Friday, June 23, 2023

picture book recs (round 8)

Okay, it's been two and a half years since my last recs post (Dec 2020), and I have managed to force myself to finish a post.

My reading has definitely gone down since my capacity for everything went down in the pandemic. Most of what I've been reading has been recommended to me by someone, so I'm not sure how much my standards are high/different vs. I'm just burnt-out (I brefly got really enthused about some books in late December 2021/early January 2022, but then slipped back) that I haven't been excited to rec a lot of books myself. Though I've definitely gotten excited about some picturebooks in 2023, so *shrug emoji*.

board books:

queer/gender picturebooks:
  • My Dad Thinks I’m a Boy?!: A Trans Positive Children's Book by Sophie Labelle
  • Pride Puppy written by Robin Stevenson & illustrated by Julie McLaughlin
  • Fred Gets Dressed by Peter Brown -- Betsy Bird rightly notes that this isn't really about being trans, but I appreciate its normalization of gender-non-conformity
  • Love, Violet written by Charlotte Sullivan Wild & illustrated by Charlene Chua -- elementary school girls in lurve!
  • [available in board book and picture book] Being You: A First Conversation about Gender words by Megan Madison and Jessica Ralli & art by Anne/Andy Passchier
  • If You're a Kid Like Gavin: The True Story of a Young Trans Activist written by Gavin Grimm and Kyle Lukoff & illustrated by J Yang -- I had worried this would be targeted only at trans kid readers, but it does a good job connecting trans experience
  • Payden's Pronoun Party written by Blue Jaryn & illustrated by Xochitl Cornejo
  • Bathe the Cat written by Alice B. McGinty & illustrated by David Roberts -- not ABOUT being queer, just casually has 2 dads in a mixed-race family, but also it has great casual queer representation like the magnets on the fridge (trans pride flag!)
  • No One Owns the Colors written by Gianna Davy & illustrated by Brenda Rodríguez -- which, per the title, is pretty broad, but also clearly opens with pushing back against the idea that "pink is for girls and blue is for boys," and is consistently applicable to gender non-conformity etc. (I also appreciate its normalization of change with the line "I'll copy the trees and I'll change with the seasons;" and I appreciate the line "there are colors we're made of and colors we choose" without any value judgments)
  • And That’s Their Family! written by Kailee Coleman & illustrated by Jamie Malone -- explicitly includes poly families in its representation; and has queer rep in lots of the illustrations, not just the ones "about" queer families
other picturebooks:

***

Reminder to please purchase your books from independent bookstores (see, e.g., this list of Black Owned Bookstores in the United States or these lists of A[A]PI-owned bookstores from EpicReads and Libro.fm). Most will ship to you. And if there are books you can't find at your preferred indie bookstore (though most will special-order for you), you can also shop on BookShop.org -- which has an affiliate program supporting independent bookstores (I first learned about it when my local indie was closed due to pandemic).

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Friday, March 31, 2023

[TDOV 2023] book recs

Continuing to (attempt to) make this an annual thing.

March 2021, after my partner asked me, "I’m proofing a Transgender Day of Visibility doc for someone in [a Facebook group]. Do you have particular kid or adult books you’d recommend? (And how is it that I don’t actually have any?)" I pulled a bunch of book recs and made a post, and have been trying to do it annually (you can check out the trans tag).

This post is definitely smaller than past years -- largely due to fatigue/burnout/etc. impacting how much reading I did, period (despite the hopeful intentions I expressed in my post last year) and also how many words I could pull together about what I read (as you can see).

I wanna say (as I did last year) that I've read most all the extant trans picturebooks at this point, but I literally have about a half a dozen on my shelf right now that I haven't had a chance to read yet. 😂 (In my defense, most of them came out in the past year or so, some of them very recently.)

I continue to include the publication year (and publisher), since I know queer lit can often feel dated as Discourse, language, etc. changes. I also tried to flag the identities of the authors as far as I knew, since I want to mainly center trans voices.

picturebooks

[general] Payden's Pronoun Party written by Blue Jaryn & illustrated by Xochitl Cornejo (2022, Page Street Publishing Company) -- both author and illustrator use they/them pronouns

This book reminds me of What Are Your Words? A Book About Pronouns but the narrative of this one feels more ... organic?
[trans masc] If You're a Kid Like Gavin: The True Story of a Young Trans Activist written by Gavin Grimm and Kyle Lukoff & illustrated by J Yang (2022, Katherine Tegen Books) -- both authors are trans men; illustrator is a queer Asian-American
You may have encountered some of the news stories about Gavin Grimm. I wasn't sure how this would translate to a picture book for a wide audience, but this book really works well.

middle grade

Different Kinds of Fruit by Kyle Lukoff (Dial/Penguin Random House, 2022) -- author is a trans man
I loved this book so much! A non-binary kid shows up at our 6th-grade protagonist Annabelle's small school, and blows open her world in a lot of disruptive, but exciting ways. A lot of educating happens in the book, but it feels really organic. The epilogue-y bit didn't really work for me, but the overall happy ending did (I know some reviewers felt like it was too fast/easy, but it generally felt earned to me).

adult

(Note: These are all by/about trans women. As a cis woman, I've generally been more interested in stories by/about women. Also, my partner is a trans femme/woman, so I read a lot of books with/for her.)

[short story collection] A Dream of a Woman by Casey Plett (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2021) -- author is a Canadian trans woman

Although the protagonists in this collection are younger than the ones in A Safe Girl to Love, the characters in this collection feel more grounded in their lives.
Detransition, Baby by Torrey Peters (One World / Penguin Random House, 2020) -- author is a USian trans woman
I'm honestly surprised and impressed that this book got published, given its immediate opening with some potentially off-putting stuff. I hesitate to recommend it to cis people both for that reason (and there's rough stuff throughout the book) and because it's not a starter book, period. One Autostraddle review is titled, "“Detransition, Baby” Is a Book For Trans Women — The Rest of You Are Lucky to Read It."

Per the provocative title, it says some smart things about detransition, as well as a lot of other things about trans experience. It's a trans book that's really honest about a lot of the mess, that isn't catering to cis readers. The characters aren't always likable, but the multiple POVs work well to help us understand where characters are coming from, even if we don't always approve of their decisions.

One of our three protagonists, Katrina, is mixed-race (half-Chinese and half-Jewish), and the author is, I believe, white. While Katrina definitely checks other characters on their white privilege at times, I've read reviews by POCs (I'm white) which compellingly point out how this is still a very white novel (in the treatment of Katrina among other things).

Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki (Tor / Macmillan, 2021) -- author is a Japanese-American trans woman
There are 3 (female) protagonists in this book -- 1 of whom is a young mixed-race trans girl violin prodigy (also named Katrina, it occurs to me). She experiences both micro- and macro-aggressions, but there's also a lot of joy in the story. She sometimes has to educate well-meaning cis people, but that's only a small part of the novel. There are aliens and pacts with demons and So Much Food.
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[TDOV 2022] book recs

So, pandemic depression meant I was late finishing this post (figuring out words to say about books is hard!). So, uh, you get 2 posts this year? The summary at the top was written last year, but I didn't finish writing words about some of the books until this year. (And lbr, this is, in fact, still very rought draft; but I didn't wanna get even further behind.)

