By Theresa Thorn
A clear, gentle picture book that explains gender identity to young children through a handful of them.
It introduces four children and lets each of them show a different way of being. Ruthie is a girl; when she was little everyone thought she was a boy, and once she could speak for herself she let them know who she really was. Her brother Xavier is a boy, the way people expected. Alex is both a boy and a girl, and JJ is neither. In plain, kind language the book says there are lots of ways to be, and the one that's right for you is yours to know.
This is the one to reach for when your child has questions, or when your family needs the words. It's built as a straightforward explainer, warm and unhurried, so it does the plain-language work that's genuinely hard to do on your own at the kitchen table. The children in it just go to school and make art and hang out with family, which quietly says: this is ordinary, and you're fine.