Cover Image: The Gender Book

The Gender Book

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Member Reviews

Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

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The Gender Book is a fantastic illustrated guide to all kinds of gender identities. I would recommend as a reference for adults, teens, and older kinds alike. May be too text-heavy for a younger audience to hold interest.

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Beautiful & all inclusive. We need more books like this. Kids are sponges. Give them information instead of misinformation.

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The Gender Book is a very detailed book about gender identity. Information is shared through speech bubbles by two main characters Casey (she/they) and Ellie (she/her/hers). A lot of information is given to readers. As a picture book geared to young children, it may be information overload. Vocabulary and important words are in bold which helps readers focus in among the information. Other individuals are introduced throughout the book to introduce new aspects of gender identity. A glossary of the bolded words is included at the end as well as an activity. May be a self choice for a student to read with a parent/guardian/teacher but is overwhelming as a read aloud

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The Gender Book: Girls, Boys, Non-binary, and Beyond by Cassandra Jules Corrigan is currently scheduled for release on August 21 2023. Ellie and Casey talk about gender! In this illustrated guide to gender identity, you'll meet demiboys and demigirls, agender people, greygender people, those who are AFAB and AMAB, and many more as Ellie and Casey guide curious children through the world of people who don't identify as their assigned gender at birth. This book can be an invaluable resource for parents, classrooms and children alike.

The Gender Book: Girls, Boys, Non-binary, and Beyond is an accessible and straight forward guide to the terminology surrounding gender, gender identity, and more. As someone that has made an effort to understand the terminology I thought I had a pretty good grasp on the main terms. I was glad to have confirmation on some, and to learn some new terms and concepts. I really found the book, and the included glossary to be informative and helpful. I think this would be a great read for anyone, of any age, that is questioning their own gender identity, as well as those that want to support or understand those that have come out as not cis.

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I received a complimentary copy of this book via Netgalley. Opinions expressed in this review are my own.

As a 39 year old CIS woman, I'll be honest. Genders confuse me at times. My motto has always been that I don't need to understand it to support people being happy and able to love themselves. As I get older, I realize I do need to understand to be a good ally.

That being said, this book was a LOT of info for a beginner. I'll planning to take some other titles from this series out from the library to really educate myself and get back to this one.

This book would 100% be in my classroom. Learning about different people is so important and leads to more rounded adults. It will also help children who are feeling that they are not in the right body, identity themselves, or children to see that there are many like them. Let's not make more 39 year olds that just want to know what she/they mean

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This is a great nonfiction reference for gender-related learning! The easily accessible language does a great job of explaining things succinctly but fully. This isn't a necessary read for people that already have an understanding of different gender identities but is a great jumping-off point for those looking to expand their knowledge.

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A fantastic guide for those looking to learn more about gender and gender diversity. For such a short book, this has a lot of information and goes pretty in-depth about a lot of different gender identities.
I probably wouldn’t give this as a resource for someone who is very new to learning about different genders / the LGBTQIA+ community, but rather for someone who is looking to expand their knowledge while already having a clear understanding of gender-specific terms and topics within the LGBTQIA+ community.

Overall a fantastic read, even I learnt some new terms and information about my own gender diverse community. The artwork was bright and fun, plus I loved the diversity in the images; seeing people engaging in different hobbies, wearing a wide range of clothes and who all looked different and unique!

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As others have said, there's a bit of a disconnect here about how the target audience is. The vocab and context clues suggests 7-10 yr olds, but the tone suggests younger.

I think it's a good book to have around, you'll definitely want to sit with younger readers and explain a little bit more though

I received an advance copy for free from NetGalley, on the expectation that I would provide an honest review.

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VERY text-heavy! The marketing of this book says 5 years and up, but my 5 year old had problems paying attention. There’s not an overarching story or even much movement. Most pages are our narrators defining different genders, and then different individuals introducing themselves, how they experience gender, and what word they use. It’s a good resource for kids who need an introduction to definitions, but not something that they’re likely to want to return to.

The cast is ethnically and of course gender diverse, but we only see one person of differing ability, having a prosthetic arm.

I do appreciate that we see a trans man with top surgery scars, who is obviously pregnant. A good illustration that DNA does not equal gender, but does have an impact on the body’s capabilities!

So, this book is VERY short. I don’t know if there’s more pages to be added, since I’m reading an advanced reviewer copy. But the one I have includes 8 pages of just blank color before and after the text of the book, making this more like a 24 page book. It feels a bit disingenuous to be listing it as 32 pages. I understand that page count includes title pages, copyright, and thanks pages, but those are an ADDITIONAL 5 pages off the page count of this book. So, this is short.

Overall, I’d call this a library borrowing book, not a household staple. I’d have appreciate it more if there was some more dynamic storytelling, even just the narrators talking directly with the example individuals. There’s nothing untrue or bad here, just a bit lackluster.

