Book Review:10,000 Dresses by Marcus Ewert
by Hannah Crawford
Though we usually stick to reviewing books about kids with LGBT families, we decided to break our own rule this month to tell you about 10,000 Dresses by Marcus Ewert. This is partly because it is such a unique children’s book, featuring a young transgender protagonist, but it’s also great for any kid who knows someone who is different or who may feel a little different themselves sometimes.
Young Bailey dreams every night about beautiful dresses. When she tries to tell the members of her family, however, they tell her that she is a boy and that boys don’t wear dresses. Bailey doesn’t feel like a boy and continues to dream up new dresses. She is confused by the conflict between how she feels and what her family tells her she is supposed to feel. Then she meets Laurel, who loves Bailey’s ideas for dresses. Together, the two girls make one of Bailey’s dream dresses, a dress made of mirrors. In the mirrors, they imagine they can see their true selves.
10,000 Dresses is a good book for four- to eight-year-olds. The unique illustrations, by Rex Ray, look like a blend of paper cutouts and computer graphics.
A small warning: The story is principally a classic “learning to be your true self” tale, but it also deals with harsh reality. The members of Bailey’s family deny who she is, and her brother even threatens to kick her. However, the book can be a great learning tool for younger children to address the question of when can a girl feel like a girl but be viewed by other people as a boy.
10,000 Dresses, published by Seven Stories Press, is available at www.sevenstories.com.
