Wishing joy, love, and strength to all trans parents on this Trans Parent Day. To mark the occasion, here are some books from the past year or so that feature trans parents: an anthology and a memoir for grown-ups, and two middle grade books starring kids with trans parents.
Click titles or images for full reviews in my Database of LGBTQ Family Books—and remember that these are great titles at any time of year!
For Grown-Ups
Seahorses: Trans, Nonbinary, and Gender-Expansive Pregnancy, ed. Simon Knaphus (PM Press): This insightful, powerful, and necessary anthology brings together essays, interviews, and roundtable discussions by and with 18 trans, nonbinary, and gender-expansive birthing people, who share their experiences with conception, pregnancy, fertility treatment, birth, and early parenthood. We see struggles here, as might be expected in the current era of rampant anti-trans rhetoric and policy, and we see losses, as birthing people have always had—but the overwhelming sense is of joy, resilience, strength, and love.
The stories here are moving, unflinching, and often lyrical, full of wisdom and insights about pregnancy, body autonomy, and much more, The contributors reflect on the personal, social, political, and legal contexts of their journeys and also share practical advice about topics such as accessing care, drawing on community, the decision to delay or pause hormones in order to become pregnant, dealing with bias and misgendering, talking about trans-led families with kids, and even what to wear during pregnancy.
As a cisgender reviewer, I cannot presume to know how trans and nonbinary birthing people will view the book, but the endorsements from well-known trans parents including Trystan Reese and Freddy McConnell indicate that it will be a welcome offering of affirmation, inspiration, and information. For cisgender people, the volume should help us better understand some of the many experiences of trans and nonbinary birthing people and not to assume that they share a single story. Health care providers, social workers, reproductive and LGBTQ rights advocates, and anyone working with families today will likely also find it a valuable resource.
What I Made for Dinner: A Memoir, by Krys Malcolm Belc (Catapult): Author Belc had long been the primary cook for his family of five: himself, spouse Anna, and their three kids. When the COVID 19 pandemic hit, however, preparing family meals took on new meaning. Belc turned to online and television food personalities, not only for recipe ideas, but as sources for exploring ideas of domesticity, public and private personas, relationships, and gender. He structures each section of the book around a different food celebrity and the lessons he has gleaned from them, using the framework to tell his own family story.
The book explores his shifting feelings about parenting, his decision during the pandemic to stop testosterone so that he could carry the couple’s fourth child, his earlier family building, his experiences as a neurodivergent parent of neurodivergent kids, and his work as a teacher, but the particularities of his life rub shoulders with more universal parenting experiences. Belc uses the lens of food personalities to cast a perceptive eye not only on his life, but also on parenthood and domesticity in general. This is the memoir of a trans parent, yes, and that is important, for there are relatively few such books, but it is also more than that: a captivating and insightful exploration of how people may find and make meaning in our lives and those of our families. (Content warning: Discussion of suicidal ideation.)
Middle Grade
Just Ask Elsie, by Ari Koontz (Feiwel & Friends): Eleven-year-old Elsie knows more about puberty than most of her public-school peers, since her parents (a trans dad and bi mom) have enrolled her in an inclusive puberty class through their Unitarian Universalist (UU) congregation. When others in her school learn about the class, however, they tease her—but then, one of Elsie’s classmates slips a note into her locker with a question about puberty. Elsie realizes that her peers are seeking answers but don’t know where to go. She therefore launches an anonymous advice service through a whiteboard on her locker.
After school administrators find out, however, they aren’t happy. Elsie begins to suspect that they are particularly concerned about LGBTQ-related topics. But how much can Elsie push things without getting into the kind of trouble that would ruin her admission to a prestigious middle school? While trying to find a way forward, she’s also navigating her own crush on a girl in her class and a shifting relationship with her best friend from childhood. Without spoiling too much, I’ll note that the solution lies in collective action, making this not only the story of one student’s growth, but a lively and timely tale of how kids can create change.
The Ghosts Behind the Door, by Jen Wilde (Scholastic): Twelve-year-old Maggie has relocated with her mom (who is queer) and her parent Moe (who is trans and nonbinary) from Brooklyn to the small town upstate where her Nana lives. Everyone in the town, however, sees Maggie and her mom as just two more of the Havercroft witches, who have long had a reputation for being different and causing trouble. Maggie soon comes to realize that some parts of the stories are true: Nana’s house is haunted, with the ghosts of their ancestors trapped there by an old curse.
Maggie, who is autistic and has ADHD and anxiety, is soon the target of bullies who see her only through the lens of her family’s purported oddness. She finds a friend, however, in goth girl Ivy, who is trans and is also the subject of peer bullying. Maggie resolves to break the family curse, and with Ivy’s help, dives into the family’s heritage of witchcraft that her mom had kept from her—but will the girls’ efforts be enough to stop the threats both supernatural and real? Content warning: Spousal abuse (by historic characters in the book).
If you’re looking for more books by and about trans parents, including picture books, middle grade titles and ones for adults, see my roundups from 2024, 2023, 2022, and 2021, and visit my full Database of LGBTQ Family Books, where you can filter by transgender women/parent, transgender men/parent, and transgender nonbinary adult/parent (and further by target age range and more). You may also be interested in my post on “10 Transgender Parents You Should Know” from this year’s Trans Day of Visibility.