A review by emeelee
From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea, by Kai Cheng Thom, Kai Yun Ching
4.0
This sweet book is about a child who is born when both the sun and moon are in the sky, and therefore cannot decide on what to be. So, at any given moment they have feathers, a lizard tale, and tiger stripes, or perhaps a fish tale and goat's horns. Though not everyone is understanding of them, their mother assures them of her love and sings a special song to tell them so.
Things this book does great:
-The song is super cute, and I love that the mom is very vocal about loving and appreciating her child's identity, whatever it may be
-The illustrations are colorful and fun
-Uses "they" as the child's pronoun throughout
-Teaches about acceptance of differences
-Includes a couple pages about specifically gender, not just various animal parts
-At the end, the other children feel freer to explore different aspects of their identity after spending time with the indecisive child
Things that are iffy:
-Not sure that the mystical animal parts were necessary, and might make the gender fluidity come across as mystical or fantastical rather than reality
-The whole "indecisive, can't make up their mind" thing... I'm not claiming to be an authority on non-binary genders or gender fluidity, but that doesn't seem quite right? Isn't it more that they don't fit into society's constructed boxes of gender-- that, rather than not being sure which box to choose, none of the boxes apply? I could be wrong.
-There was no author's note to explain any of the themes, or help adults explore the topic with their kids after reading the book. I wish there had been some simple explanation for the use of "they," some of the different non-binary and fluid gender IDs/expressions, further reading, etc.
Still a very worthwhile read, and important representation for picture book collections.
Things this book does great:
-The song is super cute, and I love that the mom is very vocal about loving and appreciating her child's identity, whatever it may be
-The illustrations are colorful and fun
-Uses "they" as the child's pronoun throughout
-Teaches about acceptance of differences
-Includes a couple pages about specifically gender, not just various animal parts
-At the end, the other children feel freer to explore different aspects of their identity after spending time with the indecisive child
Things that are iffy:
-Not sure that the mystical animal parts were necessary, and might make the gender fluidity come across as mystical or fantastical rather than reality
-The whole "indecisive, can't make up their mind" thing... I'm not claiming to be an authority on non-binary genders or gender fluidity, but that doesn't seem quite right? Isn't it more that they don't fit into society's constructed boxes of gender-- that, rather than not being sure which box to choose, none of the boxes apply? I could be wrong.
-There was no author's note to explain any of the themes, or help adults explore the topic with their kids after reading the book. I wish there had been some simple explanation for the use of "they," some of the different non-binary and fluid gender IDs/expressions, further reading, etc.
Still a very worthwhile read, and important representation for picture book collections.