I first saw this via Saturn's TBR on GR. The Kirkus review was pretty meh, so I didn't add it to my GR TBR, but I did add myself to the waitlist at mI first saw this via Saturn's TBR on GR. The Kirkus review was pretty meh, so I didn't add it to my GR TBR, but I did add myself to the waitlist at my local library (the book wasn't coming out for another few weeks when I first heard about it), since I'm a completionist.
I told my partner about the existence of this book, and they responded:
Abby:
I was like, "But Danica Roem", but she's in the (Virginia) House, whereas McBride is in the (Delaware) Senate.
[Ed. note: The website for Danica Roem's adult memoir refers to her as, "the first out-and-seated transgender state legislator in American history."]
me:
Is the House of Delegates (what Google tells me Roem is in) different from the House of Representatives?
Abby:
I mean, not all states have a bicameral legislature? So ItsComplicated?
Roem was sworn in on Jan 10, 2018, and McBride in January 2021.
McBride's Wiki says, "She is the first openly transgender state senator in the country, making her the highest-ranking transgender elected official in United States history." (This book's backmatter glossary is "Politics and Government" and notes that in most states, as well as the nation, the legislature has "a smaller, 'upper' senate and a larger, 'lower' house or assembly." I'd never thought of the Senate as being "higher" than the House -- though it's certainly true that it's smaller -- but fair enough. I guess that also tracks with how bills pass the House first and then have to pass the Senate.)
The book, while technically correct, definitely gives the impression that McBride is more of a first than she was. After spending a lot of time on her growing up, we speed through her political career, but she is explicitly connected with various firsts -- becoming the first openly trans person to work at the White House (her Wiki tells me that's when she interned there in 2012), being the first openly trans speaker at the DNC (in 2016), and Joe Biden (her political role model and fellow Delawarean) being the first to name transgender Americans in his presidential election acceptance speech (in 2020). The book doesn't mention specific years (except for the year McBride won election, 2020), and there isn't even a timeline in the backmatter, so McBride exists somewhat amorphously -- in a cloud of trans firsts as we move toward everything being better.
And then 2020, the same election round as McBride, also had: Stephanie Byers, elected to the Kansas House of Representatives ("The first openly trans woman of color to serve in and to be elected to a state legislature and the first Native American trans person to hold elected office in the United States."); Taylor Small, elected to Vermont House of Representatives; and Mauree Turner, elected to the Oklahoma State House of Representatives ("They are the first non-binary state legislator").
McBride's story starts out with her not having the language for being trans and not seeing anyone else who was like her in that way. But as a college student (2009-2013), "She discovered that transgender, or trans, people like her have existed throughout time and cultures. She saw modern-day trans people of all ages coming out---choosing to live openly as their true gender."
This text is accompanied by a sea of faces (including the somewhat anachronistic Elliot Page, who came out as trans in 2020). One of the multiple pieces of backmatter lists the names of those faces, but I wished the names had been attached to the faces (especially since the list is in the "Know Your Stuff: How to Be a Trans Ally as a Cis Person," and it would be nice for trans kids to be able to put names to faces of people like themselves).
My dive into trans legislators (aided by Wiki's List of transgender political office-holders) made me wonder what the power would be of a similar sea of trans political leaders. Or a note that while she didn't know of any trans people when she was a child, there are now trans people in various positions of political leadership across the country (and the globe) and naming some of her peers.
Given that the book is trying to be a positive message to trans folks (and their would-be allies), I understand not highlighting how much trans people are under attack politically these days, but I would have appreciated some balance of realism.
The book does have some really powerful moments. For example, during Sarah's childhood:
Everyone, even her own mom, laughed at TV characters who didn't follow gender rules.
The last thing Sarah wanted was to be a joke---or to be rejected by her family.
It's so easy for cis people to compartmentalize supporting specific trans individuals (or even amorphously supporting trans rights generally) and not realize the micro-aggressions they're perpetuating.
There are some really great illustrations (the author is cis, but the illustrator is non-binary). The two-page spread after McBride comes out is so bright and open and joyful.
