Sunday, June 23, 2024

picture book recs (round 10)

How has it been 6 months already?

I'm clearly still not loving a lot of books I'm reading.

Here are some solid ones:

Sunday, March 31, 2024

[TDOV 2024] book recs

Continuing to make this an annual thing. Even though I haven't been reading much recently :/

---

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. I've continued to make a list each year, which you can check out on the trans tag.

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

I made a whole blogpost list of picturebooks featuring protagonists who use they/them pronouns where the story isn't About Gender. Here are my favorites:

Hold that Thought! written by Bree Galbraith & illustrated by Lynn Scurfield (August 15, 2021 by Owlkids)
[Author uses she/her pronouns. Illustrator uses she/they pronouns.]

Finn (they/them) wakes up in the middle of the night with an idea. They share it with others, which helps it grow and develop. There's a brief bit near the end where a bully is dismissive of Finn's idea, which causes it to shrink dramatically -- but this is quickly resolved (arguably too quickly, in terms of the bully's redemption arc).

Timid by Harry Woodgate (June 28, 2022 by little bee books)
[Author-illustrator uses they/them pronouns.]

A light-skinned kid (they/them pronouns) named Timmy who loves performing ... until there's an audience! This book is a delight (including the illustrations, and Timmy's new friend Nia).

How Are You, Verity? written by Meghan Wilson Duff & illustrated by Taylor Barron (August 22, 2023 by Magination Press)
[Author uses they/them pronouns. Illustrator uses she/her pronouns.]

An autistic Black kid (they/them pronouns) named Verity who loves sea life and struggles some with social scripts.

middle grade

Dear Mothman by Robin Gow (2023, Abrams) -- author's bio says, "He is an out and proud autistic bisexual genderqueer person passionate about LGBTQIA+ issues. [...] Robin prefers the pronouns it, fae, and he but all pronouns except for “she/her” are alright."

This reminded me of Kyle Lukoff's 2021 MG novel Too Bright to See (listed in my 2022 TDOV list), but sadder.

Noah is grieving. and trans. and autistic. Each of those things shapes him, but none of them is the totality of who he is.

young adult

The Witch King (2021) and The Fae Keeper (2022) by H.E. Edgmon (Inkyard Press) -- author uses he/they pronouns, per the book jacket, and is Seminole.
YA fantasy duology

Wyatt, our protagonist, is a witch who was betrothed to a fae prince. He ran away from the fae kingdom for Reasons and transitioned. Emyr, the fae prince, comes looking for him, insisting they need to get married for Reasons. Emyr totally rolls with the fact that Wyatt is a guy, and Wyatt is hella gay (in general, and for Emyr specifically).

Issues of being trans come up, and there are some instances of transphobia, but mostly it's about colonization and other stuff. I think the books do a good job of engaging with the reality of being trans while not making that the focus of the book.

other

[non-fiction] Fine: A Comic About Gender by Rhea Ewing (2022, Liveright/W.W. Norton) -- author uses they/them pronouns

I think of this as aimed at adults but also appropriate for teens -- and many libraries in my local network have shelved it as TEEN/YA. Is this in part because it's a graphic novel? Maybe.

I read this for a library book club and initially felt like I wasn't gonna learn anything new from it, but I ended up getting pretty into it. There are ways in which I liked this better than Maia Kobabe's Gender Queer: A Memoir (2019, Turtleback Books -- author uses e/em pronouns). Possibly because this is about gender generally (instead of various aspects of Kobabe's identity)? Possibly because this includes a variety of perspectives and that felt more educational to me?

they/them picturebooks

[I did not get this finished for Trans Awareness Week in November 2023, so here, have 2 posts on Trans Day of Visibility in March 2024.]

I have appreciated the recent rise in picturebooks with a protagonist who uses they/them pronouns where the book isn't About gender, so I decided to try to pull together a full list. I only included books where the protagonist is explicitly referred to using they/them pronouns -- not books where pronouns are never used of the protagonist; or where there are multiple characters, at least one of whom uses they/them pronouns.

