Jacob's New Dress is a short picture book of twenty-nine colorful pages aimed directly at young children. The title gives away much of the story. The protagonist, Jacob, is a very young boy who enjoys playing dress-up. However, when he plays he enjoys being a princess. For Halloween, he dressed as a witch. He even made a simple dress using a towel. Many of the LGBTQ children’s books that I review contain graphic sexual content or images. This book does not have that but is it appropriate for a public or school library?

Gender Queer is the graphic (comic-style) memoir of Maia Kobabe, published by Oni-Lion Forge Publishing Group and released in 2022. We are told that the 256-page book was originally written for adults but it seems to this reader that it is aimed directly at middle-grade students. The book won the American Library Association Alex Award for its “special appeal” to teenagers, but is it appropriate for school libraries and children? That is the question I want to answer for parents as I review the book.

In January of last year, the Biden administration issued an executive order titled, “Preventing and Combating Discrimination on the Basis of Gender Identity or Sexual Orientation.” The next month, the Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) issued a directive that extended housing to include dormitories, bathrooms, and showers on all college campuses. This directive further required that the Fair Housing Act be enforced in a way that prohibits discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity.