A happy celebration of family members with a variety of gender identities, expressions, and titles, by the queer and trans author-illustrator couple behind stationery company Ash + Chess.
“I like to wear pearls just like my daddy,” the book begins, with the image of a child who reads as a boy and his mustachioed daddy, both lying in a bed of flowers and wearing strands of pearls. Each page then shows a different child indicating something they like to do with a family member, including a daddy, mommy, papa, mama, sister, brother, and more, as well as those with less common (at least in the U.S.) and nonbinary familial titles, including baba, zaza, nibling, zizi, titi, nini, bibi, aba, and grandy.
While each page follows the same format, the activities and family members differ, and show a lovely range of gender identity, expression, and gender-defying interests. There are boys who like crafts and girls who like sports. One child likes to dress up with mustachioed, dress-wearing bibi; another likes to do carpentry with “mama and her sweetie.” We see sisters who like chemistry, a child who likes to paint nails with papa, a boy who likes to bake with grandpa, and more.
The final page, however, happily asserts, “I like to be myself just like . . . me!”
I particularly love that this book showcases some of the many familial titles used by real queer families, many of which I’ve collected over the years as part of the The Mombian LGBTQ Parental Names Project. (Please visit and add your own!) These names need to be represented not only for the families that use them, but also to normalize them to help others refer to them correctly.
The illustrations are vibrant and dynamic, showing a wide range of racial/ethnic identities, and the book includes a sticker sheet at the end, with images representing some of the activities from the book.
A simple but recommended title.
