The variations of gender go far beyond man and woman, and even beyond nonbinary, as we learn in this book that introduces young readers to a range of genders from numerous cultures around the world.
The book opens with a Moosomin First Nation and Two Spirit person who introduces themself and the idea that “many cultures around the world have different genders specific to them.” We then meet some of these people, who each get a spread with an image and text, as they introduce themselves and share a little about their gender and what it means in their culture.
There is a mahu person from Hawaii, a ba muxe person from Oaxaca, Mexico, a hijra born in India and raised in Pakistan, a “female husband” from Nigeria, an X-gender person from Japan, a ‘dan daudu from the Hausa of Sub-Saharan Africa, and more. It’s a wide and impressive range.
Most of the people in the book proudly state their own genders. Two spreads stand out, however, for not doing so. In the spread about Aboriginal identities, the characters tell us about two Aboriginal nonbinary terms (sistergirl and brotherboy), but don’t specifically say that those terms are how they identify. One might assume so, but the contrast with the other strong statements of personal identity stands out. On another spread, a rabbi notes that from studying the Talmud, the rabbi has learned that ancient Jewish law lists as many as eight genders. The rabbi hopes to share this information to broaden people’s minds. But is the rabbi doing so an ally, or as someone of a nonbinary gender? We don’t know. Again, this contrasts with the personal statements on most of the other pages. It would have been nice to see a clear example of a contemporary Jewish, nonbinary person, and not just hear about references from ancient texts.
Nevertheless, this is an impressive and wide-ranging compilation that should open the eyes of young readers—and even many of their adults— to just how much nonbinary identities are woven into and honored in cultures around the world.
Author Cassandra Jules Corrigan, in an Author’s Note, says that some of the characters have been inspired by real people. They also acknowledge that although they tried to research and present these topics carefully, as a white American, they may have made some mistakes.
Backmatter also includes an activity to help readers research more about the genders in their cultures, and a map where they can place the names of the identities mentioned in the book.
The level of vocabulary (“aspire,” “stigmatized,” “aspects,” “transcending”) gears this towards the end of the picture-book age range. I also don’t know of a comparable book for middle-grade readers, so even slightly older readers might find it useful, too.
