We’ve added an awesome new book to our bookshelf!
Jacob’s New Dress came out on March 1. We’ve been waiting for it and it didn’t disappoint.
Jacob loves playing dress-up, when he can be anything he wants to be. Some kids at school say he can’t wear “girl” clothes, but Jacob wants to wear a dress to school. Can he convince his parents to let him wear what he wants?
This heartwarming story speaks to the unique challenges faced by boys who don’t identify with traditional gender roles.
Want Jacobs’s New Dress for your bookshelf? I have a signed copy to give away!
For the chance to win, leave a comment below letting us know what book(s) you think gender creative and ally families should have on their shelves.
A winner will be announced on Friday. Good luck!
Raising My Rainbow 
Here is a great book which recommends many of the books mentioned and many, many more. I spent years, searching for all these books and collecting them together into one easy-to-use resource for educators and parents.
I love all these selections but have yet to actually see these selections in print. I am going to peruse another book store, but virtually all selections were special orders, with the exception of a Raising My Rainbow.
Has anyone else had this issue? Where did you find your books?
I know the raffle is already over, but I wanted to mention Goblinheart by Brett Axel! It’s about a fairy who feels like a goblin inside, and with the help of friends and family transitions to living as a goblin; a great fantasy-based allegory for trans and gender creative kids.
Related: I’m a preschool teacher and in my free time I write reviews of children’s books with anti-bias themes; many of the books I’ve reviewed are about gender non-conforming characters. (I’ve reviewed most of the ones other commenters have listed, including My Princess Boy, The Sissy Duckling, Be Who You Are, William’s Doll, What Makes A Baby, and Meet Polkadot.) I’m always looking for more books to review, so I’m going to try to find a copy of Jacob’s New Dress! Thanks for letting us know about it!
Raising My Rainbow is the only book we really have. We do have a couple of books about standing up to bullies, including “One” which is great.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/03/11/bravest-knight-who-ever-lived_n_4941363.html?utm_hp_ref=gay-voices
The Bravest Knight Who Ever Lived has all the staples of an ordinary fairytale — a brave hero, a wily villain, a roaring dragon and a dreamy setting — but this story ends with a gay twist.
The fairytale, written by Daniel Errico and illustrated by Mo Qovaizi, tells of Cedric, a precocious little boy who lives on a pumpkin farm and grows up to become a knight.
After conquering a fire-breathing dragon and saving the prince and princess, he is honored by the king and queen.
But when the princess wants his hand in marriage, Cedric reveals he is in love with the prince.
How about something from the classics — Orlando by Virginia Woolf.
Bean has My Princess Boy, I have Raising My Rainbow.
Hoping to add more to Bean’s collection as time goes by.
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.302744489761971.64302.302740229762397&type=3
And
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.303058753063878.64391.302740229762397&type=3
So many great suggestions for books here! I’ve just skimmed down, so I haven’t noticed if anyone talked about books for teens. So, I’d add
Luna
Parrrotfish
Choirboy (sadly out of print, but worth it if you can find it)
if you believe in mermaids don’t tell is an excellent tween novel
They’re not specifically about gender differences, but two beloved books on our shelf are: Giraffes Can’t Dance by Giles Andreae and I’d Know You Anywhere, My Love by Nancy Tillman. The first is a rhyming story with the lines: “Sometimes when you’re different, you just need a different song,” and, “We all can dance, when we find music that we love,” We have it as a board book. The second we just got in keepsake hardcover, and it tells children: “If you decide to be different one day, no worries, I’d know you anyway.” Messages I hope every child learns from their parents!!
Promptly just ordered (from amazon):
“Gender Neutral Parenting-raising kids with the freedom of being themselves”
and
“The Adventures of Tulip, Birthday Wish Fairy”
and
“What Makes a Baby”
LOVE you people for coming with all kinds of suggestions:-) We LOVE books in our family!!
Thanks!
I don’t have any great gender creative specific books, but I do love “It’s Okay to be Different” by Todd Parr…actually, all of Todd Parr’s books! I’m going to be a social worker in a school next year, so I’d love to have this to add to my collection. 🙂
And Tango Makes Three, My Gender Workbook
My princess boy, Ronald Humphrey is wearing a WHAT?
–Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out (truly incredible and powerful book!)
–The Transgender Child: A Handbook for Professionals and Families;
–Gender Made, Gender Born;
–Raising My Rainbow (Your book spoke to me because you knew my life!!!)
