Resources
• Many books I read are part of our subscription to Little Feminist Book Club.
• I also recommend OurShelves (I subscribe to their newsletter—which is a great resource even if you are not part of the book club!).
• On Instagram, I solidly recommend checking out Curious Parenting, Sex Positive Families, Vera Ahiyya / The Tutu Teacher, Latinx Parenting, and many many others.
• I also include all these books on one of my Bookshop.org lists: 'Kids books on Gender & Identity', or 'More kids books to expand your cisgender, heterosexual, white, boy-centric bookshelf'. When you click through these links and buy anything from Bookshop, I get a few cents to a few dollars per purchase. So, thanks!
Saturday, June 26: Story Time with Kat! for Pride!
For the final Saturday of June — Pride month for LGBTQ+ People all over the world — we have a very special guest: Kat! Okay, it's really still just me, Kit, but kids (and parents!) will get the chance to meet me as they've rarely seen me before: long hair, a touch of makeup, yada yada. It's all in fun.
Kat and I will read two great books. The first is the silly and sweet 'M is for Mustache!' from Flamingo Rampant Press. We'll wind our way through the alphabet with a young kiddo and her mom celebrating the annual Pride Parade with their many Titas (their Filipino word for Auntie) across a spectrum of gender and family representations.
Next, we'll follow a non-binary kiddo on their magical, glorious quest for the perfect purse in 'A More Graceful Shaboom', by local author Jacinta Bunnell. It explores the question: "what if we believed in ourselves, and were able to invite everyone — literally everyone — into our vision of how the world could be?" And answers that question with rainbows, dolphins, and disco balls.
Saturday, June 12: Real-Life Artists (Inspired by Real-Life Artists)
Ariel Adkins is a real-life artist, and the creator and star of Artfully Awear:
https://www.instagram.com/artfullyawear
Ariel will read Yayoi Kusama Covered Everything in Dots and Wasn't Sorry., a fun and vivid biography of this Japanese contemporary artist who works primarily in sculpture and installation and is best known for her, well, DOTS. Ariel will also share a little bit about her own art practice, and how she finds inspiration in the artworks of others.
I'll follow with The Important Thing about Margaret Wise Brown, a quirky biography of the (believe it or not) once-controversial author of beloved children's books like Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny. Written by bestselling author Mac Barnett, the structure and language playfully pay tribute to the characteristic style of the author herself.
Looking for more real-life inspiration? I recommend two collections of short biographies about dozens of women who were artists, writers, leaders, scientists, and more. We Are Artists: Women Who Made Their Mark On the World, and Bad Girls Throughout History: 100 Remarkable Women Who Changed the World.
https://www.instagram.com/artfullyawear
Ariel will read Yayoi Kusama Covered Everything in Dots and Wasn't Sorry., a fun and vivid biography of this Japanese contemporary artist who works primarily in sculpture and installation and is best known for her, well, DOTS. Ariel will also share a little bit about her own art practice, and how she finds inspiration in the artworks of others.
I'll follow with The Important Thing about Margaret Wise Brown, a quirky biography of the (believe it or not) once-controversial author of beloved children's books like Goodnight Moon and The Runaway Bunny. Written by bestselling author Mac Barnett, the structure and language playfully pay tribute to the characteristic style of the author herself.
Looking for more real-life inspiration? I recommend two collections of short biographies about dozens of women who were artists, writers, leaders, scientists, and more. We Are Artists: Women Who Made Their Mark On the World, and Bad Girls Throughout History: 100 Remarkable Women Who Changed the World.
Saturday, May 29: Magical Beings
Do you ever feel like maybe you're secretly an alien? Or a wild creature just pretending to be a human person? Are you maybe a magical creature living amongst a human family and friends? I hope you feel like that sometimes! I know I do. I'm excited to share two of my favorite books with you all! Crowns, horns, fins, wigs, and glitter welcome!!!!
In From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea, a special child with amazing powers learns how to engage with their new classmates—kids who might not understand them at first, but come to envy their beauty.
Oona, by author Kelly DiPucchio and illustrator Raissa Figueroa, is a comical and heartfelt celebration of invention, creativity, and friendship. With gorgeous underwater scenes and a crowd-pleasing tale, this is one little mermaid who is here to make a splash!
Saturday, May 15: Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month
This is an important month and an important reminder—this year in particular. I was driven to start these weekend read-alongs because of the violence towards Asian Americans in our collective post-Trump-ish-Covid-ish nightmare. Many of the people, several women in particular, who have been amazing influences on our kiddo are of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) decent, and I was compelled to contribute to the positive narratives our children will learn.