The Kirkus review noted that "[The author] describes McBride’s childhood without ever using the wrong pronouns or her birth name," which I also appreciated when reading the book.
I read this to my partner -- who hated the text and loved the illustrations.
I read it again myself some weeks later and coasted on vibes and enjoyed iI read this to my partner -- who hated the text and loved the illustrations.
I read it again myself some weeks later and coasted on vibes and enjoyed it a lot more that way. When we first read it, we paused at each page and got caught up in trying to figure out exactly what was happening.
The text is largely evocative glimpses at scenes, which often make it hard to figure out what exactly is going on (e.g., once Harish starts dancing at night and gets praised and paid at night but jeered during the day, we wondered what was going on* -- was it the same people who praised him at night who jeered him during the day? was he still dressing effeminately during the day and that's why people were jeering him? did this night dancing involve some sort of sex work we were eliding in a children's book?).
There's also some weird language usage. For example: Early on, we read that the boy's feet tap and fingers sway "softly... softly, so no one sees," which reasonably makes sense, but is followed on the next page by: "When images dance across the screen / to a beat that shimmers and bounces, / spins and turns unfold in his mind, / step by step / but quietly... quietly, so no one sees." But, doing things in your mind is literally something it's impossible for anyone else to see. And it feels weird to use "quietly," which is a volume word (as "softly" also can be), to indicate other people not being able to see. Like, it makes some sense, but also...
The book jacket asserts that the text mimics the kinds of music Harish used, and I can see that, but I think one still could have accomplished that with better quality text in places.
I wished for a glossary. Lots of Hindi (?) words show up in the text without explanation. The reader can generally infer what they are (like "Thumris and ragas soar in his mind" is accompanied by an illustration showing some stringed instruments -- except no, wait, I looked them up and they're more like kinds of music/songs ... which I guess I was supposed to get from the following lines: "Rhythms pulse through his body. / The music sings clarion clear in his heart.") -- but lines like "A ghagra, mirrored and flowing. / A choli, brightly patterned" it would be helpful to be able to actually visualize that oh, a ghagra is a skirt and a choli is a blouse.
I belong to the colourful and bright desert city of Jaisalmer — this culturally rich and beautiful city in Rajasthan is where many tourists come, and folk art and dance are the main attractions for tourists here. Every restaurant and resort in Jaisalmer provides folk music and dance shows to tourists for entertainment. A friend suggested that I do this job in the evening to get enough money for the family and that was also the only way to continue my school education. I would go to school from 12 to 5 pm and then dance from the evening till late night. [...] I was from a middle class family and nobody was a dancer in my family. So it was shock after shock for people around me, and to add to the grief, I was dancing for tourists at night — that was a kind of “shame job” and was looked down upon by one and all.
(There is an "About Queen Harish" section at the back of the book, which clarifies some of the stuff we weren't entirely sure about, but doesn't expand on that particular piece.)
Speaking of his Wiki, there's some stuff in there that I would have loved to have had included.
Harish Kumar was born in 1979, in a carpenter family in Suthar community in Jaisalmer in Rajasthan.[2] He started dancing at the age of 13.[3] Harish, who lost his parents, started drag dancing to take care of his sisters.[3] Inspired by 'Annu Master', the first drag performer in the Jaisalmer region, he started learning drag dance under him.[3] He practiced American tribal style belly dance to make his body more capable of all feminine movements.[4]
He had a teacher! (This book very much gave me the impression that he was unique and first in doing drag -- especially given the early text about there being a clear "line in the sand" keeping you in your place as boy/man or girl/woman.) I get that that could take away from the evocative story being told in this book, but I hope we get more books about him that tell a fuller story.
The Artist's Note says, "All of the details, patterns, and motifs that appear in the art are rooted in and inspired by Jaisalmer's cultural heritage; that includes miniature paintings, Jain temple architecture, details of Jaisalmer fort, textiles, frescos, and murals of the city."...more
This picturebook biography is mostly about Tatyana's childhood -- first in a Russian orphanage, then adopted by an American woman (who writes the "DeaThis picturebook biography is mostly about Tatyana's childhood -- first in a Russian orphanage, then adopted by an American woman (who writes the "Dear Reader" note that opens this book, in which she mentions that she, too, was born with a disability) and her female partner (I appreciate that we're at a point where having two moms isn't a big deal).