Last March, after my partner asked me, "I’m proofing a Transgender Day of Visibility doc for someone in [a Facebook group]. Do you have particular kid or adult books you’d recommend? (And how is it that I don’t actually have any?)" I pulled a bunch of book recs and made this post.

I also started reading some of the back catalog on my TBR (as well as adding a lot more books to my TBR), and a year later I have another set of recs -- though honestly not as many as I had expected.

As with last time, I included the publication year (and publisher), since I know queer lit can often feel dated as Discourse, language, etc. changes. I also tried to flag the identities of the authors as far as I knew, since I want to mainly center trans voices.

I've read most all the extant trans picturebooks at this point (though there were a bunch of recent new releases and I haven't been able to get my hands on all of them yet), but there's lots of exciting stuff happening in MG/YA which I'm hoping to get to read more of this coming year (though I will also be eating up picture books as they come out) -- and maybe some of the adult books I intended to read this past year and didn't get to? 🤷🏻‍♀️🙏🏻🤞🏻📚

picturebooks: general | trans parent | trans-masc | trans-fem

middle grade | young adult | adult

picturebooks

general

What Are Your Words? A Book About Pronouns written by Katherine Locke & illustrated by Anne "Andy" Passchier (2021, Hachette) -- both author and illustrator use "they" pronouns

I worry a little that this book will lead to kids asking people "What are your words?", which won't make sense to anyone who hasn't read this book. But I do appreciate teaching kids to ask rather than assume.

Ari also uses very embodied language when talking about the feeling of trying on words that don't fit. Which I like as a way of encouraging kids to check in with their bodies about what does or does not feel right for them.

This book models a variety of pronouns, and I appreciate that the non-binary characters have a variety of gender presentations -- not just the current popular image of androgyny. It also honors the fact that sometimes the words we want people to use for use change frequently, and aren't even always immediately clear to ourselves.

Other diversity notes: There's a wheelchair user and also someone with a prosthetic foot. And a friend of a friend pointed out the predominance of traditionally Jewish names (our protagonist Ari, Ari's uncle Lior, Ari's sister Rachel).

Jamie and Bubbie: A Book About People’s Pronouns written by Afsaneh Moradian & illustrated by Maria Bogade (2020, Free Spirit Publishing) both author and illustrator use "she" pronouns and give no indication in the book bio of being not-cis
Jamie's Bubbie comes to visit and incorrectly assumes the pronouns of various people she meets. I really appreciate the modeling of a child correcting an elder, though it's a little plot-less/awkward.
I was more meh on its predecessor book: Jamie Is Jamie: A Book About Being Yourself and Playing Your Way written by Afsaneh Moradian & illustrated by Maria Bogade (2018, Free Spirit Publishing).

Being You: A First Conversation About Gender written by Megan Madison and Jessica Ralli & illustrated by Anne/Andy Passchier (2021, Rise X Penguin Workshop)

This talks about a variety of concepts in child-accessible ways. (Some reviewers think the material/topic is too advanced for the board book set, but I don't think so.) There are also questions to ask the child-reader as you go through the book.

The backmatter has more information for adult readers (which also helps).

Worth a mention, too, although the focus is not on trans characters per se, are two books about bodies that have clear representation of trans men with top surgery scars, among people of many other identities (queer and not): Bodies Are Cool by Tyler Feder (Dial Books, 2021) and the 2021 update of the originally-1986 The Bare Naked Book written by Kathy Stinson & illustrated by Melissa Cho (Annick Press).

trans parent

She's My Dad!: A Story for Children Who Have a Transgender Parent or Relative (2020) and He's My Mom!: A Story for Children Who Have a Transgender Parent or Relative (2021) written by Sarah Savage & illustrated by Joules Garcia (Jessica Kingsley Publishers)

I don't love these books, but if you're looking for something in the niche market of "picturebook for a child about a parent or other adult transitioning," they're pretty good. The books try to balance being a story about a kid who just happens to have a trans parent with also educating the reader, and it feels a little uneven, but not too bad -- and the education it's giving is pretty solid.

I have a preference for the Dad book, though that's in part because because I read it first (but only in part; it's also an objectively better book).

trans-masc

Sam! written by Dani Gabriel & illustrated by Robert Liu-Trujillo (2019, Penny Candy Books)
[The author said: "Sam! is a product of my experience as a queer, gender nonconforming person as well as a parent of a transgender child."]

There's some subtle Latinx coding, and this is maybe the only Latinx trans picturebook I've come across other than some bilingual ones with non-binary/gender-non-conforming protagonists (They Call Me Mix/Me Llaman Maestre written by Lourdes Rivas, 2018, about a non-binary person; One of a Kind, Like Me / Único Como Yo written by Laurin Mayeno, 2016, about a boy who wants to dress up as a princess; and arguably Call Me Tree/Llamame árbol written by Maya Christina Gonzalez, 2014, which is trying to be gender-free). In contrast to those books, our child protagonist here is decidedly a boy.

I'm Not a Girl: A Transgender Story written by Maddox Lyons and Jessica Verdi & illustrated by Dana Simpson (2020, Roaring Brook Press)
[A 12-year-old trans boy (Maddox) wrote this book (with assistance from an adult co-author), and the illustrator is a trans woman.]

A fairly straightforward story about a trans boy trying to tell his parents he's really a boy.

Hannah (our protagonist) doesn't have anyone malicious in his life -- his parents just don't pick up on his rejection of girl things. (We also get an example of how pervasive certain gender norms are, when Hannah picks out a pirate costume and his mother then purchases the "girl" pirate costume, rather than the traditional boy-coded pirate costume Hannah had picked out.)

While the book follows Hannah's frustration, it doesn't dwell in the pain such that I think it would be difficult for a trans kid to read. There are some really poignant moments, though. Like at one point Hannah is out playing in the snow, and his dad tells him to put on his (pink) jacket, and Hannah narrates: "I flop down into the snow and make another angel. I'd rather be cold and wet than not be me."

Hannah eventually meets a couple of kids who introduce him to the term "transgender" (they have a transgender cousin). It hadn't occurred to me until I started reading GR reviews that it matters that this book uses the term "transgender" explicitly. It gives trans kids additional language for themselves and also normalizes the term for all child readers.

I was pretty meh on Calvin written by J.R. Ford and Vanessa Ford & illustrated by Kayla Harren (2021, G.P. Putnam's Sons Books for Young Readers) and Born Ready: The True Story of a Boy Named Penelope written by Jodie Patterson & illustrated by Charnelle Pinkney Barlow (2021, Crown Books for Young Readers), but they're both stories of Black trans boys in supportive communities, which feels valuable. They're both written by parents about their sons' experiences.

trans-fem

My Dad Thinks I’m a Boy?!: A Trans Positive Children's Book by Sophie Labelle (2020, Jessica Kingsley Publishers) -- author is a trans woman

I appreciate how many notes this book manages to hit while still feeling fun and not Teachy.

