I Am Jazz
by Jessica Herthel & Jazz Jennings
pictures by Shelagh McNicholas
Dial Books for Young Readers, 2014. 32 pages.
Review written in 2017
I Am Jazz is a simple picture book about the experience of one transgender girl.
Her experience is presented simply, in child-friendly language. She talks about her best friends, Samantha and Casey, and the things all three of them love to do.
But I’m not exactly like Samantha and Casey.
I have a girl brain but a boy body.
This is called transgender.I was born this way!
She tells us that at first her family was confused, they’d call her a boy despite her insistence that she was a girl.
Then one amazing day, everything changed. Mom and Dad took me to meet a new doctor who asked me lots and lots of questions. Afterward, the doctor spoke to my parents and I heard the word “transgender” for the very first time.
That night at bedtime, my parents both hugged me and said, “We understand now. Be who you are. We love you no matter what.”
This made me smile and smile and smile.
This book was published in 2014, but our library has only recently purchased it. Better late than never! It’s in the nonfiction section – in juvenile biography under “Jennings” – so no child is going to accidentally stumble across it in the picture books. That’s a bit of a shame, because it’s a simple explanation of what it’s like to be transgender – but at least we won’t have parents complaining that they don’t want their child exposed to this. To find this book, you will have to look for it.
I do recommend looking for it! A lovely book to explain to children what life is like for the transgender classmates they may end up encountering. Or, for that matter, to understand what they themselves may be going through. Stories go a long way to counteract bullying. This book tells a true story in a positive way.
transkidspurplerainbow.org
penguin.com/youngreaders
Find this review on Sonderbooks at: www.sonderbooks.com/Childrens_Nonfiction/i_am_jazz.html
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Source: This review is based on a library book from Fairfax County Public Library.
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