Posted on: 28/05/2025
It’s June and that means Pride month. We’re fortunate to be collaborating this year with the brilliant teams over at Pop ‘n’ Olly and Just Like Us, plus our own team members have been busy choosing who our Queer heroes are … ‘Queeros’, if you will. Pride is still a protest and this year it is more so than ever. It needs to be. We’ve been hugely troubled by events globally and more locally with political and legislative shifts. And because shifts are often the start of a slippery slope, we MUST keep the discussion open and allow our children to see, and to be immersed, in worlds that reflect their own, their peers’ and their family members’ ways of being: literature truly saves lives.
The books we choose to use with children, to make freely accessible to children, matter and although we should ensure positive representation of the LGBTQIA+ community is visible to children year-round, we also need to ensure that what we include doesn’t exclude, tokenise or marginalise in other ways. As singer-songwriter Cat Burns said in a recent interview when asked about her most recent record, ‘I feel like I never had a song like that for me…Especially for all the queer girls.’ She goes on to acknowledge that members of the queer community are not ‘a monolith’ and that as a black, queer, autistic artist with ADHD, wants to celebrate differences. And so, our Pride month theme within the theme this year is intersectionality: because LGBTQIA+ children as well as their allies deserve to see their whole selves within a text: authentically voiced and joy-filled from cover to cover.
So Devin Wore a Skirt
Written by Shireen Lalji and illustrated by Lucy Fleming
(Frances Lincoln Children’s Books, 8th May 2025)
Devin is trying to decide what to wear to Nanabapa’s Big Birthday. He watches his various family members ready themselves, buttoning up shirts, combing their hair, straightening new ties. His mummy floats about ‘like a soft pink cloud’ in her lengha and his little sister Amaia looks ‘magical in fairy wings as usual’. But Devin’s smart red jeans feel stiff and uncomfortable. Trying on an assortment of different hats instead, none are quite right until he settles for a blue beret. But what to wear on his body? Then he happens upon his sister’s beautiful, sparkly blue skirt, discarded by her in favour of jeans and fairy wings. He pops the skirt on and feels like ‘himself’ but Amaia worries what Nanabapa will say. What will happen when Devin wears the skirt to the party?
A gorgeously written and illustrated story filled with joy and acceptance and a family who supports its members to find out, and to be, who they are. Brilliant for discussions around gender ‘norms’ and for children exploring their identities (or who simply enjoy the sensation of wearing floaty fabric!)
The Lass and the Quine
Written by Ashley Douglas and illustrated by Kate Osmond
(Tippermuir Books, 26h June 2025)
The Doughnut Club: Do you have to be alike to be a family?
Written by Kristina Rahim with artwork by Marina Tena Boras
(Nosy Crow, 8th May 2025)
Quinn’s mums have ensured that she and her younger sibling have grown up knowing that they were donor conceived, ensuring that neither child ever remembers there being a ‘big reveal’, rather that how they came to be is simply their ‘story’. So, when travelling to go on holiday — to a seaside resort the family visit every year — and Mum and Mama tell the children that 16 other donor siblings exist, Quinn’s mind goes into overdrive. Could it be that there are other children out there who share her love of art and also her intense dislike of the adventure sports that her parents and brother seem to so love?
Then, horror of horrors, Quinn’s arch holiday nemesis, spiky — spiteful, even — Monika, finds out that she too is donor conceived. She couldn’t be a half-sibling of Quinn’s could she? A fantastic read for children in upper key stage 2 that is SUCH a joyful representation of what family means, of two brilliant mums and also of compassion: for when Monika, mean as she’s been in the past, desperately struggles with the news her parents have delivered, it is Quinn who steps in to support.
Pride (Celebrations and Festivals)
Written by Eric Huang and illustrated by Amy Phelps
(words and pictures, 8th May 2025)
In this gorgeous and strong-in-message narrative non-fiction book, Brian, his dads and friends celebrate Pride together. But Pride isn’t just about the parade: Brian’s teacher - Ms Macleod, teaches the class about the Stonewall uprising and how that, ultimately, led to the first Pride month being celebrated. In fact, ‘Ms Macleod makes sure we learn about LGBTQIA+ rights throughout the year’, explains Brian. Besides, he likes that ‘there are so many famous queer people …’I was happy to learn that there have always been amazing people just like my dads.’
Like Devin in So Devin Wore a Skirt, Brian’s dilemma centres around what to wear to a special occasion: this time, the Pride parade. Everyone else seem to have their outfits sorted and whilst Brian’s dads and his friends impress upon him that he can wear whatever he likes, nothing feels quite right. The solution is a clever one that links with the book’s message that we can have a chosen family and there is much joy to be had in lifting each other up through allyship, unconditional love and acceptance. From making Pride-themed friendship bracelets for the parade, to attending drag queen story time, this is such a delightful depiction of everyone in a community coming together to celebrate and support.
Replete with detailed sections at the back on the Stonewall uprising; LGBT History Month and instructions for making a Pride flag and a recipe for Pride-themed rainbow cookies, this would be a brilliant addition to school and home library shelves and could work particularly well within a mixed age class with the storyline working really effectively for younger children while the historical aspects would likely work well for children in key stage 2.
Posted in: Literature Review
