An Analysis of the Innovations in Three Recent Gender Nonconforming Picture Books

Abstract

With the rising interest in and representation of LGBTQ+ people, more gender nonconforming picture books are being published and are gaining in popularity. Studies of older gender nonconforming picture books have offered critique on the representations present in those picture books. In this paper the representation of gender nonconforming characters in three recently published (2018 and 2019) picture books will be discussed in relation to the critique given on those earlier gender nonconforming picture books. This is done to see if the three picture books discussed here, Julian is a Mermaid, Prinses Kevin, and A House for Everyone succeeded in bringing something new to the genre of gender nonconforming picture books. The interaction between picture and text is examined and a close reading analysis with a focus on gender is performed for each book in order to assess this. This thesis concludes that all three books, despite some still perpetuating a few issues that were found in previous gender nonconforming picture books, do add new valuable representation to the genre.