Synopsis: The first children’s book to fully explore what gender dysphoria feels like and how to cope with it.
Nisha’s monster follows her everywhere. It used to be small, but recently her monster has begun to grow. And as her monster gets bigger and bigger, Nisha feels more and more unlike herself.
When people refer to her as a boy, or when she tries to hide her true gender identity, Nisha’s dysphoria monster grows larger and larger. Until, one day, Nisha meets Jack – a trans man – who shows Nisha how she can shrink her dysphoria monster back down to size.
This touching story is the perfect book for discussing gender dysphoria with children, explaining what it is and how they and their families can deal with it. It also includes an accompanying guide for parents with further information about gender dysphoria, terminology, and first-hand examples of the author’s own experience.
Release Date: 18th August 2022
Genres: Picture Book, LGBT+, Transgender, Educational, Feelings, Mental Health, Children’s Books, Middle Grade
Pages: 32
Thank you so much to Jessica Kingsley Publishing and Netgalley for the ebook to read and review.
Review: Nisha is born as a boy but isn’t one at all and her monster follows her around everywhere. It gets bigger and bigger the more she is singled out as a boy. Then she meets Jack who explains everything about who they truly are and it gives Nisha the confidence to be herself.
What a simple yet effective and wonderful way of explaining it, it’s such a perfect way of children understanding themselves and others around them. It broke it all down into simple sections of who Nisha wasn’t but everyone says that she is, to the reasons behind why Nisha was who she truly was and Nisha getting the chance to live the life she deserved and desired to be living.
I loved the illustrations in this book seeing the change in Nisha, seeing the monster change from bigger and bigger to smaller and smaller. The story was really sad for a while but I was so happy for Nisha getting to live her true life as herself.
The back of the book provides a really detailed guide for adults to help them understand in a lot more detail, to help them offer the correct support and care for their children. It’s great that so much help and information was included in this book.
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