It's book week at school, and nonbinary fourth grader Riley and their best friends craft hard for the Dress Like Your Favorite Character Day. Colorful fabric! Paint! Glitter! They are ready to make the biggest and best group costume ever! But most of the other kids are having trouble coming up with costumes. Riley is ready to use their creativity and vision to help as many kids as possible so dress-up day will be a big success!
"Nonbinary, using they/them/their pronouns, Riley Reynolds is the star of a gentle new early chapter book series. The book opens with a comic book-style intro to Riley, as well as a glossary of terms such as nonbinary, cisgender, and queer. These descriptions are written at a higher reading level than the rest of the book. The plot consists of Riley helping their classmates find the perfect costumes for dress-up day. There is a brief discussion about whether or not girls can be knights. The students are kind and collaborative. Illustrations are frequent, and comic book-style interludes occur between chapters. Discussion questions and writing prompts are included in the back matter, making this a great book for classroom discussions. In the end, everyone finds the perfect costume. VERDICT An essential addition to early chapter book collections."
