Spotlight: This Is Our Rainbow
My kid came out as non-binary last summer, and we’ve been seeking out books with enby characters ever since. So the minute I learned about the middle-grade anthology This Is Our Rainbow: 16 Stories of Her, Him, Them, and Us (edited by Katherine Locke and Nicole Melleby), I knew we had to get it. Both the kid and I loved it. It was great to read stories for the middle-grade age span about LGBTQ+ kids. Kid said: “There’s an 11-year-old non-binary kid! Just like me!” They were so excited to see lots of representations of non-cis/het kids. We appreciated that, although some of the stories were focused on coming out or being different, many of them were about other kid stuff, starring non-binary, trans, and gay kids. Kid’s only complaint?: “I wish there were whole books about them!” So thank you, editors and authors, for giving my kid a great “mirror” book.
The stories are by Eric Bell, Lisa Jenn Bigelow, Ashley Herring Blake, Lisa Bunker, Alex Gino, Justina Ireland, Shing Yin Khor, Katherine Locke, Mariama J. Lockington, Nicole Melleby, Marieke Nijkamp, Claribel A. Ortega, Mark Oshiro, Molly Knox Ostertag, Aida Salazar, and A.J. Sass. There are tales of realistic fiction, fantasy, and sci-fi. There are comics, poetry, and prose.
(Note: the summaries below include some spoilers about the stories of the anthology. Stop now if you don’t want to know!)
Two of the stories are comics, including a makeover-gone-right by Shing Yin Khor. Claribel A. Ortega’s story has her narrator using magical paper planes to talk to a sympathetic neighbor about her crush. A.J. Sass’s story made me think about how maybe sports should worry less about gender and focus on connection and community. Eric Bell let his protagonist relive his moment of coming out over and over until he gets it right. Mark Oshiro sets up a twist of what might be causing tension between two families from different backgrounds: It’s not that the kids are gay, it’s that one family is zombies!
Whether this would be a “mirror” book for you or your kids, reflecting their experiences on the page, or a “window” book into other folks’ experiences, I highly recommend this anthology.