Here at the Fuse 8 n' Kate Podcast, we have a rule. It's a simple one, established since the start of the broadcast. Essentially, we don't like to consider books published until they've been on the market for 20 years or more. It's not exactly a hard and fast rule (we've broken it more than a few times) but it serves as a strong guideline. Today, however, we got mad. Specifically, we got mad at Ron DeSantis and all the horrendous book banners out there who seek to rid the world of books featuring LGBTQIA+ families and children. How best to stick it to the Ron? Why not feature an author that he himself has personally singled out? Today, Betsy decided to pull out a book with a mega-recent publication date: 2019. We do it because not only is the book important, we consider it to be the first truly great trans picture book for kids that will reverberate for the ages. We're talking about this beautiful baby book and all that it entails in this episode of the podcast. Check it out.

Show Notes:

Here's the video Betsy made for Tiktok that features the earrings she gave to Kate: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yCxPPf64yCs&t=3s

Full disclosure, Betsy actually interviewed Kyle about this book back in 2019 before the book even published. She particularly loves this part: "... when I wrote that first page of AIDAN, I hit on three points: his name, his room, and his clothes. And those three points, in that order–name, room, clothes–show up consistently as Aidan is transitioning. Then when the baby enters the picture, the three points invert, and we learn about the baby’s clothes, room, and name, and then Aidan’s anxieties revolve around the clothes, room, and name, keeping that order intact. It’s something that readers might not notice consciously unless they’re looking for it, but is crucial for making the story feel like a picture book instead of a truncated short story."

Here is a link to Kyle's 2022 Stonewall speech. It's one of our favorites: http://www.kylelukoff.com/blog-1/2022/6/29/my-stonewall-award-speech-june-27th-2022

For the full Show Notes please visit: https://afuse8production.slj.com/2023/04/17/fuse-8-n-kate-when-aidan-became-a-brother-by-kyle-lukoff-ill-kaylani-juanita/