Kind Like Marsha: Learning from LGBTQ+ Leaders

by Sarah Prager, Cheryl Thuesday (Illustrator)

Overview

For fans of Little Leaders and Pride comes a nonfiction picture book celebrating 14 incredible LGBTQ+ change makers and forward thinkers throughout history.

Kind Like Marsha celebrates 14 amazing and inspirational LGBTQ+ people throughout history. Fan favorites like Harvey Milk, Sylvia Rivera, and Audre Lorde are joined by the likes of Leonardo da Vinci, Frida Kahlo, and more in this striking collection. With a focus on a positive personality attribute of each of the historical figures, readers will be encouraged to be brave like the Ugandan activist fighting for LGBTQ+ rights against all odds and to be kind like Marsha P. Johnson who took care of her trans community on the New York City streets.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780762475001
Publisher:	Running Press Book Publishers
Publication date:	08/02/2022
Pages:	32
Sales rank:	508,474
Product dimensions:	8.40(w) x 9.90(h) x 0.40(d)
Age Range:	4 - 8 Years

About the Author

Sarah Prager is the author of Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World and Rainbow Revolutionaries: 50 LGBTQ+ People Who Made History. She came out as lesbian when she was fourteen and feels grateful for her extended LGBTQ+ family and loves telling the stories of our shared history. She's written for the New York Times, National Geographic, The Atlantic, and many other publications about LGBTQ+ topics. Sarah lives with her wife and two children in Massachusetts.

Cheryl "Ras" Thuesday is an illustrator originally from London and who grew up in New Jersey. Her illustrations are heavily influenced by her Caribbean and Asian heritage and she's created artwork for various worldwide publications and companies. Cheryl lives in the Tri State area.
 

Editorial Reviews

06/20/2022

Through single-line biographies that draw positive characteristics from real-life individuals’ actions, Prager introduces 14 LGBTQ figures—some well known and some less so—with “identities as diverse as the rainbow.” Each receiving a full spread, the American-leaning grouping includes figures such as Marsha P. Johnson, Frida Kahlo, Harvey Milk, Frank Mugisha, and Sylvia Rivera. Alongside Thuesday’s boldly hued, textural art, which provides contextualizing details, each figure is introduced with a succinct biographical line, a “you can be” trait, and a quotation. Readers are invited to be “THOUGHTFUL” like Audre Lorde, described as an author who “turned her thoughts about justice into writing that made others change their minds.” Though it’s unclear how the collection is organized—X González appears between Sappho and Leonardo da Vinci—the assemblage offers a largely visual introduction to queer people and progressive values. An author’s note concludes. Ages 4–8. (Aug.)

Publishers Weekly

"A celebratory book that’s useful for teaching young children about diverse historical figures."—Kirkus Reviews

“A fine introduction for young readers to the LGBTQ+ world and to some of its significant leaders.”—Booklist

“A largely visual introduction to queer people and progressive values […] alongside Thuesday’s boldly hued, textural art, which provides contextualizing details.”—Publishers Weekly

“This browsable volume is intended to encourage curiosity about and further research on fourteen LBGTQ+ activists, poets, politicians, artists, and thinkers from around the world and throughout history.”—The Horn Book

“Presents biographical information upfront in an approachable way for the youngest readers. I can’t recommend it enough!”—Mutually Inclusive

"Highly recommended."—Mombian

From the Publisher

2022-01-25
A colorful, uncomplicated introduction to queer and trans trailblazers.

In this straightforward picture book, Prager and Thuesday outline 14 LGBTQ+ innovators from around the world, though Americans are predominantly featured. Young readers are invited to emulate various character attributes of the profiled luminaries: creativity, boldness, kindness, and so on. Each succinct profile summarizes the contributions of the leader in one or two brief sentences followed by a notable quote. Well-known individuals such as Frida Kahlo and Leonardo da Vinci appear alongside folks who might be new to children, like LGBTQ+ activist Frank Mugisha of Uganda and gun control advocate X González of the United States. Avoiding any discussion of violence against LGBTQ+ communities and the resulting trauma, this collective biography is a helpful starting point for children who would benefit from a gentler entry point into sensitive histories. Rich with symbols, Thuesday’s cartoony images hint at the context of each biographee’s life and work. For example, Sappho of ancient Greece writes pensively on a scroll flanked by two Ionic marble columns; the writer, teacher, and organizer Audre Lorde’s portrait is bursting with books, a typewriter overflowing with paper, and a blackboard. Older readers may find this survey too simple to be engaging, but caregivers, educators, and librarians can use it to prime younger children for eventual deeper dives into the lives and struggles of LGBTQ+ icons. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

A celebratory book that’s useful for teaching young children about diverse historical figures. (author's note, further reading) (Collective picture-book biography. 5-9)

Kirkus Reviews