The Right Blessing
An Identity Story
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- $9.99
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- $9.99
Publisher Description
Joey has always felt different, especially when playing with friends like Adam or sitting with the girls at recess. By age nine, she knows she's not a boy, but telling her family is terrifying. One Shabbat evening, Joey's anxiety builds during the family blessing. Unable to bear being called a boy any longer, she stops the ceremony and shares, I'm not really a boy. Her parents listen closely and, after a heartfelt conversation, offer unconditional love. They agree to use she and her for Joey. Though they make mistakes, they do their best, and Joey finally feels seen. At the next Shabbat dinner, she receives the blessing she's always wanted.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
A trans Jewish child seeks a blessing that fits her gender in this assured picture book from Olitzky, Orshan Kahn, and Tobacco. When young Joey determines around her ninth birthday that "I need my family to know what I feel in my heart—that I'm really a girl," she worries her parents won't understand. Finally, though, refusing her father's Shabbat blessing for boys catalyzes the long-awaited discussion ("I'm a girl who's somehow stuck in a boy's body"), resulting in shifts that give Joey safe space to come into herself. Reflective exposition and honest dialogue detail Joey's experiences through the lens of her Judaism, while bright, digital illustrations with airbrush textures follow changes in Joey's clothing and facial expressions as she figures out what she wants and how to claim it. It's a faith-forward story of trans joy that allows necessary space for acceptance and increased trust. Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 5–8.
