Welcome to my stop on the Pink, Blue, and You! book tour with TBR and Beyond Tours. (This blog tour is also posted on my Tumblr book, art, & fandom blog Whimsical Dragonette.)
Book Info:
TITLE: Pink, Blue, and You!
AUTHOR: Elise Gravel
PUBLISHER: Anne Schwartz Books
RELEASE DATE: March 8, 2022
GENRES: Children’s Picture Book
Synopsis:
Simple, accessible, and direct, this picture book is perfect for kids and parents or teachers to read together, opening the door to conversations about gender stereotypes and everyone’s right to be their true selves.
Is it okay for boys to cry? Can girls be strong? Should girls and boys be given different toys to play with and different clothes to wear? Should we all feel free to love whoever we choose to love? In this incredibly kid-friendly and easy-to-grasp picture book, author-illustrator Elise Gravel and transgender collaborator Mykaell Blais raise these questions and others relating to gender roles, acceptance, and stereotyping.
With its simple language, colorful illustrations, engaging backmatter that showcases how appropriate male and female fashion has changed through history, and even a poster kids can hang on their wall, here is the ideal tool to help in conversations about a multi-layered and important topic.
Author Bio:
I was born in Montreal in 1977 and I started drawing not very long after I was born. In kindergarten I was popular because I was able to draw princesses with long spiral hair. Then, in high school, the girls would ask me to draw their ideal guy in their diary. I became very good at drawing muscles and hair, which I used later when I illustrated my book The Great Antonio . On the other hand, I am always just as bad when it comes time to use a diary correctly.
Later, I studied graphic design at Cegep and that’s when I understood that I wanted to do illustration. After my first book, the Catalog des Gaspilleurs , I wrote and illustrated about thirty others . One of my books, The Wrench , won the Governor General’s Award in the Illustration category, and since that time I have a big head and I brag all the time.
I live in Montreal with my two daughters, my husband, my cats and a few spiders. I am currently working on various projects in Quebec, English Canada and the United States. My books are translated into a dozen languages. I hope to live a long time so that I can still make lots and lots of books because I still have lots and lots of ideas.
Author Links:
My Review:
This was a really cute book that had a lot of good information in it.
I love the open-ended questions at the beginning of the book. They really get kids thinking about why things are the way they are, why we make these assumptions, and why that’s not really a good thing.
There is a simple and easy-to-understand explanation of what the terms gender identity, sex, and pronouns mean and how to distinguish between them.
There is also great messaging that highlights how unfair it is when people are told what they can and cannot do based on their sex, gender, etc.
The book is full of cute illustrations that are deceptively simple and really show emotion well to make their point. Some of the illustrations, especially the dinosaurs one, are also really funny. The colors used throughout are also very engaging and welcoming.
Kiddo enjoyed this story and was very thoughtful throughout and seemed to be really pondering the questions raised on each page. They even occasionally answered a few of the questions posed aloud.
I would definitely recommend this book as it provides a thoughtful yet easy-to-understand overview of gender, sex, pronouns, and gender stereotypes and discrimination.
*Thanks to TBR and Beyond Tours and Anne Schwartz Books for providing a copy for review.
Favorite Quotes:
“When I become extinct, I want to be a toy for BOYS!”
No matter who we are, what we like, how we feel, how we dress, and what our body looks like, we ALL deserve to be loved, protected, and respected.
The good news is that the world is changing. It is easier to be who we really are, and we can find friends and allies who support us.
Can you imagine how free we would feel if things changed even more in the future?
Whimsical Dragonette 
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