–Be Who You Are (a great book for kids)
–The Adventures of Tulip, Birthday Wish Fairy (a sweet book that makes being transgender normal)
–Meet Polkadot (Excellent book for middle schoolers and older)
Thanks for the opportunity to add another great book to our shelves for us and our family and friends!
I like ones that teach about loving yourself and being loved for who you are…
I wish I had duck feet by Dr Seuss
and
The awesome book of love by Dallas Clayton
OMG! I have so many books to catch up on after grad school!!!! I’m adding a comment so I am notified of future comments.
The transgender child…
I would put your book, as it was the first book that really hit home – but I’m supposing that’s against the rules lol
Other than Raising My Rainbow (of course) I like The Sissy Duckling and Backwards Day.
Raising my Rainbow, of course. As Nature Made Him: The Boy Who Was Raised as a Girl, as an example to people that you cannot change a child without serious consequences. Gender Born, Gender Made: Raising Healthy Gender-Nonconforming Children. Then of course, there are books for the child themselves: My Princess Boy and 10,000 Dresses
Raising my rainbow, Oliver button is a sissy and boy with the punk hair have become some of my favourites. I would love to add Jacob’s new dress to my list!
Boy with the pink hair****
The only two we have right now are “My Princess Boy” and “William’s New Doll.” I’ll have to check out some of these other ones. 🙂
“My Princess Boy,” “And Tango Makes Three,” “I am J,” “My Gender Workbook.” Among others, of course. I’d love to start my own collection of gender creative stories for my future children, it’s books like these and blogs like yours that help people raise children in loving, supportive environments. =]
Princess Boy, 10,000 Dresses, Be Who You Are, The Different Dragon. My libraries don’t have a lot of the books specifically for gender-creative kids. I’ve done inter-library loans to get the books I want for my kids though. I can’t wait to add more to our collection. We’re waiting on The Gender Book to come in the mail. Hopefully soon!
A is for Activist, My Princess boy (of course), and the always classic T is for Tango.
My 5 year old grandson LOVES “The Boy Who Cried Fabulous” and “Roland Humphrey is wearing a WHAT?”
He also is becoming very aware of teasing. Although he is not gender creative, he is a very tenderhearted little boy who’s favorite color is pink and loves flowers.
For adults, “Raising My Rainbow” can’t be shared enough.
Thank you for this giveaway.
Oliver Buttons is a Sissy, The Boy Who Cried Fabulous, 10,000 Dresses, My Princess Boy and All I Want To Be Is Me. These books are amazing and my grandson loves reading them.
Michael and Me, a forthcoming book that should be out through Random House by the end of the month, by Margaret Street. It is a children’s book based on a classmates perspective of having a transgender friend, and how he explains that people are beautiful no matter what, from a child’s point of view, from having a transgender classmate and friend. Full disclosure: Margaret’s a personal friend of mine. But you should still get it!
Where can this be purchased?
Raising my Rainbow is a great book.
Raising my Rainbow, My Princess Boy and Gender Made, Gender Born are all on my bookshelf!
We have just started this journey with our son. I don’t have any book recommendations, but I will check out all titles listed in the comments. Thank you for the opportunity to not only have a chance to win a copy of this book, but for encouraging others to share great books with us novices! 🙂
Gender Born, Gender Made. I have three copies to loan out to families and friends who interact with my pink boy.
Your book is the only book I have read so far that is inspiring for gender creative families and allies. I currently work in an alternative high school which is housed on the same campus as another alternative high school, a k-12 alternative homeschool program, and a k-5 alternative elementary school (which I attended many years ago). I am very interested in this book because I think it would be a great book to have in our school library so that all of these students, families, and teachers could have access to it. I already bought a copy of your book in December and used it for the “Rainbow Alliance” gift exchange. Please let me know if there are more books that would be good for our library!
The Transgender Child, Gender Born Gender Made, and William’s new doll!
This sounds like a great book!
Oops, forgot to add Raising My Rainbow and Boy with Pink Hair are great books to have.
I do love “The Boy with Pink Hair”….so amazed it was written by Perez Hilton of all people 😉
The two books we leave out on the coffee table are “Roland Humphrey is wearing a WHAT?” and “Raising my Rainbow”. Other fave books aren’t gender related but simply ones that try to teach kids that its okay to be different and that its not okay to bully someone who is different.