My Sister, Daisy written by Adria Karlsson & illustrated by Linus Curci (2021, Capstone) -- writer is mother of a trans girl; author is a trans man

I was a little hesitant to read this book, because I'd rather center trans voices and trans stories, but I went to a (virtual) event with the author and illustrator, and the author talked about how when her daughter came out, they (the parents) wanted books to help the siblings, which is valid.

Although the author's family is white, the illustrator made the intentional choice to make the family in the book multi-racial, for representation reasons.

middle grade

Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff (2021, Penguin Random House) -- author is a trans man

This book is only kind of about being trans. In the Author's Note at the end of the book, Lukoff writes:
When people ask what my book is about, I say, "It's about a kid being haunted by the ghost of their dead uncle into figuring out something important." Bug never uses they/them pronouns, but I hope that if I say it quickly enough, the person I'm talking to won't really notice. If the person asks for more details, I might say that it's kind of a scary story, and also a sad story but with a mostly happy ending, and that it's about figuring out how to make friends, being who you are, and letting go of someone you love.
Because this book, of course, is a trans story. It had been out long enough by the time I read it that I knew that going in -- and in fact that's a big reason I picked it up in the first place. I appreciated reading it knowing that Bug would figure out by the end that he's a trans boy, but I understand Lukoff not necessarily wanting to rob readers of the experience of figuring it out on their own as they read. (Certainly I generally avoid spoilers.)

young adult

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas (2020, Macmillan) -- author is non-binary, queer Latinx

My friend Sophia's friend billed it to them as: "trans boy tries to prove to his family that he's a boy by doing the boy magic of summoning a ghost -- but he summons the wrong ghost, and oh no he's cute"

The book is, in fact, a delight.

adult

[short story collection] A Safe Girl to Love by Casey Plett (2014, Topside Press) -- author is a Canadian trans woman

The back cover blurb says, "Eleven unique short stories that stretch from a rural Canadian Mennonite town to a hipster gay bar in Brooklyn, featuring young trans women stumbling through loss, sex, harassment, and love."

I really appreciate how much it centers trans women's voices and identities.

My partner said of the first story: "Spoilers: the story is about all the micro aggressions that trans people face when interacting with the people who knew them pre-transition, no matter how well-intentioned those people are." The stories aren't all bleak, though.

There are ways in which the characters are variations on a theme, but I didn't feel like they were repetitive. Characters sometimes show up in each other's stories, which I appreciated -- since folks exist in community.

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Wednesday, March 31, 2021

[TDOV 2021] book recs

My partner messaged me earlier this month: "I’m proofing a Transgender Day of Visibility doc for someone in [a Facebook group]. Do you have particular kid or adult books you’d recommend? (And how is it that I don’t actually have any?)"

I made some preliminary recommendations based on my memory and then started digging through assorted tags ("shelves") on my GoodReads (and yes, I know, I should move to StoryGraph) to come up with more thorough recommendations.

This is not a complete list of every acceptable (or even good) book about trans identity I've ever read. I definitely added more books to my TBR list in this process, and am of course always open to recommendations (and am also happy to field questions about books I have read that aren't on this recs list; I curbed my impulse to include a Not Recommended appendix 😂).

I included the publication year (and publisher), since I know queer lit can often feel dated as Discourse, language, etc. changes. I also tried to flag the identities of the authors as far as I knew, since I want to mainly center trans voices.

picturebooks

general

It Feels Good to Be Yourself: A Book About Gender Identity (2019, Macmillan) written by Theresa Thorn & illustrated by Noah Grigni [Written by the mother of a transgender child and illustrated by a non-binary artist.]
God bless this book. It's a little teachy, but the illustrations are colorful, and the text is fairly simple. It introduces kids to concepts around gender identity, and it's really good.
I don't love Maya Gonzalez' work, but They, She, He: Easy as ABC (2019, Reflection Press) isn't too bad (the purple dancing one, as opposed to the green narrative-less one). [#OwnVoices note: I think the co-authors are cis?]
It's an alphabet book, and each letter is a rhyming couplet about a different child being active in some way -- so you get to practice various pronouns, because the kid gets named in the first line (the alphabet letter) and then is referred to in the third person in the second line.

One failing: as with They She He Me: Free to Be! (the 2017 green book, which is mostly just a series of illustrations of people with accompanying pronouns, and then a bunch of backmatter), there isn't really any modeling of how one declines these pronouns -- two people use "ze," but neither time does the couplet use it other than in the "ze" form.

non-binary
Stacey's Not a Girl (2017) written by Colt Keo-Meier & illustrated by Jesse Yang [re: #OwnVoices, the author is a trans man, and the back cover indicates: "Elements of this story come from each transgender man who contributed to this book, loved ones, and fellow community members."]
trans-masculine kid who may or may not be non-binary, and not-knowing is OKAY ♥

This book is very much About being non-binary, but I think it pulls it off pretty well. And it includes a lot of information in a way that feels really child-appropriate, in addition to not feeling Too Teachy.

The Great Space Adventure (2019, Flamingo Rampant) written by Ryka Aoki [a Japanese American trans woman] & illustrated by Cai Steele
-- an Asian kid who contains multitudes goes on a fantastic journey

Nande likes their long hair and their short hair. "Nande liked to twirl and be big. Nande liked to hide and be small."

People are constantly asking Nande "Why?" but the Moon never does -- and the Moon is changeable like Nande. "The Moon would be dark, then crescent, grow full, then back again. On some nights, the moon seemed almost still. On others, the moon would wander across the sky."

I already loved this book for that metaphor.

We then follow Nande and the Moon on a journey to visit various planets -- which are personified in various different racial/gender configurations (one even uses a wheelchair!), and each of whom has a personality element in common with Nande.

trans-masc (both written by the same trans man author, who I believe is white)
When Aidan Became a Brother (2019, Lee & Low) written by Kyle Lukoff & illustrated by Kaylani Juanita
-- Aidan is a (brown) trans boy, and he wants to make sure everything is perfect for his new sibling-to-be; MY HEART!

