Atara wears a crown everywhere—even to swim lessons, and playing basketball in school with the other girls. As a trans girl, she finds it helps show people that she’s a girl, not a boy. Her name, which she chose for herself, actually means “crown.”
One night, her mother reads her a story for the Jewish holiday of Purim, about the saving of the Jewish people by the Persian Queen Esther. Esther, Atara learns, not only also wore a crown, but hid her (Jewish) identity, just like Atara used to hide her trans identity from her parents. Although Atara notes that she was at first “afraid” about telling her parents that she was a girl, not a boy like they thought, there is no sense that she experienced any negativity or questioning about it once she did come out.
Queen Esther quickly becomes Atara’s role model, and Atara is thrilled when she gets to play her in drama class. Her performance is a big hit.
When she forgets her crown as she’s heading to school the next day, however, she wonders if she can still be like Esther without the headpiece. But the ongoing praise of her peers about her performance helps give her the self-confidence to realize that a crown is less important than what she feels inside.
One might question the premise that a crown is inherently a marker of girlhood—kings wear them, too—but if one little girl sees her particular crown as indicating her femininity, who are we to argue?
This is a sweet addition to the small but growing number of culturally specific and LGBTQ-inclusive picture books. Light touches of humor, like Atara’s demand for “royal orange juice,” lighten the pedagogical intent, while moments like Atara unremarkably participating in the girls’ gym class underscore important lessons of inclusion. A color-in crown at the end adds a touch of interactivity.
Atara, her mother, and Queen Esther have light tan skin and brown hair; the Persian King Ahasuerus is pale. The book uses a dyslexia-friendly font.