“Gender Born, Gender Made”, “Raising My Rainbow”, “My Princess Boy” Great books!
I would love this book and My Princess Boy for my 4 y.o. gender creative son.
This would be awesome for my 4 y.o. who loves to dress up! I would give it to his pre-K in fall so they have a book for gender creative children like ours.
I need to get a book or two (or three…) for our collection, so thanks for the giveaway and to everyone for their suggestions!
the book by the california pychologist for parents
Raising my rainbow 🙂
Oh this is great! I personally have not seen any gender creative books out there, but I’d love to own this one. It’s awesome there are books like this out there and I’d be thrilled if my daughter could read it 🙂
Raising My Rainbow of course!
We are always looking for ways to support our childrens’ evolving and emerging understanding of themselves, not constricted by limiting gender roles. This one looks like a great book.
The Boy with Pink Hair by Perez Hilton.
“ISH” by Peter H. Reynolds….it is not specifically a Gender-creative book, but it is about a little boy who loves to draw….and when his brother laughs at his drawings it makes Ramon so sad and feeling that nothing he draws is good enough. My 6 yr old (very gender creative son, who loves to draw!) loves this book and we have read it many times over. It really applies to ANY subject: Should comments from others stop you from loving/doing what you love?? We use it to compare a lot of different situations! It is worth reading for any child:-)
PS: We already have “Jacob’s New Dress”, got in on Amazon.com on February 15th (had to check my order-page to be sure about the date), but if I win: a signed copy of YOUR book would be great instead:-) Thanks
My son and I love “My Princess Boy”. One of my favorites is “Raising My Rainbow”. My Mom is insisting that the entire family read it so they can better understand my son!
I don’t know of any other books yet…we are still learning. (But I will take the suggestions below to my library 🙂 )
Roland Humphrey Is Wearing A What?
Raising My Rainbow for parents
My Princess boy for kids
We love “Roland Humphrey is Wearing a What?”
We like that book a lot as well:-)
Wow that looks cute! I am not really familiar with what books are out there for kids on this subject.
David Walliams’ brilliant “The Boy in the Dress” is a favourite of mine, and the kids loved it too.
Famous 5 for the description of George wanting to be a boy and refusing to answer to girl name
The boy in the dress
Oliver Button is not a sissy
Williams doll
10,000 dresses
Be who you are
in addition to those already mentioned
The Boy Who Cried Fabulous, Raising My Rainbow, Super Tool Lula (The Bully-fighting Super Hero) and My Princess Boy.
And the kids would love the One of a Kind Colouring Book.
The Boy in the Dress by David Walliams is wonderful. Don’t worry putting me in the draw, I’m the wrong side of the Atlantic!
This book and raising my Rainbow… My son is CJ and Jacob put together!
Raising my Rainbow… And I can’t wait for this book… My son IS this boy…. And CJ…rolled into one!
“What Makes a Baby” by Cory Silverberg — it’s a a delightfully non-gendered take on the basics.
My Princess Boy
“Luna” by Julie Peters is supposed to be a really good one, something I’ve had on my to-read list for a long time. It’s a young adult book about a teenage boy who, with help from his little sister, explores his gender identity. You don’t see a lot of books tackling this subject in the teen audience; or at least, I don’t. Most of the books are for adults, or books like Jacob’s New Dress. Either way, I’m getting it after I’m done with the one I’m reading now. 😀
Er. *Her gender identity, depending on what the story is and how they identify.
What Makes a Baby.
Happy birthday to you blue kangaroo! A gorgeous story about a little girls very pink birthday party and a blue kangaroo who isn’t sure where he fits in!
So far, my son and I enjoyed “My Princess Boy”. For parents, friends, family, etc.. I would suggest your book; Gender Born, Gender Made; Transitions of the Heart; and The Transgender Child.
Transitions of the heart is great too! Very moving!
I would suggest Tales for Little Rebels which has the very early to the cause (1978) story “X: A Fabulous Child’s Story” all about toys being for any gender. The book, is nearly 300 pages of great material for revolutionary and progressive parents.
Love you all…and Jacob looks GREAT in his dress.
Would love this! Love “My Princess Boy”, too!
“Raising My Rainbow” of course!
I’ve been wanting to buy Victor’s Pink Pyjamas for my kids, and I’d love this one too!
both of these books.
best to you and your family.