I found this book very helpful as a parent with simple explanations all in one place as a reference. Some terms were unknown to me, so that was particularly helpful.

The bright colours of the background and characters are very appealing and my son was drawn to them. We would use this book as a referee material to make sure we understand terms we here.

Overall a very useful book, for children and adults who are trying to understand new terminology.

This is a colorful and interesting way to help children understand gender identity. But also to help adults and teenagers and anyone really. Many of these terms I had never heard of before and helped me to understand how gender identity is much more complex than I ever realized.

OMG this book is so cute. I love it. This is important for even adults to read. I am so glad that this book will exist and that kids will be able to know more about gender than "boy" and "girl"! I am so glad I got to get this and will be purchasing for my nieces and for my teacher friends!

i think the intention was good. but the outcome could have been better. a few terms were kind of.. random and out of place. just a sentence or two to describe those terms are very minimalist, too. a few more sentences to start a conversation with your child would have been an improvement.

thank you netgalley for the arc in exchange for an honest opinion.

I find this book to be more helpful for parents than for their children. Since this subject of gender is very difficult for parents to discuss with their children, this book helps in explaining in a very understandable words the main terms associated with gender diversity. For each letter of the alphabet, a term related to gender identity is named and defined in a very brief manner.
Some of the words like Yinyang Ren, were unfamiliar for me as well. The books can be used as a good opportunity to start conversation with our children about gender and diversity.

I am not an expert on gender identity by far but i know a good bit and I had never heard of a LOT of these terms. I didn't rush to judgement, though. I did some more research. I asked friends who were more knowledgable than I, then I did even more research. Ultimately, I discovered that many of these terms exist predominately on Tumblr. I'm not trying to denounce anyones gender identity and clearly some people DO use these terms but including them in a book like this really just seems to be confusing and will possibly make people less likely to try to learn about gender identities. I understand the desire to make people with less common gender identities feel included, so I am torn on this issue. Most people I asked felt similar. I want everyone to feel included but I also want people to accept different gender identities and terms like "witchgender" are not going to help people take this seriously. I DO take it seriously and that one still made me want to roll my eyes. I don't know, ultimately, I don't know how I feel about this book. I'm not even sure I am entitled to an opinion on it, which is why I'm not going to give it a low rating. It's not my place to say what is and what isn't a valid gender identity. I won't read it to my kid because I have other books on the subject that I feel will connect with her more but I wouldn't discourage anyone from buying it for their kids.

There are so many words to describe gender identity that I had not known about before reading through this book with my kid! I think this book gives adults and children a great jumping off point to start having conversations around different ways people express gender, but I think the presentation as an ABC story oversimplifies a lot of terms that have overlapping meanings. Regardless, I think this is an excellent starting point and helps fill a gap in children’s books that sorely needs filling.

I really struggled with this title. Sure, the premise is lovely and necessary: to open the discussion between parent and child around gender identity by following the alphabet. However, I'm not even sure that an adult who has researched these genders would understand them better, as their online definitions can vary so much. Indeed, the main failure with the presentation of these 26 terms is their poor and overly generalized definition. Some words are sometimes used to mean something other than gender or in other languages, which seems to be more inclusive, but ultimately breaks the original construction. In my opinion, this is a missed opportunity, especially for a real introduction to trans- and non-binarity, as many important terms have been left out in favour of including K, Y and Z words. Even the illustrations are not well done and do not encourage reading. Children need more books about the LGBT+ community but I doubt this one is really helpful. Maybe my expectations for it were too high but either way I'm disappointed.

This book is structured in the style of a classic ABC picture book, but focuses each letter on a word or set of words surrounding gender identity. The book is also accompanied by a Guide for Adults that includes a primer on definitions for key words such as "gender," "sex," "gender identity," "gender expression," and "sexual orientation," and some talking points and guidance on how to engage your child while reading this book. This guide is such a helpful, thorough, and digestible companion, though it would have been even more helpful had it come at the beginning of the book.

The book has bright, basic, block colors that are captivating without being distracting, and the definitions themselves are straightforward and clear.

I am so glad this book exists, and that both parents and kids alike have the opportunity to engage with this material in such an easy, bright, playful, digestible format.

Thanks to NetGalley and Jessica Kingsley Publishers for the ARC.

This is not just for kids! What a great book to show children and adults about gender identity! There's so many terms that it's hard to remember them all or find one that works for you, but this book has a great A to Z list of terms. Super cute as well.

ABC of Gender Identity is essentially a dictionary of 26 different genders written by Devika Dalal with children in mind. It goes through 26 different genders for parents and caregivers to go through with their children to help children understand some of these complex gender identities and help children to realise what Gender they are. The book is followed by some information for parents about how to talk to their children about the gender's outlined in this book. Although this book is written for children, I believe anyone and everyone of any age should read this book as in a changing world it is useful to be aware of these different genders and what they mean.