This list is in order of publication, starting with the oldest. Let me know if I'm missing any.

I was surpised by how many of these books were about navigating big emotions. Creativity was probably the second most common theme?

These protagonists are largely light-skinned -- though that's getting better.

I was also surprised at how many cis people are writing these books?

***

Peanut Goes for the Gold written by Jonathan Van Ness & illustrated by Gillian Reid (March 31, 2020 by HarperCollins)
[Author is nonbinary/genderqueer, and their Instagram bio says "they/he/she." Illustrator uses she/her pronouns and has a partner.]

I don't love that the protagonist is a guinea pig instead of a human -- but it's actually the only animal protagonist book on this whole list. (And yes, I know anthropormophic animals are common in kidlit. But I want minoritized kids to see themselves reflected in their actual human identites.)

We learn early on that, "Sometimes people think Peanut's weird ... but more often, friends wind up joining in the fun." Peanut decides they want to become a rhythmic gymnast, and most of the story is taken up with their enthusiastic efforts in that direction (including lots of insistent directives to those around them).

A More Graceful Shaboom written by Jacinta Bunnell & illustrated by Crystal Vielula (November 2, 2020 by PM Press)
[Author and illustrator both use she pronouns -- based on their bios on the publisher website.]

Young Harmon Jitney carries around too much stuff to fit in their pockets, so they decide they want a purse. They don't know where to get one, though. They ask their family members, but are ignored. They then try a neighbor -- who has purses, but struggles to find them (they try multiple doors in the house -- each of which has something strange behind it). They finally find the room full of purses, and Harmon selects a purse they love. They add more and more things to their purse, and the purse just gets increasingly bigger to fit them all. Also around this time, color finally starts appearing in the coloring book style illustrations.

This book is a lot.

There's casual queer rep, like Harmon's two moms (Mama Millie Mapletush and Mother Loretta).

[Harmon has short hair with a bit of a wave to it, and generally appears pale, but once they get colored in they appear to have brown skin and black hair -- as on the cover image.]

Hold that Thought! written by Bree Galbraith & illustrated by Lynn Scurfield (August 15, 2021 by Owlkids)
[Author uses she/her pronouns. Illustrator uses she/they pronouns.]

Finn wakes up in the middle of the night with an idea. They share it with others, which helps it grow and develop. There's a brief bit near the end where a bully is dismissive of Finn's idea, which causes it to shrink dramatically -- but this is quickly resolved (arguably too quickly, in terms of the bully's redemption arc).

We never learn what the protagonist's thought is -- which I know frustrated some readers, but I think in some ways it made the book stronger (since the reader then doesn't get pulled into judging the idea themself).

[Finn has light brown skin and dark shoulder-length straight hair.]

Small Knight and the Anxiety Monster by Manka Kasha (September 7, 2021 by Feiwel & Friends)
[Author-illustrator uses she pronouns, was born and raised in Russia.]

I'm a little hesitant about including this, since Small Knight's anxiety monster develops from their gender-nonconformity being not accepted, so it feels like a bit of a cheat to include it in this list of books Not About Gender, but it's true that the bulk of the story is Small Knight (and their best friend, Tiny Bear!) going on an adventure to figure out what to do about the monster.

While I didn't read it this way, the end of the story can be read as Small Knight just bottling up their anxiety inside -- which understandably upset the reviewers who read it that way.

[Protagonist is white, with dark brown hair that sticks out some -- though it's usually largely covered by their knight's helmet.]

Timid by Harry Woodgate (June 28, 2022 by little bee books)
[Author-illustrator uses they/them pronouns.]

A kid loves performing -- until they have an audience.

This book is such a delight! (And the illustrations are so good.) The ending is maybe rushed a bit, but it does include various methods for managing anxiety.

[Our protagonist (Timmy) is pale with short curly blond hair.]