If you picked this book up because you were interested in wheelchair racing, you'd likely be disappointed since there's not much about her racing/training itself except a little at the very end. We get about 14 pages of the Russian orphanage, then about 10 pages of Deborah's visit and adoption, then 12 pages of the rest of Tatyana's life (only a few of which are about the Paralympics).
I appreciate that this book doesn't feel like inspiration porn. Tatyana can't use her legs, so she uses her hands/arms instead, very matter-of-fact. The sadness in her early life is losing her orphanage friends when they're adopted out. She's strong and plays lots of sports, but in a way which feels like she's like any other athletic kid, not like she's some kind of Special Inspiring Disabled Kid. As a bonus, the first time Tatyana uses a wheelchair, she's thrilled -- she can move so fast it's like she can fly -- which is a great correction to the common parlance of "confined to a wheelchair" and similar....more
The illustration style is good, and there's a nice range of people featured -- lots of people I recognized, but also lots of people I didn't.
The shortThe illustration style is good, and there's a nice range of people featured -- lots of people I recognized, but also lots of people I didn't.
The short biographical overviews rarely mention dates, so everyone feels fairly present. The only way you know someone is no longer alive is that the first line says, "[name] shared [their] brilliance with us through..." instead of shares [edit: in rereading, I noticed that sometimes it uses the past tense when referring to work the person did in the past and then shifts to present tense at the end to indicate that the person is still alive]. I would prefer to be able to more easily place someone in their historical context, but I can respect this as an intentional choice.
A lot of the biographies end with a sort of "try hard and believe in yourself" exhortation, which I did not love. Like, "Queen Latifah continues to reinvent herself and show younger generations how hard work and dedication to your craft can open doors for a long-lasting entertainment career," elides the fact that hard work and dedication are far from sufficient in either opening doors or having a long-lasting career in a field as fickle as entertainment.
(I also lol'ed a little at the description of the work of a Nobel Peace Prize winner as "successful mediations between two disagreeing countries," especially when I Googled him and learned that, "He received it for having arranged a cease-fire between Israelis and Arabs during the war which followed the creation of the state of Israel in 1948." I mean, I don't envy anyone trying to briefly overview that conflict -- and Wiki says, "Ralph Johnson Bunche was an American political scientist, diplomat, and leading actor in the mid-20th-century decolonization process and US civil rights movement," and I am super-here for encouraging kids to learn about decolonization.)
(I also cringed at the inclusion of Kamala Harris because she was a career prosecutor [this article is a fairly balanced take on the issue] -- but all your faves are problematic, and I appreciate the move away from Yet Another Barack Obama inclusion, at least. She's also the only person profiled who's explicitly named as mixed-race.)
The text is in all capital letters, which sometimes made me stumble over reading when I misread a period as a comma (and I didn't like the curly cue on the L's).
The people profiled are almost all USian -- with the exception of Toussaint Louverture (Haitian), Usain Bolt (Jamaican), and Yaa Asantewaa (of the Ashanti Empire in present-day Ghana) -- which I was a little bit bummed by. (It's possible I have miscategorized someone I don't know as USian, as many biographies don't indicate the person's location. Which I guess could also be an intentional choice to not explicitly encourage the child-reader to develop a USA-focus.)
I appreciate that almost none of these people are depicted as particularly light-skinned -- though there's not a lot of natural Black hairstyles depicted.
I also appreciate that it's fairly evenly divided between men and women -- 15 women and 11 men, by my count, so about a 60/40 ratio. I probably would have tried for even more parity, as well as including some non-binary folks if possible. I do appreciate that these biographies don't do the "born as" thing, and simply refer to the person with the name they chose to use in adulthood -- or a nickname commonly used for them, as S is for "Stagecoach" Mary Fields.