Call Me Max (Max and Friends #1) (2019, Reycraft Books) written by Kyle Lukoff & illustrated by Luciano Lozano

This book is such a delight! It starts off Educational, but quickly pivots to education-by-way-of-narrative in a way that I think works well. It hits all the major points in a way that feels organic to our protagonist child's school experience and doesn't feel like just checking off boxes. There's conflict, but just enough to move the story along, and honestly I appreciate stories about trans kids where everyone is basically supportive. It's such good modeling for trans kids of how things can be, and for everyone else about how to do the right thing.
Max is white, but his two closest friends are brown and also gender non-conforming. Max's trans-ness is much more incidental in the next two books, but his [Black, male] friend Steven's penchant for wearing fancy dresses etc. comes up a lot in the next book, Max and the Talent Show. Gender non-conformity does not equal trans, so I'm mostly not including the "princess boy/sparkle boy" vein of books in this list, but I did want to mention this book while I was glossing the other books in this series.
trans-fem
My Rainbow (2020, Penguin Random House) written by Trinity Neal and Deshanna Neal & illustrated by Art Twink -- autistic Black trans girl (co-authored by said girl and her mother)
Based on the authors' own experience, Trinity is an autistic Black trans girl who wants long hair but has sensory sensitivities. This book covers a lot, but also has a clear narrative throughline, and doesn't feel like too much.

The Adventures of Tulip, Birthday Wish Fairy (2012, Flamingo Rampant) written by S. Bear Bergman [a trans man] & illustrated by Suzy Malik

Tulip receives a Birthday Wish from a trans kid, and I didn't love that Tulip is initially confused, but it does allow for some gentle in-story teaching as The Wish Fairy Captain very matter-of-factly (and gently, at a kid-appropriate level but not dumbing down or oversimplifying) explains -- and provides excellent modeling like, "we're going to help her. We start by calling her by the name she chose, Daniela. It shows we like her and believe in her."
middle grade
Magical Princess Harriet (2018, Dag Gadol) by Rabbi Leiah Moser [who I think is an autistic trans woman]
A Jewish kid entering 7th grade learns she's a princess (which helps her figure out she's really a girl, not a boy) and nephilim are trying to take over her town. Her best friend is an autistic girl, and they make friends with a goth boy. #TagYourself
Not a joke, though, I really enjoyed this book.

[graphic novel] The Prince and the Dressmaker (2018, Macmillan) by Jen Wang (who I think is cis?)

One of my friends said, "It's sweet and gentle and a really wonderful look at one way to be gender non-conforming. It's also about being a good friend and chasing your dreams, supporting others, and finding the right balance between personal needs and friendship." Which is a great summation of this book.

(Yes, I know I said I wasn't gonna include gender non-conforming rep in this list -- but this book has such a place in my heart as my genderfluid/genderqueer/maybe-a-trans-girl femme fashion partner bought this in the gift shop after we went to a Gender Bending Fashion exhibit. Also, fwiw, according to Wikipedia:

Wang wrote the character of Sebastian/Crystallia as "someone who identifies with different modes of gender expression and is comfortable alternating between both masculine and feminine", noting that she might call the character genderqueer but that other interpretations of the character's relationship to their gender presented by readers were also valid. )
adult (mostly nonfiction)
Trans Allyship Workbook: Building Skills to Support Trans People in Our Lives (Revised, updated and expanded for 2017; Think Again Training) by Davey Shlasko [who is a trans person]
-- This has a lot more reading text than I was expecting from something billed as a "workbook," but it's solid. Chapter 4, on pronouns, is the most obvious reason to recommend/read this book.

Fucking Trans Women (Issue #0) (2010) by Mira Bellwether -- ebook/PDF of an 80-page zine by a trans woman
-- I'm bummed the future issues (with writings from other people) never got made, but this is still pretty great. The "soft bodies" essay is so relevant for everyone, not just trans women and the people who fuck them. Also, I learned a fun new way to fuck people who have inguinal canals.

Whipping Girl: A Transsexual Woman on Sexism and the Scapegoating of Femininity by Julia Serano (2007/2016, Seal Press)
-- Okay, I haven't read the second edition yet (and I read the first edition back in like 2008? 2013?), but I remember it being good.

The Soul of the Stranger: Reading God and Torah from a Transgender Perspective (2018, Brandeis University Press) by Joy Ladin (a Jewish trans woman)
-- I think Ladin's perspective on reading texts from a trans perspective is really interesting even if you aren't interested in these particular texts. She's not asserting that these characters are trans, but that they share experiences in common with many trans folks. As examples, one reviewer lists: "How did Abraham’s rejection of his responsibilities as Terach’s firstborn son, or Jacob’s claiming of his brother’s birthright, impact how they related to those around them, and to their culture’s understanding of masculinity? Can we explore the tension of the Golden Calf incident as arising from the Israelites’ discomfort with a God who refused to be embodied in a way that made them comfortable?"

[memoir] Redefining Realness: My Path to Womanhood, Identity, Love & So Much More (2014, Simon & Schuster) by Janet Mock (a Black, mixed-race trans woman)

When I read this book in 2014, I felt familiar with trans narratives, but I hadn't thought a lot about how trans adolescents navigate their worlds, and that section of the book gave me a greater understanding of what social transition entails. The section about sex work also really helped me internalize more fully the fact that some women have penises.

I also wrote at the time:

As someone who spends a lot of time around people who are at the edge of contemporary language/thinking around gender, I appreciated how up-to-date her language feels. At the same time, it's mostly not super-obviously a teaching book -- except for the high school chapter (chapter 11), which is full of advice to adults, which feels appropriate. (At bookclub, someone raised the issue of how Grownup Janet is always explaining the story, and I think it's true that the adult voice -- the voice of someone who has done a lot of maturing and learning since many of the events of the book -- provides some distancing to the narrative.)

[poetry] A Place Called No Homeland (2017, Arsenal Pulp Press) by Kai Cheng Thom (a queer Asian-Canadian trans femme)
-- note that there are definitely dark themes in many of these poems (sexual assault and gendered and racialized violence)

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Wednesday, December 23, 2020

picture book recs (round 7)

Happy 5 years of intentionally reading picture books, to me!

With a 2-year gap since my last rec post! (lol/sob)

***

So, picking up where we last left off (post #6)...

I did power through the remaining 9 of 19 categories in Minh Lê‏'s "Best Picture Books of 2017" before the end of 2018 -- and decided I would not be repeating this exercise in 2019, since the ratio of "books I really liked" to "books on this list" was low. There were some I really liked, though:

  • The Blue Hour written & illustrated by Isabelle Simler [Honorable Mention for Best Nature/Environment] the illustrations are so beautiful
  • Flowers for Sarajevo written by John McCutcheon & illustrated by Kristy Caldwell [Honorable Mention for Most Powerful] I WEPT
  • Super Manny Stands Up! written by Kelly DiPucchio& illustrated by Stephanie Graegin [Honorable Mention for Best Friendship/Kindness]
  • Accident written & illustrated by Andrea Tsurumi [Honorable Mention for Best Design]

In post #5 I mentioned Betsy Bird's Caldecott and Newbery predictions -- which while rarely accurate, contained almost entirely books I hadn't previously encountered. I now follow her on GoodReads and consistently get recs from her but got a lot from her "31 Days, 31 Books" lists in December 2018. ... Which I didn't get very far in, because life happened (see also, the fact that it's now been 2 years[!!!] between rec lists), but:

December 1 – Board Books & Pop-Ups (Who knew I would STILL be reading board books after 3 years? I didn't love any of these, but below are ones I would varying degrees of recommend.)

