FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Matthew Smith-Gonzalez
Phone: 415-503-0076
Email: management@reflectionpress.com
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Gender Now Coloring Book
Color your way to Transgender Awareness and Empowerment
SAN FRANCISCO, CA August 12, 2010 - A new coloring book by award-winning children’s book illustrator and author, Maya Gonzalez, serves to break wide open the limitations of "boy" and "girl" and provide much needed reflection for transgender children. And yet the coloring book is not just for transgender children or parents. Maya explains, "Gender Now is meant to provide reflection and support unity by showing multiple genders standing together." Using easily accessible terms and concepts about gender and its multifaceted expression, Gender Now begins the dialogue and helps both children and adults learn language and demystify gender expression, bodies, and identity. Indeed one of the goals of the coloring book is to support inclusion and awareness by providing a resource that helps ALL children expand into their truest selves. Supporting children in retaining their internal knowing of themselves instead of relying on external messages goes a long way in creating empowered and confident children and will inevitably create a world that embraces equality for all. Maya says, "My intention in this book is to gather and share some of the basics but mostly to support each of us to be exactly who we are."
Studies show that transgender children are often the highest at-risk group for bullying, suicide, lack of acceptance from their family, harassment, violence and more. In fact, a 2009 study by the Gay, Lesbian and Straight Education Network found that, 87% of transgender students had been verbally assaulted in the past school year, 53% had been physically harassed, and 26% had been physically assaulted because of their gender expression.¹ From Maya’s own work in classrooms empowering students of color, Maya understands the affinity of all oppressed people. Her work has focused almost exclusively on children of color and the lack of reflection they face in their media, books, and the world at large. She knows all too well the effects of not seeing one’s self in the world around you and the toll it can take on one’s self-esteem and confidence. Frustrated by the even greater lack of appropriate resources to share with her daughter in order to keep her young mind open to multi-gender awareness, Maya decided to create her own. A coloring book seemed the perfect tool to begin the journey. Gender Now includes adult support, introductory text to read to children about bodies and gender, images to color of children in their natural state and in imaginative play, as well as games, activities, stories and images of transgender ancestors and gender in nature. Sure to delight audiences of all ages, the playful yet empowering text alongside the beautiful imagery encourages everyone to remember and fully embody the unmistakable message: "you are free to be!"
GENDER NOW Coloring Book: A Learning Adventure for Children and Adults is available from Reflection Press, for $14.95 plus $3 shipping/handling.
Reflection Press was founded in 2009 with the mission to empower people to fully claim themselves and their inherent creative force. Definitely not your typical book press, they venture beyond the bounds of publishing and provide workshops, presentations, lectures, and materials that engage the creative force as a tool for self-empowerment.
| Book Statistics: | |
| Title: | Gender Now Coloring Book |
| Subtitle: | A Learning Adventure for Children and Adults |
| Author/Illustrator: | Maya Christina Gonzalez |
| ISBN: | 9780984379910 |
| Category: | Coloring Books/Gender Studies/Inclusive Education |
| Length: | 52 pages |
| Retail Price: | $14.95 |
| Format: | Paperback; B&W Interior; 11.693"(L) x 8.268"(W) x .108"(D) |
| Illustrations: | 47 full size pages: line art to color, games |
| Additions: | Introductory text about gender and bodies to read to children, Adult Support, Resource section organized by topic |
¹From 2009 GLSEN Report: Harsh Realities, The Experiences of Transgender Youth in our Nation’s Schools
Find the report online at: here.
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The Gender Now Coloring Book This body-positive coloring book explores gender in its many forms, giving children and adults alike a framework to talk about gender expression and identity.
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