Nice "ok for boys to dress in dresses" book. The author does a terrific job introducing tension into the story as Jacob expresses his desire and challenges his parents to support him. It's hard to explain, but that moment (which repeats) in which he says something along the lines of -- you say it's ok to be me, this is me, and starts to get worried is a really effective way of introducing empathy. ( )

Great book to introduce gender non- conforming children to gender-normative children. As well, it's great to see representation when you identify as such. Loved it! ( )

Jacob likes to wear dresses sometimes. In the school (kindergarten?) dress-up corner, he imagines himself as the princess. Some other kids accept him just fine, while at least one other kid objects that Boys Can't Wear Dresses. When Jacob wants to wear a dress to school, his parents hesitate, though they accept him. He makes a dress-thing out of towel which he wears over his school clothes-- the other kid steals it. So he asks his mom to help him make a real dress-- and they sew one up together. His dad says "Well, it's not what I would wear, but you look great." Jacob wears his dress to school and stands up to the boy who insists he should be grouped with the girls. "I made this dress, I'm proud of it it, and I'm going to wear it!"

This is a great story about acceptance and support., especially as it models how adults can best react and supports kids who are different. Jacob's mom says "There are all sorts of ways to be a boy," which is perfect. Jacob's parents are shown struggling with the decision to let him wear the dress to school (pretty clearly because it is likely to stir things up) and we are told Jacob gets a "can't-breathe feeling" from that-- but they do support him. And Jacob experiences his dress as a kind of "soft, cottony, magic armor" when the other boy teases him. ( )

This book would be a good fit for primary readers. Jacob loves to play dress up with his friends at school when one day he chooses to be a princess. After imagining to be a princess and getting to wear a dress, despite some not nice comments from a classmate, he decides he wants to have a dress to wear outside of dress up. This book would be a good choice for units on respect and inclusion. It would also work for units on creativity since Jacob ends up sewing and designing the dress with his mom. ( )

Jacob has supportive parents, friends and teachers, but also shitty friends and also the shitty world to deal with. His classmate Christopher obviously feels his masculinity is being threatened by having a boy wear a dress in his class, and I'm willing to bet his dad feels the same since he told Christopher that boys don't wear dresses. Christopher is just bent all the way out of shape here. On every page he's either scowling at Jacob or laughing at him. Relax, kid! Just live your life! No one is stopping you from being a boy!

This picture broke my heart a bit:


I hope Christopher gets over himself and Jacob has a happy life.
I only saw one comment from someone saying that it's immoral and confusing for boys to wear girl clothes (but presumably not for girls to wear boy clothes because I guess we should all aspire to be boys) so that's nice! ( )