This Stonewall Book Award winner takes us on a joyous trip to a Pride Parade, where we meet a diverse group of dykes on bikes, people in leather, drag queens and others of varying gender expressions, politicians, marching bands, and parents with their children.
The bouncy rhymes (“This day in June/Parade starts soon” … “Motors roaring/Spirits soaring”) convey feelings and snapshots of parade scenes rather than a narrative storyline, but that doesn’t lessen the book’s impact. We’re introduced to dykes on bikes, people in leather, drag queens and others of varying gender expressions, politicians, marching bands, and parents with their children. The diverse characters in Kristyna Litten’s colorful illustrations jump and dance and swirl.
In a “Reading Guide” at the end, author Gayle Pitman explains many of the references to LGBTQ history and culture. A “Note to Parents and Caregivers,” geared towards “heterosexual” (and presumably cisgender) parents but useful for all, explains how to talk to children about sexual orientation and gender identity in age-appropriate ways. The book is published by Magination Press, an imprint of the LGBTQ-friendly American Psychological Association, so readers can be confident the advice is developmentally sound.
