• Age: 4 to 8
• Grade: p to 3

Simple, accessible, and direct, this picture book is perfect for kids and parents or teachers to read together, opening the door to conversations about gender stereotypes and everyone's right to be their true selves.

Is it okay for boys to cry? Can girls be strong? Should girls and boys be given different toys to play with and different clothes to wear? Should we all feel free to love whoever we choose to love? In this incredibly kid-friendly and easy-to-grasp picture book, author-illustrator Elise Gravel and transgender collaborator Mykaell Blais raise these questions and others relating to gender roles, acceptance, and stereotyping.

With its simple language, colorful illustrations, engaging backmatter that showcases how "appropriate" male and female fashion has changed through history, and even a poster kids can hang on their wall, here is the ideal tool to help in conversations about a multi-layered and important topic.

ELISE GRAVEL a écrit et illustré une trentaine d’albums jeunesse. L’auteure use d’un humour mordant pour exprimer ses vues et éveiller le sens critique de ses jeunes lecteurs. En 2022, Elise a remporté le prix Vicky Metclaf, qui souligne le travail d’un auteur ou d’une auteure jeunesse. Elle a également reçu le prix du Gouverneur général en 2012 dans la catégorie illustrations pour son livre La clé à molette, de même que le prix Droits et Libertés et des droits de la jeunesse.

ELISE GRAVEL has won a Governor General's Award for illustration, the Vicky Metcalf Award for Literature for Young People, the Rights and Freedoms Award from the Quebec Commission des droits de la personne et des droits de la jeunesse, two Applied Arts Awards and a Grafika Award. She also was short-listed for Mr. Christie's Book Award. She has written and illustrated over 30 books for children in both French and English including Not Me (Pas moi), Everybody! (Tout le monde! and It's My Body! (C'est mon corps!). Elise lives in Montreal, Quebec.

Elise Gravel's profile page

Mykaell Blais' profile page

• Short-listed, Norma Fleck Award for Canadian Children’s Non-Fiction

★ "Wildly appealing, and the comic-style presentation helps to endear the book to readers... thoughtful, engaging, and visually bright." —School Library Journal, starred review