Katerina Cruickshanks by Daniel Gray-Barnett (August 2, 2022 by Scribble US)
[Author uses he/him pronouns, has a husband.]

The eponymous Katerina Cruickshanks is full of energy and shenanigans -- which can be Too Much for those around them, sometimes.

The back cover blurb says, "Katerina shows us that there’s no such thing as being too much; it’s just a matter of finding the friends who will love you as you are," but I'm not sure there Is a Point, per se.

[Protagonist has light skin and long-ish dark hair.]

A Case of the Zaps written by Alex Boniello and April Lavalle & illustrated by James Kwan (August 16, 2022 by Harry N. Abrams)
[Author Alex uses he pronouns, and author April uses she pronouns. Illustrator James uses he pronouns.]

Everyone is robots -- but that's because this book is trying to be a fun way into talking about anxiety. (I wondered if all robots in this story used they/them pronouns, but our protagonist does have a Mother-Board and a Father-Board; yes, this book loves its puns/references.)

It's generally pretty solid -- though there are a couple low-key Elon Musk references I did not love :/

There are also assorted resources in the backmatter for kids struggling with anxiety.

Noodin's Perfect Day written by Ansley Simpson & illustrated by Rhael McGregor (January 25, 2022 by Flamingo Rampant)
[Author uses they/them pronouns, is Michi Saagiig Nishnaabe. Illustrator "is a queer Métis, NonBinary/Two-Spirit artist and animator" who uses they/them pronouns.]

Noodin's plan for their perfect day gets derailed.

There's a glossary (with pronunciation) in the back for the non-English words in the text, though there isn't any information about what the language is or what community Noodin is part of. (My best guess would be that it's the same as the author -- which Googling the glossary words suggests is true -- but it's a real missed opportunity to share with readers some specificity instead of just a vague sense that the characters are Indigenous.)

I appreciate representation of urban Indigenous folk. There's also casual representation of parents who live in separate houses.

[Noodin has light skin and floppy brown hair with a sideshave.]

Something Great by Jeanette Bradley (October 11, 2022 by Levine Querido)
[Author-illustrator uses she/her pronouns, has a wife.]

Quinn makes Something Great (which appears to be a milk jug on a string) and is very excited about it, but no one else around them appreciates it -- until a new kid appears.

[Quinn is light-skinned, with short brown hair that hangs over an undercut. The new kid (who never gets pronouns or a name) has darker brown skin, with black hair long enough to be in pigtails.]

Good Dream Dragon written by Jacky Davis & illustrated by Courtney Dawson (October 25, 2022 by Christy Ottaviano Books)
[Author uses she pronouns. Illustrator uses "she/her/they" per the book jacket.]

I was expecting this book to be more about how to get good dreams and fall asleep, but instead it's more of just a soothing bedtime book.

The unnamed protagonist child has two moms? In the going-to-bed scene, there appear to be 2 women in the doorway -- though only "Momma" speaks/is named.

[Protagonist has light brown skin and shoulder-length straight brown hair. One of the women in the doorway looks similar, and one has blonde hair and arguably lighter skin. The rug under the protagonist's bed is patterned in a way that suggests traditional Southwest USian designs.]

Fluffy and the Stars written by T’áncháy Redvers & illustrated by Roza Nozari (August 15, 2023 by Orca Book Publishers)
[Author uses they/them pronouns, is Dene/Métis two-spirit, belongs to Deninu K'ue First Nation in Treaty 8 territory. Illustrator uses she/her pronouns, IG bio says: "Queer Iranian Femme / Visual Artist + Writer / Based in Toronto"]
*Bookshop link since I can't actually find it on the publisher's website.
Protagonist Shay loves their dog Fluffy (and Fluffy loves them back), but eventually Fluffy gets sick and dies. While Fluffy is alive, Fluffy and Shay are good at comforting each other, and Shay draws on those lessons to help move through their grief after Fluffy's death. (I was expecting the book to be mostly about grief, but the bulk of the book takes place while Fluffy is alive and well.)

