My Sister, Daisy by Adria Karlsson

My Sister, Daisy is a beautiful picture book.  Narrated by a big brother, it tells the story of how his little brother was born and they played together as children.  One day his little brother came home and said he was a girl, and his name was Daisy.  He explained he now wanted his pronouns to be she/her.   Big Brother and his parents question it, but they accept it.  “I realized that you were still the same person, and we could play the same games.  We still had fun!”  The family uses books to educate themselves and other childhood friends on being transgender. 

 The book goes through the emotions of the big brother where he has good days, but bad days where he is frustrated and called Daisy by the wrong name.  He was also jealous of the new clothes and items Daisy gets.  He expresses his frustrations to his parents, and they tell him, “Daisy is the same person.  And now we understand what to call her and who she is inside.”  The family works through it, and it ends on a happy note.

 The illustrations are beautiful, and I love the note from the author at the end describing when their daughter figured out, she was transgender.  The author couldn’t find any good books to share with her older son to understand so she wrote this book.  I love that.

 I thought this book was a great book to explain transgender to all kids.  It’s a bit young for my 10-year-old, but she has been asking questions, so we read it together.  It helped her a lot to understand what transgender means.

 Overall, My Sister, Daisy is a wonderful children’s picture book that explains a sensitive subject in a heartfelt way.