A great little book to start a conversation around gender identity, for both adults and children - there were terms I was unfamiliar with and it’s a good starting point for me as a cisgender ally to the LGBTQIA+ community to better understand and support. I’ll certainly be buying a hard copy when it is released.

I received a free e-copy of this book from
Netgalley in return for a fair review.

A short book featuring a term about gender identity for each letter of the alphabet.

I did struggle to understand quiet a few of these terms, even with the explanation underneath. Maybe I need to do a little more research.

I really enjoyed 'The ABC of Families' and believe it should be in all schools and libraries. This one, while informative, was a bit more complicated for children to understand and would need more explanation and adult guidance. I also feel that the illustrations didn't add much to this book.

Thank you #NetGalley and Jessica Kingsley Publishers for the free copy in exchange for an honest review.

This very short book features one gender identity (or related term) for every letter in the alphabet, which I had imagined quite difficult in before.
It really is just a small guide that you can read in five minutes but it's still pretty informative. Even as a queer person who has done tons of their own research about gender identities, I didn't know some of these and was happy to expand my knowledge.
The whole layout featuring the terms in rainbow colours was also really sweet!

This ABC book about gender identity is truly a helpful guide for parents and little ones. Parents can use this book to have many discussions about words and their definitions. It is even helpful to older kids. A definite keeper on anyone’s bookshelf.

*Thanks to Jessica Kingsley Publishers and NetGalley for this Ebook in exchange for my honest review

The book ABC of Gender Identity is geared towards young readers and shares 26 terms about gender identity from A-Z. As an adult reader, many of these terms were new to me so I appreciated the learning opportunity it provided. Our kids have had a lot of thoughtful questions lately regarding gender identity and the differentiation between gender and sex.

In addition, many of these terms are now included in popular culture (especially YA books, television shows, etc) which is wonderful but also has reminded me of the broad range of terminology there is. I always want to be able to respond factually and books like this are a wonderful way for entire families to learn and grow together.

I did wish that there were more illustrations because this is a children's informative picture book so that part felt lacking for me. I found the guide for adults incredibly useful and think it is a great addition to the book.

Thank you to Jessica Kingsley Publishers for the gifted copy in exchange for my honest review.

ABC of Gender Identity is meant as a conversation starter for adults to talk about gender with children.

For each letter of the alphabet, a term related to gender identity is named and defined in a very brief manner. Personally I found those definitions too brief. Yes, this is a children's book, but at the same time the book directly says in its guide for adults at the back that it's more meant as said conversation starter. It also encourages adults to do research on their own. While I do think it's important for adults to do such research if they really want to talk about gender with their children, additional hints and links to find reputable and trustworthy resources would have been appreciated.

I also found the terms that are defined a bit random. It's supposed to be gender identities, but not all of them were. One was also a Chinese term for a person identities as both male and female, which I thought was cool to include, but since it was the only non-English term it felt out of place. Equally out of place was that one of the term was not an identity, but a specific set of neopronouns. I get that it was probably hard to find a gender identity for each letter of the alphabet, which factored into the decision to include these two examples, but it made the list feel a bit less well curated.

The art of the book was very minimal. Pretty much the only art in it were the human figures you can also see on the cover, which are very simple. The rest of the layout is very sparse and simple too and uses the rainbow colours of the gay flag. It looked sweet and fitting for a children's book, but at the same time also a bit too simple, especially since the book ultimately seemed to be more targeted at parents than the children.

Still, aside from the alphabet, the book brings up some good points and information about gender and how to talk to children.
Overall I however wanted a lot more. The book felt aimless and like it didn't know what it wanted to be. If it was for children, it should have explained basic things about gender in terms meant for children. If it was for adults to help talk to kids about gender it should have included more details and sources, even as a conversation starter.

Ultimately, I liked what the book was trying to do, but I can't say it did so successfully.

I really appreciated the sentiment and scope of this book, although I think it fell a bit short of the mark. It's a good resource for terminology relating to gender identity, but I think it will be more useful to parents, caregivers, and teachers as places to open a dialogue about gender identity than anything else. The "Guide for Adults" at the back of the book is especially useful for adults approaching these subjects with young children. I wished that the illustrations had been a bit more evocative and representative of individual children (real or fiction). Nevertheless, I think this book will be a great conversation starter for children and adults.

Thank you to Netgalley and Devika Dalal for a free copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I was drawn to this book by the beautiful illustrations and colour on the cover, as well as its important message for young children. In my day job as a MFL teacher, I often get asked questions about gender and how language related to people who identify as non-binary which goes to show just how central this question is to young people today.

This book contained beautiful illustrations which were racially diverse, along with simple explanations of what these gender identity terms mean. It was extremely child friendly and there was also a very helpful guide for parents at the back about how to conduct discussions about gender identity with your child.

Many of these terms were new to me as well, so even as an adult I feel as though I have learned something. The parents’ guide at the back tackles the issue to defining gender, identity and sex, but I feel that this could also be explained in a child friendly way. Because of the complexities of this issue, I think it would be important to start portraying that to children as some parents might still be a little unsure on how to explain this succinctly and comprehensibly for a young child.

Nevertheless, this book makes a wonderful introduction to young children about the differences between gender identity terms and I can easily see this on a child’s bookshelf or in a primary school library as part of their SRE curriculum.

I thought I knew a lot about gender identity but there are terms in this book that I was unfamiliar with. This lovely book is a great introduction for young and old on the complex topic of identity. There is even a helpful guide for parents about talking to their children.