And because I took forever to finish this blogpost (during which time another nibling was born), I have since read some of 2019's Great Board Books and quite liked:
  • Pride Colors written by Robin Stevenson
  • Lejos / Far written by Juan Felipe Herrera & illustrated by Blanca Gomez Stevenson [second tier]
**

I read a lot of picturebooks about consent -- most of which I was pretty meh on, but I did really like:

  • C is for Consent written by Eleanor Morrison & illustrated by Faye Orlove [board book]
**

I read some great books on gender:

Also on the subject of gender, I don't love Maya Gonzalez' work, but They, She, He: Easy as ABC isn't too bad (the purple dancing one, as opposed to the green narrative-less one).

I got the 2019: Discovery! set of Flamingo Rampant books and particularly liked:

  • Bridge of Flowers written by Leah Lakshmi Piepzna-Samarasinha & illustrated by Syrus Marcus Ware -- magic and science, and healing, and...
  • It's a Wild World written by S. Bear Bergman & illustrated by kd diamond -- queer animals!
  • The Great Space Adventure written by Ryka Aoki & illustrated by Cai Steele -- a kid who contains multitudes goes on a fantastic journey

Feeling very out of it this fall (I had heard of barely any of the GoodReads Best Picture Books Nominees this year), I did some digging for queer kidlit that came out this year and pulled a bunch of books from a Publishers Weekly "Reading with Pride: LGBTQ Books 2020." I didn't love any of the books I read off that list (and could we NOT include a picturebook biography of Ellen? on account of she treats her staff terribly, thinks "niceness" means palling around with politicians who actively worked against her community, etc.), but it did prompt me to read some other queer books that had been on my TBR list.

Which got me one solid Pride book:

  • This Day in June written by Gayle E. Pittman & illustrated by Kristyna Litten [published in 2014]
**

Some excellent books for Black kids:

**

Deciding on picturebooks for M's 4th birthday amidst novel coronavirus and a resurgence of #BlackLivesMatter, I was aware how few picturebooks I had in my recs with East Asian representation. Like, I'd done an okay job of books with African-American protagonists (though it still didn't feel great), but amidst the anti-Chinese backlash, it felt really important to expose M to positive East Asian representation.

In my Internet searching, I learned that there's an Asian/Pacific American Award for Literature. 15 years of this award, and I had previously read 3 picture book titles on it, all somewhat recent (A Different Pond and The Nian Monster from 2017-2018, and Drum Dream Girl: How One Girl’s Courage Changed Music from 2015-2016). So once ILL was a thing again (albeit too late for this birthday), I ILLed the picture book winners/honorable mentions I could get a hold of and hadn't already read.

I'm not sure I loved any of them, but I really appreciated the experience of reading them all in a fairly brief period of time. It made such a variety of representation feel so normal -- contemporary as well as historic/folkloric representation of East Asian, South Asian, and Pacific Islanders (Korean, Thai, Chinese, native Hawaiian, Japanese, Indian, Filipine, Bangladeshi, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Pakistani), in Asia and in the Americas.

While I wouldn't necessarily go out of my way to recommend these particular books individually, if these 26 books were the only books you read to your [non-Asian] kid over the course of a few weeks, it could really help shift/expand their sense of what "normal" is.

I did really love this East Asian representation book, though:

**

In trying to be more intersectional, I finally started intentionally looking for good disability-representation books and prioritized ones with Asian protagonists. I didn't love any of the ones I found, but I did read a few solid ones about white folks:

**

Another picturebook I loved:

***

Reminder to please purchase your books from independent bookstores -- see, e.g., this list of Black Owned Bookstores in the United States. Most will ship to you. And if there are books you can't find at your preferred indie bookstore (though most will special-order for you), you can also shop on BookShop.org -- which has an affiliate program supporting independent bookstores (I first learned about it when my local indie was closed due to pandemic).

***

I've maybe read 946 picturebooks in 5 years?

I exported my library; sorted by Exclusive Shelf to cut down to just "read"; then sorted by Date Read to cut everything before December 23, 2015 (though this barely changed the count, since I rarely read picturebooks an adult before Project Radical Aunt; it's also still weirdly blanking the Date Read on a lot of books, so I left those cells in, since I know a lot of them are picturebooks I've read since I started this project); and then ran a COUNTIF on the Bookshelves column:

=COUNTIF(Q2:Q1494,"*picturebooks*")

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Saturday, October 31, 2020

Transformative Justice [Super Saturday, October 2020]

Today's Super Saturday "Creating Beloved Community" session with Unity Circles and Families for Justice as Healing was So Good.

The first 3 minutes of this "What Is Transformative Justice?" video are amazing (though it's worth watching the full ~10 minutes).

adrienne maree brown:

  • talks about how we've been socialized into "punitive justice"...
  • names "restorative justice" as a first step in the right direction: "Harm has happened. How do we restore ourselves back to that relationship that existed before the harm happened?"
  • but points out that it doesn't necessarily go far enough, "because if the original conditions were unjust, then returning to those original conditions is not actually justice"...
  • says transformative justice goes down to the root system and asks what do we need to do so that this harm is no longer possible?
  • notes that the state is so committed to punitive justice that it's not going to be able to help with transformative justice, so the state is not where we should turn for this...
Mia Mingus' bare bones definition of transformative justice is: "a way of responding to violence and harm without causing more violence and harm."

Also, around minute 7, I really appreciate Ann Russo naming cultivating a culture of accountability, how starting that around small things is really preventative of large harms.

Mia Mingus then builds on that, emphasizing skill-building around:

  • good communication,
  • apologizing well,
  • having generative conflict with the people in our everyday lives,
  • teaching children about consent and accountability,
  • etc.
Mingus notes that with transformative justice, people often rush to the biggest crises and biggest forms of violence -- but that building foundational everyday things is the sustainable work that ripples out and has a larger impact.

Martina Kartman defines transformative justice as: how we prevent violence, how we intervene in violence, and then how we support each other in the aftermath of violence.

Prya Rai lifts up that so much of this work has been done by generations of people who could never rely on people outside of their communities, could never rely on the state (immigrants, queer people of color, disabled people, sex workers, etc.).

***

Also on the subject of transformative justice:

“People think of transformative justice as a lighter and easier way of accountability,” she [Camila Pelsinger, Brown University ’20] adds. “But it’s hard work. It takes months, and lots of vulnerable meetings. It’s seeing the worst things you’ve ever done and looking at them. And you have to reflect without denying it.” She has seen real change in people she works with: “A lot of people didn’t even realize how much harm they had caused, and also how deeply embedded harmful ideas about sex and consent were.”

-"Justice, in Community: A non-punitive approach", Brown Alumni Magazine

***

The Brown article above mentions "pods." More info about that idea (which originated with the Bay Area Transformative Justice Collective [BATJC] in 2014) here.

