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Reviewed by: Ana Canino-Fluit, Elementary School Librarian Title: Riley Reynolds Crushes Costume Day
Author: Jay Albee Illustrator: Series: Riley Reynolds #1
Publisher: Stone Arch Books
Year: 2022 Good for Grades: 2-4 Genre/Type of Book: Realistic Fiction
Content Warnings, or things that other School Librarians should be aware of: Non-binary MC and supporting characters Recommended for a school library: Yes Reason(s) for choosing the book: I added this book to our Early chapter book collection and I selected it because it is very rare to find non-binary MCs for this age group.
If you were tasked by the publisher with writing a short quote for the back cover of this book, what would it be: The Riley Reynolds series is a gentle portrayal of the every day adventures of creative and kind non-binary second grader.
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Review:
Riley is a non-binary second grader who has a supportive environment at home and at school, where they also have a non-binary library Mx. Auxe. Each book features Riley and friends spending time together and expressing themselves creatively. Each book in the series opens with comic-strip style introduction to Riley and a two page spread with a mini-glossary of terms used through the books including (Cis, Gender Identity, Honorific, Pronouns, LGBTQ+ and more) presented by Mx. Auxe. The book pairs each prose chapter with wordless comic style illustrations.
In Riley Reynolds Crushes Costume Day, Riley and friends brainstorm and then create costumes for a favorite book character dress-up day at school. They discuss such things as whether girls can dress up as Knights or how to create a rainbow costume without parental support.
The conflicts are gentle and resolved through conversation and collaboration. The story normalizes the use of they/them pronouns, and portrays a diverse school with lots of interracial friendships. The text is somewhat flat but the illustrations are colorful and engaging. I would recommend this to schools that would like to offer more books with non-binary MCs but I think these books would have been amazing if fully illustrated in graphic novel format and the text edited to be snappier and faster-paced.
Number of party hats:
For more information about this book, see the Publishers Website
Find resources for this book at Teaching Books.