When we get a book with a little boy in a bright pink sarong and a little girl in a fancy blue three-piece suit and a non-binary kid wearing whatever they choose simply because they like it, then we'll really have made some progress. The overall message is nice, but I think things could've been shaken up even more to really shatter those gender stereotypes. The illustrations are so cute that they kind of saved it for me. I guess this book is heading in the right direction. Boys are always in bifurcated garments (so don't expect to see any kilts or sarongs here). While the girls do wear pants and shorts as casual clothes, any time they're dressed up, they're in a dress. That made me read the rest with a more jaded eye. Maybe if the book hadn't started with those two colours, I wouldn't have noticed this issue as much as I did. So there's still a subconscious gender divide: pink is for 'girly' activities like fancy dance parties, and blue is for 'boyish' activities like sports. To make matters worse, the next colour (blue) is implied as being for sports uniforms. which, for every single girl on the pages, means a dress. The very first colour (pink) has children of both genders dressing up in their fancy clothes. when you have a book that's supposed to be about demolishing gender stereotypes, it's not great to see them reinforced within the first few pages! While there is diversity in ethnicity (many children of colour are represented) and abilities (there's a boy in a wheelchair), it's very much a Western representation of children. I was looking forward to a book that smashes those gender conventions and lets kids know they can wear (and like) whatever colour they please.īut. Pink for girls and blue for boys is a fairly recent idea before that, it was the other way around. The text is simple and straight to the point, and the illustrations are very, very cute.

Pink Is for Boys by Robb Pearlman