This Saturday, we will center ourselves in the stories of young people who feel like 'outsiders', as they find support and strength to own their stories. I am so grateful to our first guest reader, Suzi Kim! Suzi is our brave, exceptional school-pod teacher, who is of Korean decent. She will share 'The Name Jar' by Yangsook Choi—a story of a Korean child who is 'the new kid' at school, trying to work out how she can possibly fit in with a strange-sounding name.
I'll follow up with 'The Day You Begin', by Jacqueline Woodson and Rafael López. This story reminds us that we all feel like outsiders sometimes—and how brave it is that we go forth anyway. And that sometimes, when we reach out and begin to share our stories, others will be happy to meet us halfway. Meet you there. : )
Saturday, May 8: Mother's Day Weekend
Who here has a mother or a mom? Does anyone have two moms? More than two? What do you call your mothers or moms?
This weekend I'll be reading two very different books centering relationships between children and their mothers (and grandmothers). 'Not 'Til Tomorrow Phoebe' centers an African American girl, frustrated by what seems like a constant putting-off of what is fun until 'tomorrow', and that nothing exciting happens 'today'. Finally, Grandma has some helpful advice—as well as a place to keep all of those 'yesterdays'.
In 'The Boy & the Bindi', our hero asks his Ammi ('mother' or 'mom' in Urdu) about the dot she wears on her forehead. When he asks if he can wear one, she shares the ritual and magical 'protection' with him, helping him find an inner peace.
Saturday, April 24: Where Are the Dads?
This at first might seem out of character, but hear me out. When we first started filling up our little one's bookshelf and bedtimes with stories, I started doing what many of us do—pronoun switching. For the most part, it was because the main characters that did cool things were referred to as 'he/him'; also, as a household with two parents who identified as gay dads, I felt like all the parents who did cool things were 'the moms' (albeit often in an apron and pearls). I was always relieved to find the rare picture book centering a relationship with a male caregiver that didn't make it seem like this adventure was a 'special day to give mom a break.' (Guess How Much I Love You? was one of the very first I found.) Self-representation aside, I also wondered where little boys were seeing stories that model the affectionate, empathetic parents we hope they will become?
So—We've read books with moms. We've read books with moms and dads. We've read books with trans and non-binary parents. This one is wholeheartedly about some pretty sweet dads. Daddy Honk Honk (Amazon Link) centers a reluctant first-time adoptive single Arctic Fox dad; and Hug Me Please!, (Amazon Link) featuring an activity that I think we all would very much like to partake in.
Saturday, April 17: Love is love, y'all!
This weekend we'll focus on fantastical storybook couples that break the heteronormative archetypes: the genderless/non-binary titular characters of Worm Loves Worm face traditional marital expectations; and an often overlooked take on the 'damsel in distress' narrative with a 'damsel in defense' tale called Maiden & Princess. We'll talk about people in kids' lives that they love that these stories remind them of!
Saturday, April 10: Kids in Space
Saturday, April 3: Are You This, or That?
While these two books feature animals/anthropomorphic characters, as a non-binary person I relate to and love their 'this or that or both or neither' storylines as kids work to understand who they are—often in the face of what appear to be two imperfect options.
Neither, a book by Airlie Anderson, is geared for the younger kids, but focuses on a universal story of a youngling who doesn't fit in and is sent out to find the land of 'Somewhere Else'. Not Quite Narwhal was written by Jessie Sima, a cisgender author who didn't intend for it to be an allegory for trans and non-binary youth, but has embraced that interpretation of her story.
Saturday, March 27: Transgender Visibility Week
As part of Transgender Visibility Week, I will be reading My Rainbow by mother/daughter team DeShanna and Trinity Neal, about a Black mom and her trans daughter with autism, and She’s My Dad!: a story from the perspective of a child who has a transgender parent, written by Sarah Savage. *Bonus— Adventures in The Park by June Cohen, a new story starring Sarah Savage's characters.
As an introduction, I spoke about what it means to be transgender or non-binary. Many parents reached out to let me know the language was helpful, so I made it into an instagram post. Please check it out!
On Sunday, I read to a second group, and included a story about a young girl and her non-binary parent in My Maddy, by Gayle E Pitman.
Friday March 19 & Saturday March 20: Stories about AAPI Families
I'll be reading two books with young Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) female protagonists, as small way to acknowledge and combat the increased violence against Asian Americans, and specifically in honor of June’s teacher and pediatrician. The first is My Footprints, written by Bao Phi and illustrated by Basia Tran, and Amy Wu and the Perfect Bao, by Kat Zhang, illustrated by Charlene Chua.