My Princess Boy

Children should never feel concerned about who they are and what they choose to wear and to play with. This is a wonderfully self-affirming book. Every parent and grandparent should enjoy this book with their child.

A very simple book for young readers that celebrates being different, but also acknowledges the pain of sometimes not being accepted. Overall the book is very joyful and fun to read. The illustrations are precious and include diversity. The faces are featureless, so the child can easily imagine them to be of themselves or their friends.

I debated whether or not to order this book for our family. Our son has many things in common with the "princess boy" in this book and so in the end I got it even though I thought the book seemed a little young for him. I'm so glad I did! It's a heartwarming little book and has already won its way into both of my kids hearts. I highly recommend it not only for "princess boy" families but anyone wanting to raise an open-minded, well-grounded family.

I am always looking out for great books for my little man. He loves to read, and cuddling up before bedtime to read a story is one of his great joys. Our whole family loves this book so much. You can tell that this story is written from the heart, and kudos to the mommy for writing it! This is exactly the kind of material that kids need these days to enforce that 'different' doesn't necessarily mean 'bad' or 'wrong'. I'm recommending this to all of my friends with young kids.

There is a lot to love about this story, and I so enjoy the illustrations. I feel this book is a good tool to help communicate acceptance from a parental standpoint (which can sometimes be tricky.) Pointing out similarities and differences between siblings and friends is brilliant and very well done, but I do also wish the story encouraged all readers to appreciate the most important person to please and seek acceptance from is...ourselves, not others. This sweet story is family friendly and promotes diversity and acceptance with simple to understand words to help explain a phase that may last a few weeks, a few months or prove to demonstrate who someone is for their whole lifetime. Live and let live, play and be happy.

Love the message here. I think it works well in the preschool range- any older and it lacks an engaging storyline. I bought this for my son who wants to dress like his little girlfriends at school- but who is actually quite pleased to be a boy- and books that talk about being trans wouldn’t really hit home with. Some of the other books on this topic wouldn’t really be relatable for him- but the vague “Princess Boy” description made him quite happy.

I was really looking fwd to reading this to my 4 year old. She's in this phase where she thinks certain things or colors are only for girls and boys. I thought this book would be a great example of how this isn't true. The message in the book is cute, but it reiterates over and over that the boy loves GIRLY things and GIRLY dresses. This makes it seem like dresses really are meant for girls but we need to be accepting about it. Maybe i'm just being too picky and reading too much into it. I just switched up the wording as i was reading it and she got the message :)

I am that boy, but received hate and abuse from my parents. I am getting to be pretty old now. I suffered suicidal tendencies and depression all my life. I now have seen a therapist for several years. I am better, but it is very hard for me to disregard the past. I still think I have to hide what I am, from those I know. Every few months I dress and go to the famous store at 2 or 3 in the morning. It is wonderful to be able to feel who I am. A few out there reading this will understand. I hope for world peace and for children to be loved for the way they are. There is little chance for either. Please love your children. Others, please buy for your "normal" children. Maybe a small seed would be planted that being different isn't always evil.

Habe dieses Buch gekauft, für den Fall, dass ich einen Jungen bekomme und siehe da, es ist einer geworden. Man kann nie früh genug unterrichten, was Offenheit und Toleranz ist. Dieses Buch ist optimal. Wer kein Englisch kann, es ist super einfach und die Bilder wunderschön, sowie selbst erklärend. Ich würde dieses Buch jederzeit wieder kaufen. Schön: Schutzumschlag

This is a great little book, a lovely story, nicely told and a perfect book to share with youngsters of all and any genders to help them question and explore the apparently binary nature of gender identity and to help them start to develop understanding that not everyone fits in simple binary definitions. Its especially useful if you know a boy who would prefer to be a girl. Princess boy ".. likes pretty things, Pink is his favourite colour, he plays dress-up in `girlie' dresses and dances like a beautiful ballerina." -In just twenty two words the first page of the book has set out everything a boy needs to know about how not to be a boy - indeed that first page could be read as a kind of hegemonic check-list of quintessential girl identifiers - implicitly setting out in stark contrast, the binary world; black and white: the difference between boy and girl. But of course, since this is a book about a princess identity its not black and white: here its purple ink on pink paper, but we are talking girl-world symbolism here. We go on to learn that Princess Boy likes wearing: `a tiara; sparkly dress; green ballet leotard'; and `dancing with his friends' which of course are further identifiers and identities from which he finds himself effectively barred, by virtue of apparent anatomy. This a sweet book and in a very simple but effective way it describes the struggle facing a gender non-conforming boy. I can feel great sympathy with the protoagonist here and indeed his parents, and I'm pleased that the book identifies the prejudice they need to face. This book has far more reality and credibility to it than David Walliams' `The boy in the Dress' which for me lacked the often-times harsh and painful reality of a queer identity in our heteronormative school and social system. Walliam's book is fantasy of course, whilst this book is actually based on a true story: Dyson Kilodavis - the lad who is the inspiration for Princess Boy was four years old when his mother recognised that she was really struggling to reconcile her own internal rules about gender and her son's natural leanings towards a female identification rather than male. As part of her journey she wrote the book `My Princess Boy' to try to help challenge people's prejudice, in a simple way to get people to question the need for the discrimination. What I find interesting is that by four year of age he has worked out that there is a gender identity from which he is technically excluded but its one to which he wants access. We know that around this age boys and girls increasingly learn that their gender is apparently immutable - you are a .....[boy/girl] and therefore...[strict rules apply] Clothes form the core theme of this book - the idea that he likes dressing up as a girl can only be achieved in the context of girl clothes being distinct. Of course its harder for a girl to dress as a boy - dresses can be `girlie dresses' but trousers are just trousers. I gave my copy to a friend who works in a primary school as a contribution for their library - a few weeks later she told me that it was used in circle time by one of the classes and had helped a teacher and a class understand one of the boys in the group who himself felt like he'd rather be a girl. I'd love to see a copy in every primary and junior school!

Bought this as a gift for my 3 1/2 year old son, my own little princess boy. I have read through the story and find it quite touching. I think there will be quite a few points which my son will be able to relate to, but a few others which he won't be able to at all and I'll have to do a bit of tweaking when reading it to him. I'm looking forward to seeing his reaction when he reads about another little boy that's "just like him!".

Hay niños que quieren ser princesas y vestirse como ellas. Este libro está escrito por la mamá de uno de esos niños en un lenguaje sencillo y con el objetivo de hacer la vida de esos niños más sencilla promoviendo el respeto, la empatía y la aceptación. Cada niño debería ser libre de ser como es y ser respetado en sus gustos y opciones. Ese es uno de los pilares en los que basamos la educación de nuestro pequeño y por eso nos pareció necesario que este libro formase parte de su biblioteca; aunque él no pueda sentirse identificado con el protagonista de este libro, o tal vez precisamente por eso, porque el respeto y la empatía hay que enseñarlos. (No le doy las 5 estrellas porque las ilustraciones, aunque sencillas y agradables, no nos acaban de encantar)

The book was great! We used it at out local pride events in June. We set up a table with books that could be used to help explain diversity and support children and family that identify on the LGBTQ2S spectrum <3