A review by choirqueer
From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea, by Kai Cheng Thom, Kai Yun Ching

4.0

I really enjoyed this beautiful book, with its dreamy illustrations and magical shapeshifting gender-expansive protagonist. My only issue with it, as a trans person myself who identified intensely with the protagonist, was that it felt like the book centered on the protagonist's experience of sadness and isolation much more than it seemed like the story needed. Obviously these are real and important experiences, and books that focus on uncomfortable emotions are extremely important for children, but it felt like the book wasn't actually trying to be centered on that element and that the intention was for it to be a piece of the story rather than the focal point, so having so many pages devoted to that piece felt off-balance. It just felt like the message of celebrating nonbinary/genderqueer/gender-expansive identity almost got overshadowed by the message of how cruel other people can be to you when you're "different", and I would have liked to see it lean the other way. I loved getting to know the protagonist and how they experienced themself, witnessing what inner resilience and external supports they had, and especially the illustrations which really brought the story alive.