3 Joyful New Kids' Books With Nonbinary Protagonists
A picture book, an early reader, and a graphic novel for emerging readers bring us delightful new stories with nonbinary protagonists. One is a deliberate celebration of queer identities, while in the others, the characters' nonbinary identities are completely incidental to the tales. Readers should value both approaches.
In "Getting Glam at Gram's," by Sara Weed, illustrated by Erin Hawryluk (Arsenal Pulp), a child named Alex tells readers all about their Sunday family dinners at Gram's house, and introduces us to themself and their cousins: Alex (they/them); Evan (he/him); Ty (he/him); Sunny (she/her); and Mona/Mo (she/her and they/them). Gram has lots of clothes, glasses, shoes, jewelry, and wigs, so after dinner, the kids "get glam," dressing up in sparkles, heels, hats, and dresses, regardless of gender. Even their uncle gets involved, helping transform shirts and scarves into dresses.
Despite a small mishap with a pair of Gram's glasses, everyone is having fun. When Gram announces the fashion show, Alex's two moms take photographs and the aunts and uncles cheer.
This is a sweet slice of life in an extended family, diverse in racial identities, with multiple queer people in it, where everyone is supportive of everyone else and small details (like rainbow and nonbinary flag pins and stickers) testify to both pride and allyship. It's a recommended title full of queer joy!
"Whale and the Mystery Mango," by Erica S. Perl, illustrated by Sam Ailey (Simon Spotlight), brings friends Whale, Quail, and Snail back for the third volume of this delightful early reader series. Here, the three very different friends are waiting for the mango high on a tree to be ripe. When will it be ready? Quail insists it's not ready yet. "Fishsticks!" says Whale.
While they wait, Snail teaches the others a new dance—with unexpected consequences!
The stakes are low here, but they're entertaining, with light lessons about patience and friendship—plus silly dance moves that young readers will likely want to try. Add in the seamless use of they/them pronouns for Snail, and this is a recommended tale for newly independent readers, though there's no reason it couldn't be a read-aloud for younger children, too. Make sure to check out the first two volumes of the series, too: "A Whale of a Tea Party" and "When Whales Fly."
"Batcat: Sink Or Swim!" by Meggie Ramm (Amulet Books) brings back Batcat, the adorable half-bat, half-cat, for their second graphic novel adventure! This time, Batcat heads to the Mermaid Lagoon for some "me time" away from their (nice but occasionally annoying) roommate Al the Ghost. At the beach, however, they find the mermaids in an uproar because someone is stealing the colors from their tails! When the mermaids tempt Batcat with a bag of their famous fish tacos, Batcat agrees to help them discover the source of this horror—leading to a confrontation with a sea serpent, a ghost pirate, and more sort-of-but-not-really-spooky denizens of Spooky Isle.
The book leans into its silliness, making it a great choice for new chapter book readers up through middle-grade graphic novel aficionados (though it would be a fun family read-aloud, too). Under the humor, however, are subtle messages about friendship, confronting one's fears, and looking below someone's surface. Batcat's nonbinary identity is incidental to the main story, but backmatter includes "Non-binary Facts" (drawn in the same graphic style as the rest of the book), as well as a few pages on how to draw Batcat and Al.
I'm often skeptical of animal analogies about LGBTQ people in general—but Batcat is such a fun series and author/illustrator Meggie Ramm is nonbinary themself, so I'll trust that Batcat will resonate with at least some nonbinary readers (among others). I found the book to be a delight, and recommend it heartily.
Dana Rudolph is the founder and publisher of Mombian (mombian.com), a two-time GLAAD Media Award-winning blog and resource directory, plus a searchable database of 1,600+ LGBTQ family books.