The Right Blessing: An Identity Story

A trans Jewish child seeks a blessing that fits her gender in this assured picture book from Olitzky, Orshan Kahn, and Tobacco. When young Joey determines around her ninth birthday that “I need my family to know what I feel in my heart—that I’m really a girl,” she worries her parents won’t understand. Finally, though, refusing her father’s Shabbat blessing for boys catalyzes the long-awaited discussion (“I’m a girl who’s somehow stuck in a boy’s body”), resulting in shifts that give Joey safe space to come into herself. Reflective exposition and honest dialogue detail Joey’s experiences through the lens of her Judaism, while bright, digital illustrations with airbrush textures follow changes in Joey’s clothing and facial expressions as she figures out what she wants and how to claim it. It’s a faith-forward story of trans joy that allows necessary space for acceptance and increased trust. Background characters are portrayed with various skin tones. Ages 5–8. (Apr.)