My Princess Boy

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.

Great

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.

Mixed feelings:This draws on gender stereotypes to let us know that a boy wearing a dress is weird, but in the end OK. The drawings have no faces which at first my son didn’t like, but it grew on him. The best part is the book ends with 4 questions: If you see a princess boy… Will you laugh at him? Will you call him a name? Will you play with him? Will you like him for who he is? My son screams out the answers to these questions each time with great joy. My son gets the term “princess boy” and is trying it on for size.

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.

We were first introduced to this book at our church. (Which is a very liberal church.) My daughter and I loved this book. I thought it would be a great book for talking to my nephew about how some boys like pretty things, and that's okay. He's been on a big kick about boys liking boy stuff and girls liking girl stuff. I wanted to start a conversation with him about being more open-minded. This book did the trick.

I have my own "Princess Boy" who is 4. Many people who know him have recommended this book for us. We are very lucky, in that I have been able to keep my son sheltered from those that would make fun of him or be cruel. He doesn't realize he is doing anything strange or different. We read this book once, but I won't be reading it again for a while. First off both my kids (4 years and 2 years) were very, very distressed that nobody had any faces. The other problem is that I feel like it would just emphasize that what he is doing isn't typical. Maybe once my child encounters teasing or negative reactions we will pull it out again, and maybe I will loan it to friends who have kids who don't understand my child. But right now, this book isn't very helpful. I also wish it didn't focus so much on being "pretty," as that is something I don't feel is a healthy focus for boys or girls.

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.

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

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!".

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!

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

This is a beautiful story and bursting with love. It shows how love starts at home and it's about loving the person and not the clothes they wear. I love it!