The book doesn't name anyone -- e.g., Queen Latifah -- as LGBTQ+, but it also doesn't talk about anyone's partner/family structure/etc., instead solely focusing on their accomplishments in the public sphere. [Edit: Okay, it does talk about Mary McLeod Bethune teaching her family because she was the only one who was able to attend school -- but it doesn't talk about these women's families in ways that evoke the Finkbeiner Test for me.]
Having recently read Glories and Stories: Inspirational American Muslim Women, as I looked back through the book, I noticed that no one is depicted with a head covering that reads to me as religiously-inflected -- or with any other religious markers -- though again, the book doesn't talk about anyone's religious faith or practice. It would be nice to highlight some Black Jews, to include some visible Muslim people as examples of Black Brilliance... but I also understand that no one book is going to do everything.
I don't think most kids would be interested in sitting through this book cover to cover, but each biography has 3 words or phrases about each person at the top of the page, so you could flip through and just read those and let the child pick who they wanted to hear more about (or they could just pick by face, or letter, or name) -- and there's also a table of contents, if you wanted to just let them pick by name. You could, of course, also pre-read the book and intentionally flip to the pages you think would be of particular interest to your child(ren) when reading it aloud to them.
Edit: There are a few minor typos -- including Mary McLeod Bethune's "Educator. Sister. Philanthropist." is repeated for Xernona Clayton (civil rights leader and broadcasting executive)....more
This book reminds me of Be Bold! Be Brave!: 11 Latinas who made U.S. History -- each 2-page spread has just a few (rhyming) lines about the woman This book reminds me of Be Bold! Be Brave!: 11 Latinas who made U.S. History -- each 2-page spread has just a few (rhyming) lines about the woman in question, and the Bibliography is just a link of URLs (though I think this time it's at least in the order in which the women appear); though this book does have backmatter with a paragraph about each woman (which is not in the order in which the women appear in the book, which is strange).
The rhyming feels somewhat forced at times, and often forces the information to be really vague -- and sometimes uses words that are maybe a bit beyond the picturebook crowd (e.g., "Studying water, energy, and food, using technology and statistics, / her aim is to better utilize resources by improving logistics." - Afreen Siddiqi), though there's a Glossary in the back.
The women are all fairly light-skinned (2/20 are definitely dark-skinned, but most look basically white), and one thing I found interesting in going back to check this is that they're almost all depicted wearing head coverings (3/20 are not). In contrast, Muslim Girls Rise: Inspirational Champions of Our Time intentionally depicts on its very cover women in a variety of head coverings as well as women with no head coverings.
The vagueness of the text made the women feel not very differentiated to me, but based on what the book itself says about the women, they are: Mariam Sobh - journalist, comedy writer, and producer Ibtihaj Muhammad - Olympic gold medalist in fencing Anousheh Ansari - astronaut Noor Tagouri - journalist, producer, and activist Charlene M. Elder - judge Amani Al-Khatahtbeh - author and activist Zarina Ali - neurosurgeon Isra Chaker - civil rights activist Amanda Saab - chef, baker, and entrepreneur Halima Aden - model Melanie Elturk - civil rights attorney and entrepreneur Intisar Rabb - law expert Layla Shaikley - computer engineer and architect Rania Awaad - mental health advocate Amany Killawi - social worker, entrepreneur, and political activist Su'ad Abdul Khabeer - scholarly activist Gwendolyn Willow Wilson - author Rashida Tlaib - politician Afreen Siddiqi - research scientist and STEM professional Dalia Mogahed - researcher, scholar, and writer...more
*shrugs* Not a particularly interesting to me memoir.
I had thought the device of a trans woman telling/illustrating her autobiography as if she had be*shrugs* Not a particularly interesting to me memoir.
I had thought the device of a trans woman telling/illustrating her autobiography as if she had been a cis woman (a "displaced memoir," as one of her friends termed it) would be interesting and clever, but it turns out to feel very mundane -- which I think is kind of the point, but the memoir itself wasn't particularly interesting to me (though there were moments), so there wasn't anything to hook me....more
I read the board book first, and this book expands on the single line per person of the board book with 3 rhyming couplets per person (which manage toI read the board book first, and this book expands on the single line per person of the board book with 3 rhyming couplets per person (which manage to rhyme in both English and Spanish, which is impressive).
