transgender

Penelope is “no ordinary kid.” Penelope is a ninja—strong and smart, with ninja moves. It’s hard to be a ninja with a name like “Penelope,” though, when everyone calls you “cute.” And no one sees that Penelope is a boy—so he has to tell them, in an affirming new picture book that is also a true story, written by the real boy’s mother.

Kyle Lukoff, author of the Stonewall Award-winning When Aidan Became a Brother and the Max and Friends series (both about transgender boys), has just published his first middle grade novel. That in itself should be enough for you to go read it immediately. If you need more convincing, though, or just want to know a little more about it, however, here’s a review.

In a new picture book by the real-life mother of a transgender daughter, a young boy isn’t quite sure what’s happening when his younger sibling, whom he thought was a boy, begins to want long hair and to wear dresses. The whole family learns together in this story that adds to the small number of picture books about transgender children and their siblings.