In this afternoon's Super Saturday workshop, 2 people roleplayed inviting someone into your immediate circle of support pods, and one of them suggested using a specific emoji to indicate "I need this to be a support conversation right now" and/or having specific hours that you both agree you can call on this person.

I loved this emphasis on being thoughtful strategizing in advance about how you would call on this support, and also in being really thoughtful and honest about what your capacity is to offer support.

As someone noted in chat:

Pod mapping is strategic
and thoughtful
and a process
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Sunday, December 23, 2018

picture book recs (round 6)

Happy 3 years of intentionally reading picture books, to me!

Wanna guess how many kids' books I've read during that time?

(Answer is at the bottom of this post.)

***

I noted last blogpost that people keep sharing with me links to lists of multicultural picture books and similar, which I appreciate the thought behind (it is Known that I am reading lots of picture books to select ones to buy for the nibling), but at this point I have heard of (if not read) most all the books that show up on those lists, so I was so pleased to come across Minh Lê‏'s "Best Picture Books of 2017" where I had heard of almost none of the books AND at-a-glance it appeared to be a diverse author pool. I had gotten through 7 of the 19 categories in the last roundup. I have now gotten through an additional 3. [My intention is to power through the remainder by the end of 2018. Yes, I know that's a lot of books for this Winter Break; the floor of my bedroom is very aware.] A couple I really liked:

  • The Book of Mistakes written & illustrated by Corinna Luyken [one of the Best on Creativity]
  • Claymates written by Dev Petty & illustrated by Lauren Eldridge [one of the Best on Creativity]
I also came across Taylor Pittman's "17 LGBTQ-Friendly Books To Read To Your Kid In Honor Of Pride" -- which actually had a lot of books I hadn't read, including books I hadn't even heard of. New-to-me books I particularly appreciated: I also finally read Juneteenth picturebooks -- none of which I loved, but I would recommend reading some to your kids since especially amongst us non-Black Americans, this piece of our history is often unknown.
  • Juneteenth written by Vaunda Micheaux Nelson and Drew Nelson & illustrated by Mark Schroder is a solid, child-appropriate, overview of Juneteenth.
In the lesser-known-African-American-history vein, I also liked The nibling is growing up in Florida, so I also read a lot of picturebooks about life in the water (drawing heavily on a "sea the oceans" GoodReads shelf I'd come across, though most of the ones I liked best came from Horn Book recs), including mermaids. Apparently I only liked 1 enough to actively rec it? I had been feeling like I'd read basically all the cool progressive board books and was gonna have to transition out of board books into gifting M other stuff -- and then Betsy Bird did a Top 100 Board Books Poll. My favorites (of the ones I didn't nominate myself):
  • Baby 123 written & illustrated by Deborah Donenfield [N.B. this one is unfortunately out of print -- though I got some good copies from thriftbooks on eBay]
  • Edible Colors written & illustrated by Jennifer Vogel Bass
  • I'm a Librarian (A Tinyville Town Book) written & illustrated by Brian Biggs -- it's a gay male librarian, okay; I am fond
  • My Friends written & illustrated by Taro Gomi
I was also already interested in checking out more of the Lil' Libros series (a Spanish-English board book series drawing on Mexican culture for its contents in both subject matter and illustration style). I didn't actually love them as much as I was hoping to, but I did like: After someone I follow RTed a thread about a culturally clueless Kirkus review of Where's the Potty on This Ark?, I checked out Kar-Ben's catalog. My favorites of the ones I read: Not really on purpose, I ended up reading a bunch of books on emotions/difficult issues:
  • I'm Sad written by Michael Ian Black & illustrated by Debbie Ridpath Ohi [second tier?] [With the caveat that I'm uncomfortable with the author's "redemption is hard to find" stance on the occasion of Louis CK's "comeback," and I'm not convinced how much he's learned from the pushback he got.]
  • Something Happened in Our Town: A Child's Story about Racial Injustice written by Marianne Celano, Marietta Collins, and Ann Hazzard & illustrated by Jennifer Zivoin [second tier?]
  • Allie All Along written & illustrated by Sarah Lynne Reul -- on anger
Other recs: ***

The answer to how many kids' books I've read in 3 years?

730 -- I think.

I discovered the GoodReads export library function, but it left a LOT of the Date Read cells blank (I have no idea what that glitch is), which made cutting the data to just the date range I wanted more challenging. It puts all your shelves for a given book in a single cell, but that was easily solved by running a COUNTIF.

=COUNTIF(Q2:Q985,"*picturebooks*")

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Saturday, June 23, 2018

picture books (round 5) mostly Native/Indigenous/Aboriginal

Nibling turned 2 today!

***

People keep sharing with me links to lists of multicultural picture books and similar, which I appreciate the thought behind (it is Known that I am reading lots of picture books to select ones to buy for the nibling), but at this point I have heard of (if not read) most all the books that show up on those lists.

So I was so pleased to come across Minh Lê‏'s "Best Picture Books of 2017" where I had heard of almost none of the books AND at-a-glance it appeared to be a diverse author pool. I also liked that its categories were ones I wouldn't necessarily have thought of -- most touching, most charming, best surprise, best family, best adventure, best history, funniest, most clever, best on creativity, best concept, best (auto)biography, most beautiful, best nature/outdoors, best read aloud, most exuberant/fun, most powerful, best friendship/kindness, best design, best bedtime.

So I kicked off my 2018 picture book reading with that (as if I didn't already have ~150 picture books on my to-read list...). And then got sidetracked by other things and slowly made my way through 7 of Lê‏'s 19(!) categories. I didn't actually love a lot of them, but here are some I did:

I also learned about Inhabit Media -- an Inuit-owned publishing company -- and proceeded to interlibrary loan most every picturebook I could get my hands on. [Note: I am shifting from using the term "folklore" to "traditional stories" after reading this post on American Indians in Children's Literature (AICL).]

  • The Raven and the Loon written by Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley & illustrated by Kim Smith [traditional story]
  • Ava and the Little Folk retold by Neil Christopher and Alan Neal & illustrated by Jonathan Wright [traditional story]
  • Lesson for the Wolf written by Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley & illustrated by Alan Cook [traditional story]
  • The Walrus Who Escaped written by Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley and Sean Qitsualik-Tinsley & illustrated by Anthony Brennan [traditional story]
  • Ukaliq and Kalla Go Fishing written by Nadia Mike & illustrated by Amanda Sandland [anthropomorphic animal story]
  • Hurry Up, Ilua! written & illustrated by Nora Helen Hicks [anthropomorphic animal story] mostly for the illustrations
  • Leah's Mustache Party written by Nadia Mike & illustrated by Charlene Chua
And I went through the American Indian Youth Literature Award for Best Picture Book winners and honorees.
  • I am Dreaming of... Animals of the Native Northwest written by Melaney Gleeson-Lyall & illustrated by Mervin Windsor, Maynard Johnny Jr., Eric Parnell, Ernest Swanson, Ben Houstie, Paul Windsor, Allan Weir, Terry Starr, Nicole LaRock, Simone Diamond, and Francis Horne Sr. [2018 Honor Book] [board book] I love these illustrations!
  • Little You written by Richard Van Camp & illustrated by Julie Flett [2016 Best Picture Book] [author is Tłı̨chǫ, illustrator is Cree-Metis] [board book] brb, buying copies of this for every baby
  • Caribou Song written by Tomson Highway & illustrated by John Rombough [2014 Best Picture Book] [Cree; author is full-blooded Cree and illustrator is Chipewayan Dene] for the illustrations