Thanks to Netgalley for an arc in exchange for an honest review.

A delightful educational book for young readers. I enjoyed the wealth and breadth of knowledge presented here, but I do wish there was more in the way of artwork.

Expected Publication: 21st June 2021

Many thanks to Netgalley and Jessica Kingsley Publishers for my digital review copy of this book in exchange for an impartial review. This review was written voluntarily and all opinions herein are my own.

I saw this book on Netgalley while browsing through and I was like, "what?! A book about various gender identities for the youngest demographic of readers?! Yes, please". It reminded me a lot of The ABC's of LGBT+ by Ashely Mardell and I knew I wanted to read it ASAP! Luckily it was available to "Read Now" and I got it immediately.

The book is very colorful and amazing, with 26 gender identities listed within it. This is SUCH an important resource to teach kids that gender is a wide spectrum and definitely goes beyond the female-male binary. I also believe that this is a great resource for people of every age, especially if they are just being introduced to the idea of a gender spectrum or just need to do more reading. I myself discovered identities like "Kynigender" and "Yinyang Ren" for the first time.

I highly recommend this!!!

I learned a lot from this book! I think the strategy of taking gender descriptions and describing them clearly and concisely was a good one, but I actually had a hard time understanding some of the differences between some of the terms. I think kids will have more questions after reading than before. And maybe that's not a bad thing!

A cute ABC book about gender identity. I like how each letter has a straightforward, simple example for each gender/term. As some of the terms might be harder to understand for very young children, the audience should be kindergarten/early elementary school. Though people of all ages will surely learn something from this book. My only issue with the book is that though the illustrations are adorable and diverse, they seem targeted to toddlers. This would make an excellent gift for a child or expecting parents!

Thankfully the world is starting to understand that gender isn't just fixed to what people assume you have when you're born, and that it's extremely possible for children to know about gender from a very young age, and more importantly, if that gender doesn't fit what they were assigned at birth. However, we still like in a world where many, many people will hate you if you show any kind of gender variance, or stray from 'the norm'. Transphobia is an increasing problem, and education is one of the best ways of dealing with this.

This is what The ABC's of Gender Identity is trying to do. It's a bright and colourful resource for parents and their young children that's designed to let kids know that there's more to the world than boys and girls, that gender is a spectrum rather than a binary.

The book goes through 26 different gender identity terms and gives a simple sentence or two about them so that kids can understand what they mean. I say gender identity terms rather than gender identities like they do in the introduction, because a few of these terms have a lot of overlap, and some of them seem to be using different terms for the same kind of gender, as well as some pronouns, in order to find words for each letter of the alphabet. This isn't an issue, however, as different people will prefer different words to describe themselves, even if they're relatively the same thing, and learning that people can choose the terms that is most comfortable for them is an important lesson.

This isn't a book with a huge amount of information, it's not a resource that you're going to be turning to if you're looking to go in depth on the subject, but if you're simply looking to introduce the idea to kids, and perhaps help a child who feels unsure about their own gender it's a great resource, and hopefully one that will be included in many libraries and schools, helping to lessen the stigma trans issues.

What a precious introduction to gender identity! I can only imagine how helpful this would've been to have when I was a child, and I am so excited that a new generation of young ones can learn from and possibly identify with the information provided. Extremely minimal and full of bold color, this guide catches attention and sets out to provide concise and helpful language.

I've learned so much from this book! Not only children but the adult will enjoy reading this as well. Learning about all the different genders was fun and educating.

I thought that this book was excellent!!

I will admit that even as an adult that there were are a lot of terms in this book I had not heard of.
I have heard of the majority of the mainstream ones but this book was ideal to show more.

The book was great, loved the approach and a massive thanks for the author for using this as a topic - informative for all ages - 5 stars from me for this one - a must read for adults and children alike.

Iit is a great way to bring up the topic of gender identity with children too and it has a handy guide at the end for adults as well!

A simple book for children that goes through the alphabet and explains about different genders, or in some cases non genders there are. I consider myself pretty clued up with what's going on around the world etc, but I have to be honest, I have never heard of a lot of these terms.
I think is quite useful for adults, but I am not sure how much it would hold the attention of a child.
Great book non the less though .... And I genuinely feel like I have learnt lots of new things.

Devika Dalal’s ABC of Gender Identity is one of the few books I’ve seen that addresses the expansive spectrum of gender identity in a kid-friendly approach. Unfortunately, while the content is important, I’m not sure the presentation of it would be very appealing or engaging to young readers. The illustrations are flat and repetitive, with all the human figures shaped the same with a couple of options of hair style and just sort of moved around the page- ironically, they look stamped from the same cookie cutter or rather graphic template, and are far from expressive, much less evocative of anything to do with the terms they’re meant to represent and teach. This could be a chance for gorgeously celebratory illustrations but instead, we get near-identical little ovals in identical clothing, with neutral facial expressions and the only change being small adjustments to hair and skin color. As for the text, the variety of gender identities and related terminology included in the ABC is great, but the explanatory text is very clinical and unemotional. The vocabulary is often rather high for the age of kids I’d imagine reading this with, and even when that might be the best or only way to define a term, there’s nothing about the text to make this fun or engaging or ear-catching for kids. It’s really just a glossary with bright colors.

So, an important addition to the array of kids’ books out there, but unfortunately it falls short on its potential.

Thank you to NetGalley and Jessica Kingsley Publishers for the ARC in exchange for an honest review!

A simple kid friendly book with cute illustrations that helps kids understand the different genders. I like the guide for parents at the end of book.