Patrick is a young White boy who loves to wear his purple polka-dot tights with his snowsuit, while dressing up for a tea party with his sister, and to keep his toes warm in bed. The tights, however, aren’t his—they belong to his sister Penelope’s. Most of the time, she doesn’t care if he borrows them, but she needs them to wear for her piano recital. His sister “didn’t deserve those tights,” Patrick thinks during the recital, since “she failed to appreciate their many uses,” including as a rescue rope, dog leash, and more. We even see Patrick wearing them for “a strut down the catwalk” in heels and a dress.
When Penelope accidentally stains the tights with ice cream after the recital, Patrick is distraught. When the family then stops at a superstore for groceries and lightbulbs, however, Patrick’s dad buys him a whole pack of several colorful tights. We see Patrick using them imaginatively in the final pages, and keeping the purple polka-dot ones which, despite the stain, “were still perfect.” Readers should appreciate this story about a gender creative boy that doesn’t involve anyone questioning or harassing him for his gender creativity.