There's no explicit Indigenous coding that I was aware of, but the protagonist has tan skin and dark brown hair, which is in a braid when it's long.

How Are You, Verity? written by Meghan Wilson Duff & illustrated by Taylor Barron (August 22, 2023 by Magination Press)
[Author uses they/them pronouns. Illustrator uses she/her pronouns.]

Verity, our neurodivergent protagonist, loves marine life -- and responds enthusiastically to "How are you?" with info-dumping about what they've recently learned/are currently excited about. Until their brother suggests that this isn't what most people are seeking with this greeting -- which prompts Verity to do an experiment.

Given the blurb, I had expected the book to be more about navigating these social niceties, whereas it's mostly just Verity living their life, loving marine life. (The illustrations also do an excellent job of surrounding us with what's on Verity's mind. Also, shout-out to Verity's tank top with the rainbow infinity symbol -- a symbol many autism rights advocates use instead of the puzzle piece.)

The backmatter includes a Reader's Note at the back explaining the author's similar struggles to Verity's growing up, and then "What Is Neurodiversity?" and "Some Thoughts for People Supporting Young People."

Protagonist is dark-skinned, with long, frizzy black hair. (Author is light-skinned -- and I think so is the illustrator?)

The Kid with Big, Big Ideas written by Britney Winn Lee & illustrated by Jacob Souva (August 29, 2023 by Beaming Books)
[Author uses she pronouns. Illustrator uses he pronouns.]

This book is the third in a ~series and has some of the same struggles with meter that the first two do (and some sentences are contorted to fit the meter/rhyme), but it mostly works.

Our unnamed titular kid has lots of big ideas -- many of which are truly imaginative (e.g.: the bus ride takes so long, what if we became mermaids and swam to school?). Grown-ups dismiss them, and eventually they start making themselves small. But they get frustrated that kids aren't part of political conversations about children's issues, and their Gran encourages them.

[Protagonist is light-skinned with light-colored hair that's fairly short and has a slight curl.]

***

Bonus: easy readers

Kyle Lukoff's Mermaid Days books have a secondary character (Beaker) who causually uses they/them pronouns.
[Author is a trans man. Illustrator Kat Uno uses she pronouns. Books are published by Scholastic.]

Mermaid Vera lives in Tidal Grove, and in the second story in book 1, octo-kid Beaker has just moved into town. Another kid casually uses Beaker's pronoun in conversation in the third story in Book 1. Honestly, I believe that's the only time Beaker's pronoun comes up (since characters are mostly talking to rather than about each other), except for the "You can draw Beaker!" exercise at the end of Book 3.
  1. The Sunken Ship (2022)
  2. The Sea Monster (2022)
  3. A New Friend (2023)

Saturday, January 6, 2024

so much queer lit the first half of 2024

So, the January 4, 2024, Our Queerest Shelves BookRiot email link list included 3 LGBTQ Reads links: I opened all 3 tabs and got overwhelmed. But then the next day I started to go through them (in reverse order).

*

So much fantasy in these MG books.

Represented in these books (an incomplete list):

  • Tagalog folklore
  • trichotillomania
  • roller derby
  • autism
  • a magical connection to the sea

*

[Expletive deleted], the YA list is so long. Lots of murder. Lots of fantasy, though I think less than the MG list.