A lot of the text is fairly generic, so it still feels like it's aimed at fairly young readers.
I did get really cranky at, "Sonia Sotomayor was very good at school. / She studied hard, and got good grades, and followed all the rules." Like, there is literally an activist (Dolores Huerta) among the women profiled; "following the rules" should not be a thing we're lauding! (The Spanish says, "A Sonia Sotomayor desde niña le gustaba estudiar. / Dedicada a su educación para un mejor futoro forjar." -- which translates roughly as, "Sonia Sotomayor liked to study since she was a child. Dedicated to her education in order to forge a better future." Because the text is so generic, the English and Spanish not exactly matching doesn't feel like a huge deal, but it's sometimes really noticeable.)
Of Ellen Ochoa, we read, "She's an inventor, a flutist, and even a pilot! / And you can be too if you really desire it," which irritated me, since will is not in fact sufficient for people achieving things they want. I prefer the Spanish ("¡También es piloto, flautista e inventora! / Una mujer como tú, soñadora..."), which roughly translates as, "She's also a pilot, flutist, and inventor! / A woman like you, dreamer..."
Honestly, the whole Selena section feels stronger in Spanish than in English --
English:
Selena was born in in a small city in Texas. She grew to be famous because her voice was infectious!
She balanced two cultures which is no easy feat. And sang in English and Spanish while dancing to the beat!
From fashion, to music to movies and more, she became a role model like no one before.
Spanish:
Selena nació en un pequeño pueblo de Texas. ¡Con su carisma y tenacidad abrió muchas puertas!
Cantó en inglés y español, cruzando fronteras. Ser bilingüe en el escenario fue uno de los primeros.
Cantante, empresaria e incluso diseñadora, pero más que nada, ¡una mujer luchadora!
My rough translation:
Selena was born in a small town in Texas. With her charisma and tenacity she opened many doors!
She sang in English and Spanish, crossing borders. She was one of the first to be bilingual on stage.
Singer, businesswoman and even designer, but more than anything, a fighter woman!
I will grant that Hilda Solis is stronger in English than in Spanish -- "The first Latina to serve in the U.S. Cabinet - she was Secretary of Labor. / She made sure the laws were in the workers' favor!" vs. "Hilda crea leyes que nos auydan a progresar. / Justa, trabajadora y honrada, ¡ayuda a muchos a triunfar!" ("Hilda creates laws that help us progress. / Fair, hard-working and honest, she helps many to triumph!")
The Bibliography is just a list of website URLs -- and is not in the order in which the people appear in the book, or in alphabetical order by subject's name, which is confusing to me.
I wish the backmatter gave more information about things only alluded to in the book.
For example, we read, "Like Antonia Novello who became a pediatrician, / to help kids like her, born with a painful condition," which I can imagine prompts many kids to ask what her "painful condition" was.
https://www.britannica.com/biography/... (the URL listed in the Bibliography) just says, "Antonia Coello [her birth name] suffered from a painful colon condition from birth until she underwent corrective surgery at age 18. This experience influenced her to train as a physician in order to help minimize suffering in others," so I would still maybe recommend Wikipedia for more details, though the Britannica is likely sufficient for young readers....more
The text is very sparse -- one sentence per person -- so I'm not sure how engaging it would be for kids. The illustrations are bright and fun, though.The text is very sparse -- one sentence per person -- so I'm not sure how engaging it would be for kids. The illustrations are bright and fun, though. (Though the layout is very similar for each two-page spread, and I wish they had varied it somewhat, especially since each woman is depicted twice -- once on each facing page -- but looks almost identical in the two depictions, exacerbating a feeling of repetitiveness in the illustrations.)
I appreciated that the backmatter gave more information about the women. (I had only heard of 5 out of the 11.) Though it's erratic in whether it shares the date and/or place of each woman's birth, which feels like it could have used an editor....more
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