Full disclosure: I don’t have any kids. I’m an adult who’s conscious that they don’t know much about different gender identities and wants to know more. That’s why this cute, brightly-coloured book appealed.

It’s filled with some terms you know, but quite a few that you’ve probably never heard of before. For example, as well as lots of others, “Kynigender” and “Horogender” were new to me. The first means, “someone who is unable to pinpoint their gender due to the stress of the questioning process.” And the second means “someone whose gender identity changes over time.”

The 26 different gender identities do an excellent job of making you realise just how narrow and unrepresentative the gender binary is. And there’s a helpful reminder at the back, for adults, of the differences between gender, sex and gender identity. There are also suggestions about how to use the book to open up discussions with children, but not sure how well they’d work in practice.

The A to Z of Gender Identity is a timely and helpful primer. Its only drawback is because the language in this area is evolving so quickly, it can only ever represent a snapshot of a particular point in time.

This was a surprisingly informative to be so short and an alphabet book. I am an adult and learned some terms and definitions that I had never heard. Even though it’s a children's book, I think it’s a good book for anyone who is wanting to understand more about gender identity. It’s simplistic but that is the beauty!

Title - ABC Of Gender Identity

Author - Devika Dalal

Theme/Topic - Gender Identities

Age - 5+

Published - June 21st, 2021

Pages - 58

Summary - This book gives a run down from A-Z of Gender Identities and what they mean. Giving 26 Gender Identities and their meanings. Gender Identity is a huge part of who we are and this book is aimed at giving children the information they need to explore who they are.
This book includes simple explanations, a helpful guide for parents, and is a great way of exploring diversity, acceptance, and equality that this world needs so much.

What I Liked About This Book - I liked how it was simple, straight to the point, and very informative. As a member of the LGBTQIA+ community myself, I believe knowledge is our most powerful weapon when teaching acceptance and equality. This book really helps to achieve that. In fact, I learned a few things myself as there were a couple of gender identities I myself hadn't heard of.
I also liked the fact there was a helpful guide for parents, coming from a family who was not accepting of LGBTQIA+ this helpful guide I hope will help other parents understand how they can be supportive and knowledgeable should the need arise.

Rating - 5*

Reviewed by LucyLui

I very much liked this book!
The thing I liked the most about this book is that it did not give so much technical talk. It was just as a child would understand.
I am genderqueer myself, but even I learned new words that describe me somewhat better! The graphics were also so cute!

Honestly I expected more from this book. It's basically just a glossary with not very good definitions. I'm part of the LGBT+ Community myself and while I didn't know some of these identities, the book just didn't do a good job of explaining what the identities actually meant. I feel like it would just confuse kids more than actually help them understand. It would be better almost to just talk to your kids and research with them rather than reading this book to them.
The art style in the book was simple but I didn't really like it. I think they could've done a bit more with it honestly. As for the definitions, I understand it's meant for children but give better explanations than a one sentence description. And to me using the alphabet like this just didn't work in the author's favour, it did seem like some of the identities were there just to fill a letter that didn't have a more well-known identity to fit. I feel that if it wasn't in the format of the alphabet you could have included these same identities as well as others and given better descriptions and examples even of each identity and made it easier for children to understand.
What I've noticed with some kids is that a definition only doesn't help them to understand something, but if you were to explain in depth a little more or even have a character for each identity, and have them explain what it meant to them, it would get the kids more interested and help them to understand it better.

All in all, thank you to netgalley and the publishers for the copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I requested this book because I myself have always wondered what some of the gender/sexual identity terms were. So to put it in an ABC format was actually perfect!
Will be purchasing for my kids and my friends kids!

I'm grateful to Jessica Kingsley Publishers and NetGalley for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review. Expected date of release is June 21, 2021.

This book provides very short definitions of 26 gender-related terms in alphabetical order, and then includes an epilogue to provide guidance to parents in talking to their children about gender identity.

I love that this book exists - I want to make that very clear. Terminology around sexuality and gender identity has exploded in the last few decades. I'm non-binary, and even as an insider, I wouldn't say I know all the terms.

That said, I don't know how useful this book actually is. The definitions provided for the terms are really too short to do much good, and some of the definitions are incomprehensible (libragender, I'm looking at you). The idea of presenting them as an alphabet is cute, but it results in an uneven text. Some words that should have been included, being much more common, are missing, and some words are included only because they suited the letter the author needed to fill in, rather than being a truly necessary piece of queer-trans culture.

Someone who's already part of the community probably doesn't need this book to talk about gender with their kids. Someone who's external to the community will need a lot of supporting texts and internet research to go along with this book in order to talk to their kids. Maybe this would work for someone sort of adjacent to the community? If the definitions were only a bit longer and included examples, it would be a much more useful text.

The artwork in this book is simple, but still very cute and easy on the eyes! The terms and descriptions are easy to understand and would be even easier to explain to a child, and even helped me understand what some of them mean as a non-binary person. I think this would be one of the best accompaniments to any person trying to educate a child on gender and gender identities, while not having the source material be confusing or overwhelming for any parties involved!

This is a fantastic book with which to introduce the concept of gender identity with a child. The ABC of Gender Identity explores 26 gender identities (all associated with a letter of the alphabet) and approaches this topic in a relatable and caring manner. The Guide for Adults at the end is a thorough and thoughtful resource.

This book was stunning and so important for kids everywhere. Gender is such a difficult topic that has a lot of breakdowns, but seeing it laid out so clearly was really well done (I learned something too). I truly loved this book and I feel like it is really important for kids in our society. I also loved the illustrations and the colors. It had a really playful vibe that complimented the message perfectly.

