ABSTRACT
This chapter provides background on the significance of gender nonconforming picture books in the 1970s, including contributions from small-press feminist publishers, as a precursor to gender-variant themes in picture books in the twenty-first century. Some critiques of the strengths and limitations of these earlier books are explained in order to provide insight into ongoing issues with more recent books that depict gender nonconforming children. The central case studies of this chapter are Elena’s Serenade and Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress. Both celebrate gender nonconforming qualities of their protagonists but also emphasize other aspects that align with norms and ideals of femininity and masculinity. While progressively challenging gender stereotypes polarizing discourses of masculinity and femininity, they are also embedded with conservative anxieties about the implications of gender nonconforming behavior in terms of children’s future identities.
