A thoughtful and practical new guide is intended to help all parents understand gender identity and expression, have healthy conversations with their children about gender, and create an affirming environment, whether their children are transgender, cisgender, nonbinary, gender expansive, or questioning.
ources are especially critical at a time when healthcare professionals have declared a national emergency in children’s and adolescent’s mental health.
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!
Calvin is a gentle first-person picture book about a transgender boy who transitions with the love and support of his family, teachers, and friends. Vanessa Ford, who co-authored the book with her husband JR, said in an interview that the book “shows the necessity of having a community around trans youth, that when one child transitions, others transition alongside that child, and that it takes a community to ensure that they are safe and protected.”
A new, free, research-based poster series for American Indian families and communities is aimed at helping parents, families, and caregivers to support LGBTQ and Two Spirit (LGBTQ2S) children and youth, reducing health risks and increasing well-being.
Coming out this week and next are two picture books featuring transgender girls (one told from her sibling’s perspective), one about a kid whose mom is a transgender man, and one about a boy who wants to dance ballet!
Fifteen-year-old Hunter Chinn-Raicht, who is non-binary, knows that the term “non-binary” isn’t always understood. “This is a new word and it’s super confusing for a lot of people, especially people that weren’t brought up with it,” they told me in an interview. They hope to dispel some of that confusion through a new book they’ve written, one of a set of three titles by “champions” of the GenderCool Project, a youth-led movement of teens who are speaking out to show that transgender and non-binary youth can thrive.
A series of eight new Asian language posters from the Family Acceptance Project (FAP) at San Francisco State University offers Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) parents a research-backed, proven resource to help their LGBTQ children thrive.
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 new picture book that is also a true story, written by the real boy’s mother.
Kyle Lukoff, author of the Stonewall Award-winning When Aidan Became a Brother and the Max and Friends series (both about transgender boys), has just published his first middle grade novel. That in itself should be enough for you to go read it immediately. If you need more convincing, though, or just want to know a little more about it, however, here’s a review.
