Review: Gender non-conforming colouring book

The One Of A Kind Coloring Book: 1. Surprise Box by Genevieve Labelle.

For real! This is a feminist colouring book for your kids. I love it.

Some of the concepts explored in the illustrations include gender non-conformity, debunking gender stereotypes (eg. insect collecting princesses and male ballet dancers), same sex attraction, and even cross-dressing. All of the topics are handled gently and playfully. You can choose, as a parent, how far you want to go with discussions in response to these illustrations but there’s nothing particularly provocative about them if you want to just let them be, too. My daughter, at age 7 and very fluent with these concepts, is old enough to pick up on every point being made and to find them all fascinating but they went right over the head of my three year old son until I deliberately explored some with him.

The illustrations are well designed pieces for colouring and are terribly sweet and whimsical in nature. There’s a great picture in here referencing recent protest action in Quebec and lots of mysterious illustrations stemming from Canadian mythology that I can’t decipher but that make for interesting pictures and really, children are pretty happy to embrace the unexplained. Labelle also includes a brief synopsis of some of the legends depicted with the package.

 

It’s difficult to find anything to fault about this book – I guess this is not the cheapest colouring book at US$10.50 but then it’s self-published by an author/illustrator and as a special occasion gift.. Well, it would make a great stocking-filler if you happen to celebrate Christmas!

Available for purchase from her Etsy shop here and I thoroughly recommend it.

In accordance with standard disclosure guideline, please note that a free product was supplied to me for review and that I was not paid for this review and nor did the company see my comments prior to my posting it here.