This list includes (but is not limited to):

  • "the first trans girl at an all-girls school" (who the cover indicates is a WoC)
  • a literal cupid
  • "She doesn’t expect her older sister, Elara, forming an unprecedented bond with an enemy dragon—or the gods claiming the only way to break that bond is to kill her sister." ("Jamaican-inspired")
  • a trans guy in 1812
  • a Jane/Bertha reimagining of Jane Eyre
  • a male dryad (a reimagining of The Secret Garden)
  • the absinthe fairy is a real live "Green Faerie, trapped in this world."
  • an autistic Latino
  • "a queer, feminist reimagining of the Fox Maiden legend from Korean mythology" (graphic novel)
  • a "fat, nerdy lesbian"
  • "a bone familiar"
  • "a fat, broke girl with anxiety" -- who catches feelings for a girl while playing a tabletop roleplaying game
  • "a YA fantasy graphic novel that’s the political drama of Nimona meets the heartfelt romance of The Princess and the Dressmaker, but this time in a sapphic romance surrounded by a mist of magic."
  • a girls only underground fight club (which reminded me I still haven't watched Bottoms)
  • a "Korean-inspired Alice in Wonderland retelling"
  • a trans guy who "accidentally becomes an animal shelter volunteer under an assumed name―and it’s there among the unconditional acceptance of dogs that he finally receives the affirmation he’s been longing for."
  • a queerceañera
  • a motorcycle girl and a car girl bond over the Fast & Furious films
There are also 2 books with drag plotlines -- one with a male character and one with a female one.

Saturday, December 23, 2023

picture book recs (round 9)

Okay, back to a 6-month rhythm! (And back to not reading/loving a lot of picturebooks -- but hey, you get a blurb about each book.)
  • Weather Together by Jessie Sima -- not necessarily my favorite of the Kelp and Nimbus books, but a nice story about ~depression and friendship
  • The Good Hair Day written by Christian Trimmer & illustrated by J Yang -- a boy who wants long hair but struggles to tell his parents, despite having positive role models
  • The Wishing Flower written by A.J. Irving & illustrated by Kip Alizadeh -- a girl with a crush on another girl!
  • Big written by & illustrated by Vashti Harrison -- protagonist is a fat Black girl. being Big is praised for kids ("you're such a big kid!") up to a point, and this book powerfully highlights that tension.
  • Every Body: A Celebration of Diverse Abilities photography by Shelley Rotner -- really thorough and diverse representation in photographs and text of various disabilities (including learning/intellectual disabilities, as well as physical disabilities) that acknowledges difference directly and matter-of-factly; I have some quibbles with the Glossary, but it's generally good enough
  • Timid written & illustrated by Harry Woodgate -- a light-skinned kid (they/them pronouns) named Timmy who loves performing ... until there's an audience. this book is so fun! (though the ending is arguably a bit rushed)
  • Hold That Thought! written by Bree Galbraith & illustrated by Lynn Scurfield -- brown-skinned Finn (they/them pronouns) has an idea -- which gets bigger and more colorful as they share it with others
  • How Are You, Verity? written by Meghan Wilson Duff & illustrated by Taylor Barron -- an autistic Black kid (they/them pronouns) named Verity who loves sea life and struggles some with social scripts
  • I Just Want to Be Super written by Andrew Katz & illustrated by Tony Luzano -- the author wrote about his process: "What did it feel like to be bursting with energy? To want to blast into action, like a superhero raring to use their powers, only to have everyone always telling you to hold back that impulse?"
  • [board book] My Hair Is Like the Sun written by St. Clair Detrick-Jules & illustrated by Tabitha Brown -- photographs of Black kids paired with simple illustrations of the natural world
  • Big Bad Wolf’s Yom Kippur written by David Sherrin & illustrated by Martín Morón -- even Big Bad Wolves can repent and change!

Tuesday, June 27, 2023

sapphic soccer books

Someone I follow on GoodReads entered a GR Giveaway for a sapphic soccer book coming out later this year -- which is different from the sapphic soccer book I saw on a recent Autostraddle list of "81 Queer and Feminist Books Coming Your Way Summer 2023." They're both World Cup books, and it occurred to me that this timing is maybe because the World Cup is this summer.

So I started looking for other sapphic soccer books -- and there aren't a lot, but I did find some sapphic/lesbian book review lists, which generated a bunch more (many of them ebooks). I haven't read any of them, so can't personally vouch for quality.

