A thoughtful book from the perspective of a boy talking to his sibling about his response when she told him she was a girl, not a boy as people had assumed. While he struggles sometimes to remember to use the right name and pronouns for her, and sometimes resents the extra attention she seems to be receiving, he ultimately realizes that they can still have fun together and he loves her as his sister. Author Adria Karlsson makes a point of dispelling gender stereotypes, for example, by the narrator saying that his sibling had long hair, but he knows that doesn’t make someone a girl. He even knows someone who is both a boy and girl and uses they/them. When he asks his sibling if she’s sure about her identity, she confidently tells him she is.
The siblings’ parents are accepting from the start. They get picture books from the library about “kids like you” and meet other families like theirs. The boy learns the word “transgender,” helps other kids remember his sister’s new identity, and sometimes goes with his sister to the “Rainbow Kids” lunch at school, with LGBTQ kids and those with LGBTQ family members. He meets older transgender kids and others “who weren’t he or she.”
Still, the boy struggles with his feelings and sometimes gets frustrated when he doesn’t use the right words or when Daisy gets all the attention. His parents stress how important it is to treat Daisy as she is inside, and that the “special attention” will fade over time as people begin to accept her. In the end, the narrator affirms that he loves Daisy as his sister and best friend.
The father is Black, the mother White; the siblings have skin tones between them.
This story is somewhat similar to Sam Is My Sister, by Ashley Rhodes-Courter and illustrated by MacKenzie Haley (Albert Whitman). Both were written by the real-life mothers of transgender daughters. My Sister, Daisy offers more insight in to the cisgender child’s feelings; Sam Is My Sister shows more of the transgender child’s journey to realizing her identity. Sam Is My Sister also shows Sam’s struggle against bullies and her sadness when she can’t be who she is. We also see Sam’s parents being more cautious than Daisy’s in letting Sam wear girls’ clothes. They then meet with “some doctors and experts” and come to be fully supportive. My Sister, Daisy, in contrast, shows Daisy knowing who she is from the start; her parents are immediately accepting. There are no encounters with teasing or bullies. Families will likely find one story or the other resonates more with them. (And for a story from the perspective of a cisgender girl with a transgender brother, try Jack, Not Jackie, by Erica Silverman and illustrated by Holly Hatam (Little Bee)).
Families should welcome My Sister, Daisy as a tool to help children understand and support a transgender sibling. Those using it in a school or library setting with a larger audience, though, should be aware that, like Sam Is My Sister and Jack, Not Jackie, it should not replace books about transgender children told from the perspectives of trans children (and trans authors) themselves. (Try any of the books by Kyle Lukoff or look through my database at the picture books about transgender girls and transgender boys for others.) Nevertheless, for the audience of siblings that it is targeting, My Sister, Daisy is a warm and sympathetic story.