I think this is such a great tool for everyone- regardless of age. I knew about maybe a handful of these terms- a lot of them I didn't even know they existed. I wish I would have grown up with a tool like this, I think it could have helped me with a lot of relationships in high school and college. At the end of the book, Devika Dalal mentions how children prefer to hear concepts like this from trusted adults. Learning these terms now will hopefully help teach my own kids and other adults in my family.

I love the idea of this book and think it will be essential to many young readers, however, I feel that some of the language used could be tweaked or a disclaimer added saying gender expression/experience is not a catch-all experience. This book will be a great help to young readers as to be empathetic to their peers or understand themselves better.

Books like this absolutely need to exist, and I love that this book normalizes discussing gender identity with young children.

My understanding of gender identity continues to grow, and I learned things from this book. In general, I think it's a good reference, even for adults.

I do think that there's a bit of a mismatch between the audience for this book and the language used in this book. A lot of the definitions given included vocabulary and concepts much beyond what would be expected of a 5 year old (association, overlapping, typical, surgical), and that using this book to discuss gender identity with children requires a stronger adult knowledge of the concepts in this book to be able to simplify, explain, and answer questions. (For example, the definition not queer limiting to gender identity [which I know is the context of this book] without acknowledging that the term is also commonly used within the context sexual orientation may lead to confusion if the child/adult didn't have that foundational knowledge to clarify.)

I was unclear what the AQ in brackets on some pages indicated and couldn't find a key.

The illustrations did not contribute much to the book.

Pros: Although this book is marketed for young readers, I think this is a necessary read for all ages. Adults need to be educated about gender identity just as much as children do. (I learned new terms when reading this book!) I think children’s books are a great place for adults to begin when wanting to learn more about something. Children’s books offer a simplified foundation that can inspire deeper research by readers of all ages. When reading this book, I especially enjoyed the bold, colorful, and inclusive illustrations.

Cons: None that I know of—this is an area where I am still learning, so I do not have the knowledge to criticize the information included in the book.

I do suggest that children read this with an adult so they can ask questions and talk about what they are learning from the book. (In the introduction, the author also recommends this.)

Thank you to NetGalley and Jessica Kinglsey Publishers for the opportunity to read this book.

Thank you #netgalley for the opportunity to read the book ABC of Gender Identity prior to publication. The book intrigued me instantly and I was very surprised by how many identifications I was not aware of and hadn’t heard before. The book is almost exactly what it sounds like - a non-threatening book that displays the alphabet A-Z in colourful lettering and defines each identity in the simplest ways. I would never have known there is over 26 gender identities.

While the book is clearly geared towards children and their parents to help navigate the important topic of gender identity, as an adult I found it thoroughly worth the read and would recommend it for adults looking to understand more about gender identity.
At the end of the book is helpful discussion points to assist adults with talking about gender identity with their children.

#ABCofGenderIdentity #Netgalleyreview

This book will be extremely challenging for younger children to understand. When you think of ABCs, you generally think of the alphabet and learning. While this book was informative, it struggled to get the major point across. A 3 year old will struggle with understanding this book and its material. I think more pictures would be helpful or even conversations between people as they go...more story like will be easier to understand.

I love the concept of this book. I also really enjoyed the simple and colorful illustrations. However, I think there needs to be more text and information to supplement the terms in this book. I also think it would be better if the language was more accessible for children. Some of the wording "fluctuates" and "associates" in the definitions seem at too high of a level for a child to understand. I realize that an adult would preferably reading with them but that also gives the adult even more to breakdown and explain with the child.

ABC of Gender Identity by Devika Dalal is a book aimed at children but is suitable for all ages. Gender identity, sexuality, disability, families, race, religion and illness are just some of the important topics I feel should be discussed more, both in a general sense and on a deeper level, with adults and with children. This book is the perfect starting point to learn about gender identity for yourself and with children. There are so many terms in this book that I had not heard of before reading and I would have previously said I was fairly knowledgeable on the topic. It was a great opportunity for me to learn more about gender identity. To be able to learn about these terms with children and other people provides them with an incredible opportunity to become more accepting of everyone and their identities. There are not many books like this out there in the world and there should be more.

Books like this are a clear example of how powerful literature can be and it should be appreciated and utilised greater than it currently is. This book is for everybody. It shrinks the taboo, raises awareness, improves education and is a fantastic little book. The only thing I think would be a fantastic addition to the current content of the book is some illustrations to accompany each term mentioned, so enhance the learning and understanding of each term.

Thank you to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a copy of this book to read and give my own, honest opinion.

Introducing adults and children to gender identity is fast becoming necessary. While I am familiar with a lot of these gender identities, there were a few which I have not heard, because they are either not commonly used or haven't been popularised by the mainstream media, so I did appreciate learning of these new gender identities.
I think the use of a book to encourage discussion between parents/carers with children who may be questioning their gender identity or even those who would like to learn more, is a great idea.

So while I appreciate the overall concept of the book, I think the execution of it was a little off. To me the illustrations and style of the book appeared to be skewed to preschool age, as opposed to a 5+ year old age to which it is targeted. I think it could've done without the illustrated characters altogether. Instead, more information on each gender identity, even going as far as providing some sort of example, would have been more helpful for both parents who aren't familiar with gender identities and for children who are questioning their own gender identities.

Received a copy of ABC of Gender Identity to review from Netgalley. The book is colourful, but the illustrations resemble something from paint. Not my favourite, but for a children’s book it’s important to note. I started reading this book with my 4 year old and then had trouble explaining some of the terminology as some of it was new to myself. I’m not sure what age group it’s geared towards, but as an ABC book I figured toddlers and up. I’d recommend parents read over it once or twice before and the handy guide at the end, so that they can better prepare themselves to explain the book as Gender Identity isn’t as explained in this depth on a normal basis as much as it should be. Parents and Children will both learn a lot from this book, just wish the illustrations had a bit more texture and depth.