Blockquotes are official blurbs.

Asterisks indicate World Cup themed books.

***

First, books that have 2 active soccer players in relationship with each other:

Defensive Mindset by Wendy Temple (April 2017, epub, Ylva Publishing) -- seen via The Lesbian Review

Star footballer and successful businesswoman Jessie Grainger has her life set, and doesn’t need anything getting in the way. That includes rebellious rival player Fran Docherty, a burnt-out barmaid with a past as messed up as her attitude. So when the clashing pair find themselves on the same Edinburgh women’s football team, how will they survive each other, let alone play to win?

Top of Her Game by M. Ullrich (October 1, 2019, epub, Bold Strokes Books) -- seen via Lez Review Books

Kenzie Shaw is the most sought-after rookie in women’s major league soccer, but her life changes forever when she’s drafted in her home state of New Jersey. After all, it’s not every day you get a chance to play alongside your idol and the woman you’ve crushed on for years.

Sutton Flores has soccer in her blood. Her father raised her to play, her brothers pushed her even harder, and her coaches shaped her into a superstar athlete. Despite her success, Sutton never lost sight of what matters most—her family, friends, and the woman she’s dating—even if most of her relationships fizzle out as quickly as they start.

Kenzie and Sutton’s chemistry as teammates quickly escalates to undeniable attraction off the field, but when allegations of sexual harassment rock the team and their relationship, they must decide if they’re willing to sacrifice their dreams for love. Are they destined to last, or are they players in a game set to lose?

One Small Step by M.A. Binfield (December 1, 2019, Bold Strokes Books) -- seen via Lez Review Books

Where love is concerned, the smallest steps are often the hardest to take—especially when you’ve guarded your heart as carefully as Iris Miller has. Still bruised from a relationship that crashed and burned, and all the meaningless hookups that followed, Iris has given up on love and buttoned her feelings up tight.

But when Cameron Hansen joins Iris’s law firm and her soccer team, and even starts hanging out in her favorite bookstore, everything gets turned upside down. Beautiful, open, and forward, Cam is impossible to ignore, and Iris is surprised to find herself intrigued. Cam’s straight, happily engaged, and simply looking for a friend—or so it seems.

London’s bitterly cold winter makes winning their soccer championship almost as difficult as keeping their feelings in check, being honest with each other, and trying not to fall in love. Iris and Cam are about to discover the meaning of taking chances and following your heart, even if it means getting hurt.

Endgame by Zoe Reed (April 25, 2020, Independently published through Amazon)

Audrey Caplan knew what she wanted. It was simple, really: get the spot as captain of her college soccer team, and focus on school. That was it, and with her aptitude for structure and discipline, it'd be easy to ignore distractions. At least it would've been if Morgan Bailey hadn't shown up. If there was one thing Audrey's bulletproof restraint wasn't prepared for, it was an annoying, adorable show-off with a heart of gold.

Under the Lights by Kate Christie (Book 6 in the Girls of Summer Series; July 2021) -- seen via Lez Review Books

6th book in a series that follows the same couple -- starting with when they meet as high schoolers at a soccer tournament in Southern California, moving through the NWSL and the World Cup and beyond.

Book one: Training Ground
* Book two: Game Time
* Book three: Outside the Lines
* Book four: The Road to Canada
* Book five: Girls of Summer

Hotshot by Clare Lydon (April 13, 2023, published through Amazon)

After US soccer sensation Sloane Patterson moves to the UK to play for the Salchester Rovers, her life starts to unravel. "Retired footballer Ella Carmichael has found her dream job. She has been hired as the Salchester Rovers club performance and lifestyle coach." Sloane falls for Ella. [Ella is a retired "Retired footballer Ella Carmichael has found her dream job. She has been hired as the Salchester Rovers club performance and lifestyle coach. "]

Sloane Patterson is the ultimate hotshot: a US soccer sensation whose arrival in the UK causes quite the stir. She’s got the game, the fame, the looks, the fiancée. But looks can be deceiving.

