While serving her first term on the Washington Elementary School board in Arizona, Tamillia Valenzuela made national news. She describes herself as a “neurodivergent Queer Black Latina,” but that isn’t what brought her to the attention of the media. Recently she stated that the board should consider “where our values lie.” She went on to state how “disheartened” and “opposed” she was to discover that the district had an ongoing contract with Arizona Christian University that enabled their student teachers to be placed in the district’s schools for field experience. The contract opened up opportunities for recruitment and hiring.

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.