by Jessica Kingsley Publishers ; illustrated by Jem Milton ‧ RELEASE DATE: March 21, 2024
A thin, disconnected overview.
An illustrated primer of LGBTQ+ symbols tied to community, history, pride, and resistance.
Organized in loose chronological order, the book explores green carnations, violets, Polari (slang adopted in the U.K. in the 1920s and the only nonvisual symbol covered here), lavender rhinos, purple hands, the lambda, the labrys, pink and black triangles, and more. A few brief lines introduce the text, explaining why these symbols hold significance. Some served as a tool to help queer people secretly signify their identities; others were demonstrations of pride and resistance in the face of persecution. An entry on rainbows, which touches on how the pride flag has changed over time, creates a bridge to the last entries, which look at symbols from the late 20th and early 21st centuries, including two devoted to asexuality. Overall, however, the text is spare, with little tying one entry to the next. No suggestions for further reading on the topics introduced are provided. As the title suggests, unicorns are covered, but their inclusion interrupts the chronology (no historical context is given in this entry, unlike in the others), and the explanation for why unicorns are a queer symbol is vague and sweeping. The bland prose relies on the lively illustrations to sustain interest. People depicted throughout are racially diverse.
A thin, disconnected overview. (discussion questions) (Illustrated nonfiction. 7-12)Pub Date: March 21, 2024
ISBN: 9781805010418
Page Count: 40
Publisher: Jessica Kingsley Publishers
Review Posted Online: Dec. 6, 2023
Kirkus Reviews Issue: Jan. 1, 2024
Share your opinion of this book
by Raina Telgemeier ; illustrated by Raina Telgemeier ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 17, 2019
With young readers diagnosed with anxiety in ever increasing numbers, this book offers a necessary mirror to many.
Young Raina is 9 when she throws up for the first time that she remembers, due to a stomach bug. Even a year later, when she is in fifth grade, she fears getting sick.
Raina begins having regular stomachaches that keep her home from school. She worries about sharing food with her friends and eating certain kinds of foods, afraid of getting sick or food poisoning. Raina’s mother enrolls her in therapy. At first Raina isn’t sure about seeing a therapist, but over time she develops healthy coping mechanisms to deal with her stress and anxiety. Her therapist helps her learn to ground herself and relax, and in turn she teaches her classmates for a school project. Amping up the green, wavy lines to evoke Raina’s nausea, Telgemeier brilliantly produces extremely accurate visual representations of stress and anxiety. Thought bubbles surround Raina in some panels, crowding her with anxious “what if”s, while in others her negative self-talk appears to be literally crushing her. Even as she copes with anxiety disorder and what is eventually diagnosed as mild irritable bowel syndrome, she experiences the typical stresses of school life, going from cheer to panic in the blink of an eye. Raina is white, and her classmates are diverse; one best friend is Korean American.
With young readers diagnosed with anxiety in ever increasing numbers, this book offers a necessary mirror to many. (Graphic memoir. 8-12)Pub Date: Sept. 17, 2019
ISBN: 978-0-545-85251-7
Page Count: 224
Publisher: Graphix/Scholastic
Review Posted Online: May 11, 2019
Kirkus Reviews Issue: June 1, 2019
Share your opinion of this book
More by Raina Telgemeier
BOOK REVIEW
by Raina Telgemeier & Scott McCloud ; illustrated by Raina Telgemeier & Scott McCloud ; color by Beniam C. Hollman
BOOK REVIEW
by Raina Telgemeier ; illustrated by Raina Telgemeier
BOOK REVIEW
by Raina Telgemeier ; illustrated by Raina Telgemeier
More About This Book
PROFILES
by Jacqueline Woodson ‧ RELEASE DATE: Aug. 28, 2014
For every dreaming girl (and boy) with a pencil in hand (or keyboard) and a story to share.
Awards & Accolades
Our Verdict
GET IT
Google Rating
Kirkus Reviews'
Best Books Of 2014
New York Times Bestseller
Coretta Scott King Book Award Winner
National Book Award Winner
Newbery Honor Book
A multiaward–winning author recalls her childhood and the joy of becoming a writer.
Writing in free verse, Woodson starts with her 1963 birth in Ohio during the civil rights movement, when America is “a country caught / / between Black and White.” But while evoking names such as Malcolm, Martin, James, Rosa and Ruby, her story is also one of family: her father’s people in Ohio and her mother’s people in South Carolina. Moving south to live with her maternal grandmother, she is in a world of sweet peas and collards, getting her hair straightened and avoiding segregated stores with her grandmother. As the writer inside slowly grows, she listens to family stories and fills her days and evenings as a Jehovah’s Witness, activities that continue after a move to Brooklyn to reunite with her mother. The gift of a composition notebook, the experience of reading John Steptoe’s Stevieand Langston Hughes’ poetry, and seeing letters turn into words and words into thoughts all reinforce her conviction that “[W]ords are my brilliance.” Woodson cherishes her memories and shares them with a graceful lyricism; her lovingly wrought vignettes of country and city streets will linger long after the page is turned.
For every dreaming girl (and boy) with a pencil in hand (or keyboard) and a story to share. (Memoir/poetry. 8-12)Pub Date: Aug. 28, 2014
ISBN: 978-0-399-25251-8
Page Count: 336
Publisher: Nancy Paulsen Books
Review Posted Online: June 24, 2014
Kirkus Reviews Issue: July 15, 2014
Share your opinion of this book
More by Jacqueline Woodson
BOOK REVIEW
BOOK REVIEW
by Jacqueline Woodson ; illustrated by Leo Espinosa
BOOK REVIEW
by Jacqueline Woodson ; illustrated by Rafael López
More About This Book
SEEN & HEARD
© Copyright 2025 Kirkus Media LLC. All Rights Reserved.
Hey there, book lover.
We’re glad you found a book that interests you!
We can’t wait for you to join Kirkus!
It’s free and takes less than 10 seconds!
Already have an account? Log in.
OR
Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Welcome Back!
OR
Trouble signing in? Retrieve credentials.
Don’t fret. We’ll find you.