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I Am Jazz

“For as long as I can remember, my favorite color has been pink. (My second-favorite color is silver and my third-favorite color is green.)” Narrator Jazz’s list of favorites goes on to include dancing and back flips and drawing and, especially, mermaids. She likes wearing high heels and gowns or jumping on the trampoline with her best friends Casey and Samantha. But, she notes, she’s not quite like them. “I have a girl brain but a boy body. This is called transgender. I was born this way!” Elementary-age Jazz’s matter-of-fact account of growing up transgender is upbeat overall, but reflects back on her frustration when she was younger, before her parents understood she was a girl, and how, even at the start of the current school year, the teachers treated her like a boy, while some kids still tease her. “Then I remember that the kids who get to know me usually want to be my friend.” A brief afterword tells more about coauthor Jazz Jennings, now thirteen, and the Transkids Purple Rainbow Foundation for children born with Gender Dysphoria. © Cooperative Children's Book Center

Illustrated by Shelagh McNicholas

CCBC Age Recommendation: Ages 3-9
Age Range: Babies/Toddlers (birth – 3) PreK-Early Elementary (Ages 4-7) Grades 3-5 (Ages 8-10)
Format: Picture book
Subjects: Affirmation Bullying and Teasing Frustration Identity LGBTQ+ Persons Transgender People
Diversity subject: LGBTQ Character/Topic

Publisher: Dial
Publish Year: 2014
Pages: 24
ISBN: 9780803741072

CCBC Location: Picture Book, Herthel

I Am Jazz