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A review by ilonasuntila
Jack (Not Jackie) by Erica Silverman, Holly Hatam
emotional
informative
medium-paced
4.0
I'm a cis woman and therefore unqualified to say how good representation this book is. However, if I had a kid who was struggling to understand their sibling's or friend's trans identity, this is the kind of book I'd likely read to them.
The only issue I have with this book is that the feminine and masculine things are divided very stereotypically. While constructs like that are present in most people's everyday life and can have a strong effect on even the youngest of trans kids, I feel like at least some of it could have been replaced with something more reasonably gendered. For example, "I'm not a princess!" would have been way better than implying that Jack likes mud because it's boyish and he's a boy. A kid with short hair shouldn't equal a boy and playing fairies shouldn't be exclusively for girls, and I don't think such gender roles should be taught to impressionable kids.
The only issue I have with this book is that the feminine and masculine things are divided very stereotypically. While constructs like that are present in most people's everyday life and can have a strong effect on even the youngest of trans kids, I feel like at least some of it could have been replaced with something more reasonably gendered. For example, "I'm not a princess!" would have been way better than implying that Jack likes mud because it's boyish and he's a boy. A kid with short hair shouldn't equal a boy and playing fairies shouldn't be exclusively for girls, and I don't think such gender roles should be taught to impressionable kids.