Good Picture Books About Gender

And places in Texas to send your money.

Hi all.

Every time I think the world is getting slightly less scary, the Tilt-a-Whirl revs back up. It’s one of those days when it feels actually crazy to keep doing whatever it is you normally do, because there are wars happening both abroad and at home and so it’s very hard to know what to do. I was going to write a newsletter about anxiety and publishing a novel but I’ll save that for next week. Hope you’re hanging in there, and hanging on.

First things first, let’s all send whatever resources we have to the folks in Texas who are fighting against Gov. Abbot’s cruel policies that are sure to harm many, many families with trans kids in Texas. Click here to read Chase Strangio’s piece for The Nation, which explains exactly what is happening far better than I could. Here are some places you can send money right now: Equality Texas, Lambda Legal, and ACLU Texas. I just donated $100 to each, match me if you can. (Please let me know in the comments if you’re able to donate anything, as the very best sort of peer pressure.)

The other thing that I want to recommend, especially if you happen to have or know small kids, are a few picture books. The books below all give you language to talk to your kids about gender, or just demonstrate through storytelling and art what a good thing it is to be exactly who you are. It is actually very, very easy to have conversations about gender with children, and these books are also helpful in the classroom, if, say, you have a joyous, beautiful child who likes to wear things that other children question, and you want to make some recommendations to the teacher about ways to broaden some little horizons.

It Feels Good to Be Yourself

The GAYbcs

I Love My Colorful Nails

Fred Gets Dressed

When Aidan Became a Brother

Julian is a Mermaid

Who Are You

Sparkle Boy

This is just the tip of the iceberg, of course, and you can find much bigger lists of books all over the place.

Sending you all love.