And I ended up checking out more recommendations of books by and about Native/Indigenous/Aboriginal peoples. (Some sidebar reading on terminology: "Natives of the Hawaiian Islands are not Indigenous People, They’re Aboriginal" & "A Note on Terminology: Inuit, Métis, First Nations, and Aboriginal" -- the latter is Canadian and is adapted from the Report on the Royal Commission on Aboriginal Peoples.)

I started doing some searching for Aboriginal Australian picturebooks, and I found a 2013 blogpost "Top Ten Indigenous-authored Children’s Books," but plugging the titles into WorldCat I found that most of them were only in Australian library systems :( (Though it was interesting seeing which non-AUS/NZ libaries had some of them -- Singapore, Japan, Canada, a few places in the US.) I wonder what other quality kidlit I'm missing out on due to its not being published much outside its country of origin (not to mention, of course, the stuff that isn't translated into English #MonolingualProblems), which I'm again reminded of when I come across stuff like Betsy Bird's "Board Books 2018: What We’ve Got Here Is an Oddly Strong Year."

In doing searches to purchase copies of books that weren't in my regional library networks, I learned that there are more Native publishing companies/bookstores than I had realized/expected -- the ones I have come across in my specific searches are below, but I know this isn't even a complete list:

When my copy of Shanyaak'utlaax: Salmon Boy (the 2018 American Indian Library Association's Youth Literature Award Best Picture Book) arrived in the mail (I ordered a copy because none of my regional library networks had a copy), I showed it to my housemate and she said, "Are you still going through books for your [nibling]?" I said, "Yes. The kid isn't even 2 years old yet, there are many years to go!" I have such a backlog of books I've "shelved," and I keep coming across more (like Betsy Bird's Caldecott and Newbery predictions, which while rarely accurate, contained almost entirely books I hadn't previously encountered).

February is Black History Month, and March is Women's History Month, so there were some kids' books that came up on recommendation lists relevant to that (plus books I saw at the Peabody Essex Museum gift shop). I didn't love any of them, but some fairly good ones are:

There was also The Conscious Kid Library's "13 Recommended #OwnVoices Reads for Ramadan." I read most of the ones I hadn't read already, and of those new-to-me ones, these were my favorites:

Plus, of course, picturebooks I just happened to come across:

***

In total I've read ~176 kids' books this six-month period.

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Friday, March 30, 2018

[7 Last Words] "I thirst"

I was invited to participate in my church's Good Friday service this year and was assigned the Fifth Word -- "I thirst" (John 19:28). I don't know how I would have gone about picking one if it had been up to me, but I was pleased to get to reflect on the most human-embodied-experience word of the seven.

Below is the reflection I shared.

***

Fifth Word – "I Thirst" – John 19:28

Jesus thirsts.

Because Jesus is a human being in a human body.

A creature of flesh and bone, skin and muscles and fat and nerves, blood pumping, lungs breathing.

Human bodies come in a lot of variations -- some of us talk with our hands, some of us move through the world on wheels. Some of us can't process gluten or lactose. Each of our embodiments is unique, and few experiences are universal. But thirst is one of the few that probably is.

+

John is the one Gospel writer who includes this line, "I thirst."

John also opens Jesus' public ministry with the wedding at Cana -- another story unique to John's Gospel.

Lutheran pastor Nadia Bolz-Weber tells the story of the lectionary assigning the wedding at Cana story the Sunday after the 2010 earthquake in Haiti. As you may recall, in this story Jesus is initially resistant to doing anything about the wine shortage at this party, telling Mother Mary, "my hour has not yet come."

Mary pushes ahead, and Bolz-Weber imagines her saying to Jesus, "I will not keep silent. I will obey you and I will tell others to obey you but I will not keep silent. People are thirsty."

And she imagines that near the end of John's Gospel, Jesus says, "I am thirsty. I am not watching this from a distant heaven. I too am thirsty."

+

Jesus thirsts with the people in Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands who still don't have clean water six months after Hurricanes Maria and Irma.

+

Jesus thirsts with farm workers in California working 9-hour days in scorching heat, sometimes literally dying of dehydration.

42-year-old Audon Felix Garcia died in the summer of 2008 while working in Kern County, California, on a 112-degree day. His core body temperature was 108 degrees Fahrenheit when he died.

+

Have you ever cried so much that you felt thirsty, like you'd dehydrated yourself?

We don't know if Jesus wept while dying by state-sanctioned torture, but it seems likely.

Certainly the Jesus of John's Gospel wept a few chapters earlier, on the long walk toward Jerusalem, confronted with the weeping of another Mary and so many others after the death of Lazarus at Bethany.

+

Jesus thirsts with so many other prisoners of the state.

21-year-old Madison Jenson died of dehydration on December 1, 2016, four days after being put in jail in Duchesne County, Utah, her dehydration probably related to opiate withdrawal.

38-year-old Terrill Thomas died on April 24, 2016, in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, after the water had been shut off to his cell for 7 days after he had flooded the toilet in a previous cell. #BlackLivesMatter

50-year-old Joyce Curnell was found dead in her Charleston County, South Carolina, jail cell on July 22, 2016, dead from dehydration the day after she was jailed. #BlackWomensLivesMatter

+

Jesus is given a sponge full of sour wine on a stick. Which may have been intended as an anaesthetic -- to dull the pain of the multiple nail wounds and the slow asphyxiation. But as mercies go, it was a small one amidst this public execution after a sham of a trial. Jesus thirsts with those who do not have access to quality water.

Jesus thirsts with the people of Flint, Michigan, and the 6 million other people across the 50 United States whose water has excessive levels of lead.

Jesus thirsts with the prisoners at MCI Norfolk here in Massachusetts and so many other prisons and jails who do not have uncontaminated water.

+

There are a lot of things we could do to alleviate the thirsts across our nation and around the world, and maybe we will after we leave this space.

But for now, we sit with the thirst.

The God who created us from the very stardust of the Big Bang, the God whose life breath sustains us. That same God shaped some of that same stardust, and with the Yes of a young woman named Mary, breathed Godself into embodiment, into a screaming crying baby who would grow into adulthood and be executed by some of those same stardust creatures. And that embodied God, who walked so many dusty, dirty roads; who ate so many meals with so many different people; that embodied God, that person Jesus, was human right up through the end.

