This fun book from award-winning author Erica Perl contains (to the best of my knowledge) the first nonbinary character in an early reader. Whale lives near Tiny Island and enjoys tea parties with her three friends, who are all rocks. She dreams of someday having friends who are not rocks, though. One day, she throws a tea party and is surprised by two visitors, Quail and Snail. Whale at first mistakes Snail for another rock, but Snail clarifies, “The name’s Snail,” and hands Whale a business card that also includes their pronouns, “they/them.” This is presented as a matter of course, with no special attention drawn to it. Whale and Quail simply accept Snail’s pronouns and move on.
There are some misunderstandings when Snail accidentally knocks over Whale’s rock friends, but Whale is forgiving and the three new friends soon enjoy their tea party together. The book’s messages about friendship, forgiveness, and not making assumptions are lightly done, without weighing down this whimsical tale.
While publishers should be careful not to make all LGBTQ representation that of animals (and at least one early picture book, Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, was updated recently to include humans instead of the original anthropomorphic characters), animal characters are a staple of picture books in general, and there’s no reason they, too, shouldn’t sometimes have LGBTQ identities, especially when presented as no big deal. (See also Whole Whale, another great whale-themed book from 2021 (though a picture book) that includes a pair of same-sex male lions.) Not only that, but most real snails in fact have both male and female reproductive organs, so it actually makes sense that an anthropomorphic one might choose to use they/them (though A Whale of a Tea Party does not go into any of this). Let’s be sure not to assume that all nonbinary humans have similar biology, of course (or that all intersex people identify as nonbinary)—but it’s great to see Snail offering an example of they/them pronoun use.
Whale of a Tea Party is a “Level 2” early reader, with slightly longer sentences but no chapters, and the start of a new series. I can’t wait for more!
