The Big Book of Pride Flags

June 20, 2022
Starting with the Gilbert Baker Pride flag, created in 1978, and ending with an invitation for readers to design their own, this broad but shallow survey of queer identity perfunctorily introduces 17 LGBTQ flags—including agender, asexual, bisexual, gay men’s, genderqueer, intersex, lesbian, nonbinary, pansexual, and transgender flags—alongside related concepts of gender expression and sexuality. Uncomplicated prose frequently (but not always) details the objects’ creators alongside the meaning behind their design, but omits information about each flag’s history. About the “updated” 2018 Progress Pride flag attributed to Daniel Quaser, “the flag includes the white, pink, and blue stripes from the transgender flag and brown and black stripes to represent queer people of color. This flag is the Modern Pride flag.” Bright art with a digital feel by Milton replicates each banner in turn, portraying individuals of varying abilities, body types, gender expressions, and skin tones alongside each. Back matter includes a history of the Pride flag and a reading guide. Ages 5–9.

April 15, 2022
A brief history of pride flags. Get to know your pride, specifically 17 different flags used by subsets of the LGBTQIA+ community. The flags--three variations of the rainbow (the "Gilbert Baker" flag, the updated Rainbow Pride flag, and the Progress flag), the Agender, the Aromantic, the Asexual, the Bisexual, the Demisexual, the Gay Men's, the Genderfluid, the Genderqueer, the Intersex, the Lesbian, the Pansexual, the Polysexual, the Nonbinary, and the Transgender Pride flags--are each presented on a double-page spread. A stylized example of the flag in question appears on the verso, with a brief write-up about the history and vignettes of various adult members of the LGBTQIA+ community on the recto. The cartoonish illustrations, which appear to be digitally created, are slick, and the characters are diverse in terms of race, body type, and ability, but the information provided is far too sparse for the reading level. Curious readers are left adrift without citations for further exploration or context to explain the condensed information. The central question remains unaddressed: How did these flags and these specific designs come to represent a community? While creator names are included when possible, no other information about the creator or their role in the development of their flag is included. The result is a glossy and attractive but superficial work that raises more questions than answers. The only flag of concern here is red; pass this one by. (reading guide, coloring page) (Nonfiction. 8-11)

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