I like this book as it goes through some of the most common and uncommon genders which are starting to arise in the twenty-first century. It tells the reader the definition of each gender to help us understand the gender and why someone may decide they are this gender. It may even make the reader regardless of age question their own gender and whether they are really the gender they always thought they were. Furthermore, regardless of whether you agree with all these different genders or not it is important to have an idea of what they mean so, you do not offend anyone who may identify as any of the genders in this book.

There were not too many things I disliked about the book but some of the gender identities got a bit complex which is a bit annoying because although the writer has written the definitions in the simplest terms it is still hard to understand some of the genders. Also, it would have maybe been nice to maybe see more identities under each letter of the alphabet to give the readers a more comprehensive guide of different identities and make it more relevant for everyone of any age.

Altogether, I rate this book 3 stars which makes it a good book. This is because it educates the reader on what may be a controversial topic but a topic that must still be taught and learnt about. This is because in the future we will be exposed to these different genders more and more and so we must know a little about what each means. I also believe that this book should be a compulsory read in all UK school PSHE lessons to help children with different genders and work on accepting people for who they are. I would like to thank NetGalley and Jessica Kingsley Publishers for providing me with an exclusive arc copy of this book before the publishing date for an honest and truthful review in return.

The ABC of Gender Identity by Devika Dalal touts itself as being a book for everyone - and according to the author, this children's picture book is meant to accompany adults as they approach the topic of identity with children and open up a wider conversation about diversity, acceptance, and equality. Great concept but I honestly think this book would be too much for children who are reading picture books to comprehend. #ABCofGenderIdentity #NetGalley

I found this book both helpful and confusing. I would definitely need to learn more about gender identities I am unfamiliar with before using this book. Some of the identities sounded very similar, but with different names. That is probably due to my own lack of knowledge on different gender identities. I think it could be confusing to very young children, but I can see it being a valuable resource when appropriate. I think adults could also benefit from this book for their own knowledge. I loved the layout of the text and the way those pages were designed. I also liked the idea of the letter each having a person with them, but the graphics of the people were unappealing.

I thought this was a cute idea, but not very well executed. It could have a bit more style and flare, rather than be a list of facts. That said this idea needs to be done!

I am so happy to see children’s nonfiction doing this well. I want to buy this for all my friends with little ones!

More books on gender identity written for a very young audience are needed. However, ABC of Gender Identity while detailed in its definitions of different gender identities, doesn't seem to be written for a young audience. The language is very sophisticated, as are the concepts, making it a tough sell for a picture book, even for ages 5+.

This is the first time I have seen such an open gender identity conversation starter for kids! I am so glad this is finally a thing, because it's important for us to normalize these conversations and allow kids to explore who they are-- whoever that may be. The definitions are obviously simple to keep things palatable for children-- and there are quite a few that I had never heard of, which I am sure will leave both parents and children curious to learn more. I was hoping for a little more from the illustrations, though. I understand why they are simplistic, (for inclusivity,) but the images could be doing more to engage kids and help them develop a better understanding of the definition on the page. Michele Angello's guide for parents at the end was a great resource, as are the related books of interest-- but I wish there had been a bit more information for parents on where they should look, (be it specific websites or a few more book titles,) to get accurate information for these discussions with their children. Overall though, this book represents a huge step in the right direction for the next generation, and I am grateful to have had the opportunity to read it!

ABC OF GENDER IDENTITY by Devika Delal is a lovely introduction to gender studies.

As its title so aptly suggests, this children's book attempts to present certain gender identities, one for each letter of the alphabet.

Although sketchy (it is a children's book after all), ABC OF GENDER INDENTITY is based on the idea of raising awareness and acceptance among our youngest readers, and just for that reason alone it is worth a look.
If children have a wider field of vision than the masculine or feminine gender and if this were explained to them early enough, perhaps many of them would feel less oppressed and better in their own skin as they grow up.

I wasn't familiar with many of the genders in this book but it made me want to know more about the subject, so if you have any books to recommend I'm interested.

The most important thing is that you stay true to yourself and what you feel, no matter the things people say about you. You are beautiful.

I’m really not sure what to think of this one. I appreciate the effort to start dialogues with young children, but some of the terms and definitions seemed for a much older age group.

Every book I read starts off with 5 stars and the reason I've knocked the first star off this book is because it's waaay too short and the second star is gone because there's no way a small child would understand a word of it... even a ten year old would struggle which is the oldest suggested age on Amazon.

It took under 10 minutes to read from start to finish and as a middle-ager it's left me confused and disappointed.

Yes, there *are* twenty-six gender identities identified... with a single sentence each. This review is longer than the entire alphabet and the suggestions for adults fills up more than half the book.

It's good that it's been written but it reads like the author spent under an hour writing it and then that was it.

If you've got money to burn and a few minutes to waste then by all means get this book, but if you are expecting a book that'll help you to open up the discussion about gender identity with a Primary School aged child then you will be sorely disapointed unfortunately. It's more like a booklet that you would pick up for free at a doctors surgery or hospital while you were waiting to be seen, read it all while you were waiting to be called in then still be sat twiddling your thumbs if the doctor or nurse is running late. The potential is there, but it's obviously been written and published in a hurry.

My two-word recommendation? "Best avoided".