King & King

de Haan, Linda and Stern Nijland. King & King. New York: Tricycle Press, 2000.

The Queen no longer wishes to be queen, so she is requiring her son, the Prince, to choose a mate and become king.  The Prince rejects princess after princess until he finds his perfect mate: another prince. The Queen approves, and the princes become King & King and live happily ever after.

10,000 Dresses

Ewert, Marcus. 10,000 Dresses. New York: Seven Stories Press, 2008.

Every night Bailey dreams of dresses.  Every day Bailey tells her family about her dreams and they all say the same thing: "You can't wear dresses. You're a boy." But Bailey knows that she's a girl.  Bailey does eventually find someone who appreciates her dreams of dresses and who loves her just as she is.

My Princess Boy

Kilodavis, Cheryl. My Princess Boy. New York: Aladdin, 2009.

This is a story of a little boy who likes to dress up as a princess.  His family accepts him as he is and helps him to be accepted within his school and community as well. This is also a great resource for parents who wish to show their children that people who are different are still people and should be accepted, not judged.

Be Who You Are

Carr, Jennifer. Be Who You Are. Bloomington, IN: Author House, 2010.

Nick was assigned a male gender at birth, but she knows inside that she is really a girl.  This children's book describes Nick's frustrations and her family's work to accept her as she is and to help those around her accept her as well.  This is a great story to use in explaining or introducing transgenderism to small children.

Crush

Mac, Carrie. Crush. Custer, WA: Orca Books, 2006.

Hope lives with her hippie parents on a commune, but for the summer she is going to stay with her sister in New York while her parents head to Asia to build a new school.  Hope is not looking forward to stay with her sister, but she meets some new friends and falls in love, opening her eyes to possibilities, not just for everyone else, but also for herself.

This book is very, very short. At just over 100 pages with fairly large text, I finished this book in a short portion of an afternoon. It's not a bad story, and I'd definitely recommend it for reluctant readers or others who are intimidated by larger books, but I felt unsatisfied when I finished, as though I had been given an appetizer instead of an entree.