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The way my heart utterly soared while reading this! Readers find terminology for gender and gender-inclusive language in an easy-to-read format, and having characters as examples is a fantastic way to engage younger readers. As usual, the art is also perfect!

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Such an important book! Loved it a lot! Also gorgeous artwork! Such a great way to teach kids about gender and pronounced. My kids loved it too

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This is a clear guide to gender identity for both children and adults alike. Ellie and Casey take readers on a journey of meeting different types of people within the gender spectrum. This is a great book for learning more about genders and identity. It covers a wide range of gender identities (not sexuality) some I didn’t even know existed.

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Thanks to Netgalley and Jessica Kingsley Publisher for the ARC of this!

An informative introduction to gender identity and expression for kids, this was pretty easy to read. I feel like I learned some new terms as well. The illustrations were cutesy and I liked them a lot.

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I am really excited about this book because it’s going to be a great resource to share with kids & families! This is so well done is every way - gender terms are patiently explained and the artwork is lovely. The diversity of people represented are a great visual for understanding that gender presentation can look many different ways and that people of any age can identify as gender non-conforming (I appreciated seeing some older adults here). Within the first few pages there’s a pregnant person with a masc presentation and top surgery scars <3 The illustrations were especially valuable in showing how gender presentation does not determine identity or pronouns!
Intersex identity is included here! (The page of the little intersex baby in the green blanket is adorable.) “Cis” and “Trans” are explained (in a non-confrontational way that I think will be great for confused parents) and I really loved the inclusion of gender euphoria as a balance to the pain of gender dysphoria. So many terms are covered in this tiny book, I was surprised but the cute illustrations really keep it friendly and not overwhelming. I even learned something new! I realized I hadn’t fully understood genderflux before.
A couple pages were dedicated to explaining the connection between gender and neurodivergence - which I rarely see discussed and I really appreciated here. As an adult, this made me feel seen, so I just know this book will connect to people no matter their age.

A big thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for an ebook to read!

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The front cover is a beautiful addition to the book. This is what first draw me to it. Then I read a brief summary of the book which made me curious.

I’m a proud queer woman and thought I knew a lot about the definitions around gender due to the people I’ve met on my journey of life. However Ellie and Casey took me on an adventure of knowledge.

There was abbreviations and terms I have never heard of or if I did didn’t really know what it meant. Even though the book isn’t extremely detailed it gave me an understanding.

It was a very nice short read which I hope delivers the message that we are all different and may identify different.

Thank you to the author and NetGalley for an arc copy

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The Gender Book is a very informative illustrated guide to different gender identities. It feels like a lot of information, but it's so important that our kids are exposed to these ideas in a way that non-traditional gender identities are accepted and celebrated. This book does a great job at explaining the differences between different terms, the illustrations are well-done in support of the content, and I love that there's a gender comparison activity at the end of the book.

This book should be in every library and every classroom, and every child in the country should have access to it! Whether it's to assure the child that the way they feel is valid and accepted, or to be informed and accepting of others that are different from them, this is a gem that will benefit so many kids!

Thanks Netgalley and the publisher for the opportunity to review this eARC in exchange for my honest review on the book!

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This is the kind of book which will be a treasure trove for the person who wants a book like this but might not be all that interesting to those who aren't invested in the topic. The illustrations and two characters directing us along the way both make the book a very accessible introduction to some of the vocabulary words connected with gender, and especially various types of transgender identities. The book does seem to be written for those perhaps already identifying somewhere on the trans spectrum as a page early.on says that 'Often someone who was assigned female at birth will refer to themselves as.AFAB for short ' and vice versa. I'm not sure this is true for the population as a whole but I do see that as more common within the trans community. Overall, I think the book is an accessible and simply written explanation of different gender-related words and identities. If that sounds good to you, you'll love this. If not, you probably won't enjoy it.

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This is an easy to understand graphic novel that explores the wide spectrum of gender identity and expression.
It is great for kids and adults alike.

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“the gender book” is a short picture book introducing a ton of ideas about gender & gender identity.

i am so happy that kids now have the opportunity to read books like this, as i definitely didn’t as a (trans) child. i am grateful to the author and publisher on that account. i especially was grateful for the inclusion of the overlap of neurodiversity & gender non conformity.

i will say, the visual & textual elements didn’t feel well paired to me in terms of target audience. i think older elementary school students would understand the vocab, but i’m not so sure the picture book format would interest them. it’s also not really… an interesting book? there’s not a lot to hold a kid’s attention unless they are curious (which, granted, they may well be!) perhaps it would work well to look at with a kid, as a parent … but the kid might feel infantilized. if they can understand this language/vocab, they might want a bit more of a mature package.

also, the text was all in blocks/speech bubbles & the formatting of every page was very similar. could’ve been more visually interesting!

overall, good info that i want kids to have access to, but room for improvement in terms of its communication.

(thank you to netgalley and the publisher for providing me with this eARC.)

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