by Victoria James Maia Kobabe’s Gender Queer: A Memoir offers readers a look into self-discovery and what it means to grow up without the language to describe gender. The memoir unfolds through moments of friction and curiosity. It probes the kinds of questions that surface long before anyone is introduced to terms like nonbinary or genderqueer. “Why are girls supposed to shave their legs but boys don’t have to?” (p. 42). Questions like this appear throughout the memoir, capturing the subtle but persistent ways that gendered expectations shape a child’s understanding of what is “normal.” Kobabe describes these pressures as… Read More
Joe the Barbarian
by Matt Peters Content Advisory: Brief depictions of bullying and homophobia and extensive depictions of insulin shock In Joe the Barbarian, a pre-teen named Joe Manson finds himself uprooted from his familiar reality and cast into a strange realm where ancient magic coexists with exotic technology. What sets Joe on his surreal journey is something strikingly ordinary by comparison—in fact, a daily part of his existence. Joe has type 1 diabetes, the autoimmune disorder that disrupts blood sugar regulation by attacking insulin-producing cells. One day, while Joe is alone at home, he slips away from reality when his… Read More