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Apr 02, 2018KMJ_ rated this title 2 out of 5 stars
I had such high hopes for this book. There aren’t enough books about this topic, and that’s the only reason I’m giving it 2 stars instead of 1. Rosie and Penn are parents to a transgender child, who transitions from being Claude to Poppy as the book progresses. Rosie and Penn are insufferable people, and I felt bad for their five children who were stuck with these obnoxious parents. Rosie is the type of woman who gives her kids quirky, ridiculous names, but then judges a teacher named Becky for not going by Rebecca. The real problem is that there are some really offensive things in this book. Throughout the book Penn tells his kids a fairytale, with Princess Stephanie being a clear stand-in for Poppy. Penn reveals that Princess Stephanie’s big secret is that she’s a night fairy. How did neither the author nor editor realize that equating a kid being transgender with being a fairy was problematic? The book gets even more offensive as Rosie takes their youngest child to Thailand. There Rosie is the Western hero, gracing everyone with her presence. The Thai village is so grateful to have Americans around that they let a 10 year old American kid become a teacher for a class of 25 Thai kids. These parts of the book reek of racism, with a gross message that Thai people are helpless and Thai culture exists solely to make Americans find themselves. There was so much potential in this book, and it was just totally squandered.