By Marcus Ewert
A child who's told she's a boy keeps dreaming of magical dresses, and finds one person who finally listens.
Every night Bailey dreams of dresses. Not ordinary ones: dresses made of crystals, of flowers, of windows that open onto far-off places. But every morning when she runs to tell her family, they cut her off with the same thing, 'You're a BOY, you shouldn't be thinking about dresses.' Bailey knows in her heart she's a girl, and she keeps holding onto her dreams until she meets Laurel, an older girl down the street who hears her, believes her, and sits down to start sewing with her.
This was one of the first picture books to put a transgender child at the center and let her simply be right about herself, and it still lands because it never argues or explains. It just shows a girl who knows who she is and one friend who takes her seriously. For a child who's ever felt brushed off by grown-ups, the ache of not being heard is the real story here, and the relief when Laurel finally listens is the whole payoff.