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Rainbow Skies

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Gender Queer: A Memoir

2020 ALA Alex Award Winner
2020 Stonewall -- Israel Fishman Non-fiction Award Honor Book

In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Now, Gender Queer is here. Maia's intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears.

Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity--what it means and how to think about it--for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.

"It's also a great resource for those who identify as nonbinary or asexual as well as for those who know someone who identifies that way and wish to better understand." -- SLJ (starred review)

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240 pages

Average rating: 8.46

97 RATINGS

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6 REVIEWS

Community Reviews

Erick
Oct 11, 2024
10/10 stars
Very informative. There’s some science in it, and I’m not much of an Einstein. Still, most of the book communicates experience and feeling, helping me understand other people better. There were things I hadn’t heard of before, like the Spivak pronouns (e, em, eir).
Anonymous
May 19, 2024
10/10 stars
What an amazing story! I loved the honesty in the story and in the illustrations. The author has such an amazing family, it gave me chills. Not everyone in their situation has such support, and I am glad they had it.

The story answered so many questions, and I would recommend it to anyone who has friends or family questioning their sexuality. Actually, I would recommend it to anyone who wants to learn more about the topic, or is even willing to learn. Such a wonderful story!
KayeKavanagh
Dec 27, 2023
10/10 stars
Read this book if you want to increase your understanding and empathy for any non-binary friends, family, and community members. This book gives me hope for the openness of my children’s generation to allow people to be who they were born to be. Very quick read with an approachable graphic novel format.
Parabooksrock
Jul 07, 2023
8/10 stars
It was nice to see someone else had many of the same thoughts and feelings about their body that I had growing up. I kind of wish I could find out what happened with the class/school after Maia told them about the pronouns and things.
E Clou
May 10, 2023
8/10 stars
Though I've made an effort to familiarize myself with transgender issues, the author's personal experience still provided me with a lot of insight into how different and intimate these personal experiences are. But beyond that, it definitely expanded my view of the human condition generally which is what all good literature does.

Also, read it because it's a banned book!

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