This thing called Gender

Some people will tell you, there are TWO genders - only TWO ways of being.  How could that be? There have been billions of people born on this earth since people started being.  How could they all fit into TWO categories?  That's like saying there are only TWO types of music, or only TWO sports that anyone should play; or only TWO foods that everyone should eat.  It's like saying there are only TWO ways to be spiritual or only TWO branches of science with any merit.

I say be who you are! (Unless you are someone who has to hurt people, then, I say, get some help.) There are a billion ways for people to be.

I also say that I heartily approve of books that gently, and with good humor, introduce different ways of being - the ways that fit the "general consensus" and the ways that don't.

(You saw this coming!!!) Books like the LUMBERJANES: Unicorn Power by Mariko Tamaki.  Book review time!

Tamaki's book is a middle grade novelization, an addition to the Lumberjane graphic novel franchise created by BOOM! Studios.  I, alas, have never read the graphic novels. NOTE TO SELF: check these out of the library stat!

Tamaki makes her slant of gender acceptance a little obvious in the first few pages of her book.  But once we get to know all the campers in Roanoke Cabin and meet a few unicorns, the reader just keep reading.  AAMOF (As A Matter Of Fact) young readers won't notice much of anything - slant wise - except the long complicated name of the Lumberjane camp, and the titles of the badges which are rather punny. (I am not a young reader. I notice slants.)

ADVENTURES!!! and Excitement in many of its glorious forms, result in the ladies of Roanoke embarking on a quest to help one of them earn a coveted medal.  Not all five girls are good at these jaunts, and at least one of them wishes she were anywhere else.  But the most important thing that Lumberjanes learn is FRIENDSHIP TO THE MAX.  Also Unicorns! and a rather peculiar unicorn characteristic that other stories about unicorns have failed to mention. Let's not forget the importance of weather as fodder for conversation! 

Friendship to the Max, everyone, and this friend wants more Lumberjanes.