When Sloane’s life starts to unravel, Salchester Rovers’ new hire, Ella Carmichael, helps her pick up the pieces. But as the lines between their professional and personal lives blur, tensions surface. Now, Sloane’s goal of helping the team win the league and FA Cup has a significant addition: win Ella’s heart.

* Onside Play by Liz Rain (July 2023, epub, Ylva Publishing) -- this is the one from Autostraddle

In this lesbian romance, two rival players from the U.S. and Australia who are ex-girlfriends from college meet again at the World Cup. Will they rekindle their romance and will their relationship survive the tournament, depending on which team wins?

* Cleat Cute by Meryl Wilsner (September 19, 2023 by St. Martin's Griffin) -- This is one someone entered a giveaway for.

Grace Henderson has been a star of the US Women’s National Team for ten years, even though she’s only 26. But when she’s sidelined with an injury, a bold new upstart, Phoebe Matthews, takes her spot. Phoebe is everything Grace isn’t—a gregarious jokester who plays with a joy that Grace lost somewhere along the way. The last thing Grace expects is to become friends with benefits with this class clown she sees as her rival.

Phoebe Matthews has always admired Grace’s skill and was star struck to be training alongside her idol. But she quickly finds herself looking at Grace as more than a mere teammate. After one daring kiss, she’s hooked. Grace is everything she has been waiting to find.

As the World Cup approaches, and Grace works her way back from injury, the women decide to find a way they can play together instead of vying for the same position. Except, when they are off the field, Grace is worried she’s catching feelings while Phoebe thinks they are dating. As the tension between them grows, will both players realize they care more about their relationship than making the roster?

***

And books where at most one member of the relationship is an active soccer player:

The Set Piece by Catherine Lane (July 4, 2015 by Ylva Publishing) -- seen via The Lesbian Review

"A lesbian’s plan to pose as the fake wife for a famous gay ASL [American Soccer League] player goes awry when she falls for his pretty assistant in this lesbian sports romance."

* The Princess Deception by Nell Stark (May 1, 2018, Bold Strokes Books) -- seen via The Lesbian Review

In this contemporary take on Shakespeare's Twelfith Night, Crown Prince of Belgium Sebastian's twin sister Viola disguises herself as him for Reasons while they're getting ready to launch Belgium’s campaign to host the FIFA World Cup.

Retired (due to injury) pro soccer player cum sports journalist Missy Duke is covering the World Cup bid and figures out that it's Viola in disguise but feigns ignorance. But then sparks develop between Duke and Viola-as-Sebastian...

Game Changers by Jane Cuthbertson (2019, epub, Launch Point Press) -- seen via The Lesbian Review

An older woman (Rachel Johnston, age 52) and a younger soccer player (Jaye Stokes) fall for each other.

The Lesbian Review writes, "Because this book is like a love letter to the game, each match felt thrilling. I think it was because I was watching the matches through Rachel’s enthusiastic eyes. Perhaps Cuthbertson wrote these scenes understanding not every reader knows the ins and outs of professional soccer, and she toned down the technical jargon so that the matches would be exciting for everyone."

Content note: Rachel struggles with depression.

Never Mine by Bryce Oakley (May 14, 2021, independently published) -- seen via The Lesbian Review

An injured soccer star (Sage Carson) and an event coordinator (Willa Bellamy) reconnect at their 15-year high school reunuion and decide to stage a fake relationship for reasons but fall for each other for real.

The Game Changer by Finley Chuva (November 1, 2022, Pink Ampersand/Smashwords) -- seen via The Lesbian Review

The Game Changer is a friends-to-lovers sapphic romance featuring an autistic sports gay, a nerdy bi disaster, and an unapologetically queer supporting cast. It is the first book in the Denver Defiant series.

*Note: This is an #ownvoices work by an autistic author.

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).

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.

[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.

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)

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)

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*")

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

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*")