“Mommy calls me her songbird,” begins this semi-autobiographical story by Broadway star Billy Porter, with Chris Clarkson. At school, though, the protagonist tries to stay quiet and fit in; the other kids tease him for how he walks and talks. The encouragement of a teacher, however, helps him to find his bravery and sing—letting his songs fly up to the sky and his self-worth to shine. As the lyrical text takes us through his journey, the vibrant images by Charly Palmer show the boy slowly stepping onto a stage to perform at school, as his voice and his spirit fly up with the birds.
The queer inclusion here is not explicit, but one may surmise that the protagonist has been teased for liking gender atypical activities. In an Author’s Note, Porter shares that he was bullied in school and that “Mini-Me was what the church folk would call ‘a little funny,’ which was their ‘nice’ way of saying they thought I was queer.” He observes, “I didn’t even have the language to label who and what I was before I was already being punished for it.” A fifth-grade talent show changed his life, however, and “singing became my superpower.” He wrote the book, he says, “to remind children of their own joy” and the love that comes from within. Evocative and inspirational, this is a recommended volume that should do just that.
