overwhelm with their hugs and gifts and exuberant presence in this hilarious story. Despite being exasperating, however, the aunts are family, and ready to defend their niece when a Big Bad Wolf shows up. Many of us have at least one relative like the overwhelming aunts, but, as with chickens, more are funnier, and this book would make an exceptional read-aloud.
My only caution is that girl is clearly less than thrilled about the aunts’ hugging and cheek pinching and hair fixing. It would probably be a good idea to pair this tale with one about consent—the aunts might actually offer a nice segue to such a discussion.
The Small and Tall Ball: A Story About Diversity and Inclusion, by Frank J. Sileo, illustrated by Katie Dwyer (PESI Publishing). This cheery story addresses an all-too-common school situation—a gendered mother-son/father-daughter dance—and offers a solution that can be a model for both young readers and their adults. I particularly like that the children come up with the solution on their own, an empowering approach. Author Frank J. Sileo, a licensed psychologist, has also included a thoughtful Note to Parents and Caregivers to help them educate children on the importance of inclusion and to promote conversations about family diversity. These tips, and the upbeat, direct story itself, should be useful tools for any adult broaching these topics. There’s a clear pedagogical purpose, but that can sometimes be a good thing, and it’s presented here with care.
That’s My Daddy, by Ruth Redford, illustrated by Dan Taylor (Farshore). What’s your daddy like? Does he wake up grumpy or happy? Does he have hair, and if so, what color? What does he do for work? With questions like these, author Ruth Redford explores a great variety of daddies. A two-dad couple is among them—and career options such as “nurse” and “dancer” reflect an openness to careers across traditional gender lines. We also see dads dressing up in bee wings and a unicorn horn to play with their tutu-clad daughters. There are no identifiable transgender dads or explicit acknowledgment of different family types, but for people with dads, this is a happy little volume showing many of the things—active, tender, creative, silly, and caring—that dads may do.
Los Cuerpos Son Geniales, by Tyler Feder (Dial). This is the Spanish translation (by Aurora Humaran) of Feder’s 2021 volume Bodies Are Cool, a joyous exploration of the many different types of human bodies in the world, of various shades, sizes, shapes, ages, genders, and abilities. We see bodies that are heavy, thin, and in-between; ones with stretch marks, moles, scars (including trans men with top surgery scars), tattoos, vitiligo (loss of skin pigment), alopecia, and different numbers of digits; with characters having prosthetics, eye patches, ostomy pouches, other surgical monitoring devices, oxygen machines, hearing aids, crutches, wheelchairs, and more. There seem to be at least two people for most identities or abilities. Affirming and recommended.
Middle Grade
Rebel Girls Celebrate Pride: 25 Tales of Self-Love and Community, by Alexis Stratton, Jestine Ware, and Shadae Mallory (Rebel Girls). This bright and inspiring collection of one-page biographies from the Rebel Girls media company includes not just girls/women, but also nonbinary people. They range from well-known older figures like Marsha Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and Billie Jean King, to younger ones such as singer Janelle Monáe, writer and performance artist Alok Vaid-Menon, and soccer star Quinn, and even scientists, activists, and others who are outstanding in their fields but less in the public eye. It’s a wide-ranging collection of careers and places of impact. A section at the end offers readers activity ideas tied to the biographies. Bright illustrations by female and nonbinary artists from around the world add color and interest. A worthy addition to the growing number of LGBTQ-inclusive collective biographies.
Hispanic Star: Sylvia Rivera, by Claudia Romo Edelman and J. Gia Loving, illustrated by Cheyne Gallarde (Roaring Brook Press). Transgender icon Sylvia Rivera is the focus of this readable and informative middle-grade biography that looks at her life from her birth to immigrant, migrant parents to her involvement at Stonewall and activism in helping trans youth. Published by the organization Hispanic Star in partnership with Macmillan, and available in English or Spanish editions, this is a welcome middle-grade biography of a figure who has long been due one. Content warning: Mention of domestic violence and her mother’s death by suicide.
Matteo, by Michael Leali (HarperCollins). Leali (The Civil War of Amos Abernathy) here weaves a delightful tale of magical realism, influenced by the story of Pinocchio but not bound to it. Eleven-year-old Matteo Lorenzini is tired of trying to be the perfect son. He strives to do well at baseball, like his dad, but just can’t quite seem to be good at it. He also worries that liking boys doesn’t fit the vision for his life that he and others expect. While he muddles through all this, he alarmingly starts to sprout bark and leaves whenever he lies. At the same time, the town’s tree, where his parents found him, seems to be dying and is slated to be cut down, something Matteo senses is the very wrong thing to do. He and his best friend Azura Gonzalez work to discover what is happening to him, save the tree, and help Matteo harness his strange new powers. In the process, Matteo discovers more about his own origins as well as secrets from his adoptive family’s history—while also becoming more comfortable being his own person. It’s a coming-of-age tale that gently but thoughtfully explores family expectations, peer bullying, coming out, and more within an original storyline and a dash of the fantastical. Fun and recommended.
