Whoever You Are

September 5, 2022
With effusively inclusive rhyming language, Wai Lin crafts a promise of unconditional love from guardian to child in this board book. The narrator outlines many possibilities for their baby: “Maybe you like blue,/ maybe you like pink./ Maybe you believe/ gender/ is something to rethink.” But whether they prefer dolls or trucks, or become an “engineer, activist, CEO,/ doctor, dancer, or a weirdo,” the text notes that what matters most is the child’s staying true to themself. Accompanied by Lopez’s slickly rendered, fantastical illustrations—the book opens with two giant hands cradling a brown-skinned baby against a celestial background, and shows children of varying skin tones and gender presentations as they ride a unicorn, swim as a mermaid, and slide on a rainbow—this affectionate volume imbues a classic “be yourself” narrative with gender-expansive affirmations, positioning guardians as partners in their children’s journey to “find what’s authentic & true.” Ages up to 4.