And Jesus thirsts.

***

Works Consulted/Cited

News of the world links to the primary article I drew from, though I often Googled for additional details like exact date of death.

Nadia Bolz-Weber tells the wedding at Cana story in her 2013 book Pastrix: The Cranky, Beautiful Faith of a Sinner & Saint.

The story of Lazarus is found in John 11, and the specific verse "Jesus wept" is John 11:35.

***

Full service audio recording is here (there are a few minutes of extra silence at the beginning and the end -- this is what happens when you ask someone who's also participating in the service to record it ;) ) My part begins around 32:42.

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Sunday, December 24, 2017

[Mary] feel the fear and do it anyway

At the Christmas Eve service I attended in Florida this year, the pastor opened the sermon with talking about how we've created a beautiful, clean, calm story out of something that in Luke's telling is really messy etc.

I generally agree with this, but when he said that Mary was surely terrified, I thought "no she wasn't!" maybe she was, but I think that if she was, she was very much a "feel the fear and do it anyway" kind of person.

Yes, at the Annunciation Gabriel says "Do not be afraid" -- because angels always say "Do not be afraid" -- but Mary ultimately agrees to God's wacky plan. [Luke 1:26-38]

And then, while pregnant, Mary travels some 90 miles [cite] (unclear whether she traveled with anyone else) to visit her elderly sister Elizabeth (who is also miraculously pregnant, and has been for six months). And when Elizabeth recognizes not only that Mary is pregnant but that she is pregnant with Divinity -- which we don't have any indication Mary had told Elizabeth about before arriving (she seems to have gone pretty immediately) -- Mary's response is a hymn of praise about how God is going to turn the world upside down. [Luke 1:39-55]

Black gay Episcopalian Broderick Greer suggests that the Magnificat is a protest hymn that Mary goes on to sing to her child (that Jesus learned a lot of what formed his life and ministry from his radical mom).

And then when Elizabeth gives birth, Mary (having just finished her first trimester) goes back home [Luke 1:56-57] -- only to have to travel another 80 miles or so for some plot device census probably six months later when she's about to give birth any day now [Luke 2:1-6]. Now, if I were going to pick some item from Luke's "Christmas" narrative to suggest that Mary was afraid, this would be it. Because the idea of government wanting to know exactly who all lived under its control and where they lived feels very present.

And Mary ends up placing her baby in a manger (an animal feed trough) because there was no room for them at the inn [Luke 2:7], and in case that wasn't enough dirt and animal, a bunch of shepherds show up, having been sent by angels [Luke 2:8-20]. And we read that, "When they [the shepherds] saw this [Mary and Joseph, and the child lying in the manger], they made known what had been told them about this child; and all who heard it were amazed at what the shepherds told them." [Luke 2:17-18] -- so maybe Mary and Joseph weren't as alone as the story indicates (for example, last year's "Jesus was not born in a stable" -- which I thought surely I had read longer ago than last Advent) 'cause who is this "all" that the shepherds report out to? 'cause they haven't even returned to where they come from yet -- "But Mary treasured all these words and pondered them in her heart." [Luke 2:19] So whatever weirdness was happening, Mary rolled with it all.

In "O Little Town of Bethlehem," we sing "be born in us today" to the Christ child, but I wonder if there's value in seeking to have something of Mary born in us.

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Thursday, December 21, 2017

picture book recs (round 4)

Niblig turns 18 months in 2 days, and we leave tomorrow to visit, so I'm posting today.

Due to a GoodReads glitch, I'm not sure exactly how many picturebooks I've read this 6-month period, but I think ~98 (which is significantly more than I would have guessed before I tallied it up).

My big focus this time was on books set in Africa, not written by white folks. Prompted by this FB post about how not everyone who lives in Africa lives in a hut -- though I didn't actually find many picture books set in Africa that depict human people living in not-huts (I got a lot of village life and a lot of folktales).

  • Kitoto the Mighty written by Tololwa M. Mollel & illustrated by Kristi Frost -- a mouse seeks the most powerful being to protect him from the hawk [African folktale retold]
  • Subira, Subira written by Tololwa M. Mollel & illustrated by Linda Saport -- a girl struggles to get her younger brother to behave [contemporary Tanzania, folklore elements]
  • Big Boy written by Tololwa M. Mollel & illustrated by E.B. Lewis -- a Tanzanian boy wishes he were bigger ... but what if his wish were granted? [contemporary Tanzania]
  • Song Bird written by Tololwa M. Mollel & illustrated by Rosanne Litzinger -- girl saves the day! (okay, magical song bird saves the day, but the girl keeps the grownups from messing it up) [African folktale retold]
  • To Dinner, For Dinner written by Tololwa M. Mollel & illustrated by Synthia Saint James -- mostly I just love the mole wearing glasses [in the style of African folktales]
  • A Is for Africa written & photographed by Ifeoma Onyefulu [Nigeria]
  • The Magic Gourd written by & illustrated by Baba Wagué Diakité [African folklore]

I also read a bunch on labor:

And some miscellaneous books:

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Thursday, October 12, 2017

[The Book] I'm a nerd.

So, I've been sporadically doing tiny amounts of work on The Book.

I was working on the Psalms of lament section, and I ended up re-requesting 2 books I read back in 2015 but hadn't taken notes on -- Living Through Pain: Psalms and the Search for Wholeness by Kristin M. Swenson, 2005 (for the Psalms) and The Mystery We Celebrate, the Song We Sing: A Theology of Liturgical Music by Kathleen Harmon, 2008 (for the use of music in worship).

My chapter on psalms of lament also discusses African-American spirituals (Monica Coleman has commented that when Jesus on the cross cried out, "My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?" from Psalm 22, he was singing a lament song of his people -- the Psalms were the songbook of his people, just like the spirituals were the songbook of African-American slaves) and I realized that I don't have much to work with about the usage of Psalms of lament as part of the songbook of a people like spirituals, so I ended up going through the library catalog tag on the Psalms, and I'm bummed that it's all white dudes (I've been on a pretty intent break from books by white dudes for about 2 years now), but I'm so excited to dive into these books:

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Tuesday, June 20, 2017

picture book recs (round 3)

Nibling turns 1 year old this Friday, and I know I'm not going to get any more picturebooks read between now and then, so am posting now. (Yes, I am on a 6-month posting schedule.)

I read ~150 picturebooks the first 6 months, ~50 the next 6 months, and ~83 this past 6 months (38 of which were over the winter holiday break week -- my most prime time for reading). Books are, as usual, listed in the order in which I read them.

Tier 1:

Tier 2: I didn't love any of the Chinese/Lunar New Year books I read, but probably my favorite that's About the holiday is The Next New Year written by Janet S. Wong & illustrated by Yangsook Choi. I also enjoyed:
And speaking of Chinese holidays, I also enjoyed (though again, not in love with) Thanking the Moon: Celebrating the Mid-Autumn Moon Festival by Grace Lin.
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