Girls Will Be Boys Will Be Girls
Jacinta Bunnell and Irit Reinheimer
Published 2004
Book
A gender-expression coloring book that asks children to question expected roles and activities.
Overview
Girls Will Be Boys Will Be Girls is a 2004 coloring book by Jacinta Bunnell and Irit Reinheimer, published by Soft Skull Press. The local catalog describes images and captions that challenge expected gender roles: boys asking for dolls or needing hugs, girls fixing bicycles, and children crossing the boundaries adults often build around play, work, tenderness, and skill. The item is not a same-sex-parent family story; its collection value comes from a neighboring question. It asks what children are permitted to imagine themselves doing. Later PM Press and Reach and Teach materials show the title's continued life inside a queer and feminist coloring-book network.[1][2][4][6][5]
The Coloring-Book Form
The activity-book format is central to the item's meaning. A coloring book does not only tell a child what to think; it asks the reader to complete the page. That form fits the book's subject. Children are invited to enter scenes where gendered expectations have already been loosened, then add color, attention, and time. In the collection, this makes the item different from plot-driven family stories. It uses participation to make gender roles visible and changeable.[1][6][7]
Adjacent To Family Representation
The local catalog is clear that this title does not picture same-sex-parent families. That limit should remain visible because it explains the item's role. The book belongs beside family-representation titles because ideas about gender shape how children understand parents, work, care, clothing, play, and future adult life. Its pages challenge the assumption that some kinds of tenderness, skill, or ambition naturally belong to one gender. That makes it a context record within the broader collection, not a direct two-parent-family story.[1][2][6]
Edition Afterlife
The title's later life is unusually clear. PM Press describes a 2018 updated edition with new illustrations and reflection questions, published with Reach and Teach. That edition does not replace the 2004 Soft Skull copy, but it shows the concept's durability. A coloring book first associated with Bunnell and Reinheimer continued to circulate in a later network of gender-creative, queer, and feminist educational materials. The collection can therefore show both an original record and a later publishing afterlife.[6][7][5][4]
Creator Network
Bunnell's author materials and Reinheimer's CV help place the book within a creator network rather than treating it as an anonymous classroom object. Bunnell's later coloring books include Sometimes the Spoon Runs Away with Another Spoon and Girls Are Not Chicks, both relevant to queer and feminist activity-book culture. Reinheimer's record gives the 2004 Soft Skull publication an independent bibliographic anchor. Together, these sources turn a slim activity book into evidence of a continuing maker community.[5][4][8]
Timeline
- 2004Soft Skull editionPublic records and Reinheimer's CV place the Soft Skull edition in 2004.[2][4][3]
- 2018Updated editionPM Press and Reach and Teach published an updated edition with new illustrations and reflection questions.[6][7]
- 2019Creator interviewPM Press hosted an interview with Bunnell about coloring, gender, and the broader book network.[8]
Edition Notes
The collection record is dated 2004; later publisher sources document an updated edition in 2018.
Explore Connections
Browse direct links, shared themes, and nearby publication dates.
Linked records
Sometimes the Spoon Runs Away with Another Spoon Coloring Book
Both items belong to Jacinta Bunnell's queer and feminist coloring-book network, using activity pages to address identity and social roles.
Girls Are Not Chicks Coloring Book
The title sits near other Bunnell coloring books that question gender stereotypes through child-facing activity formats.
My Family, Your Family, Our Family
Both records use interactive or activity-book forms, though one centers family structures and this item centers gender expression.
Shared themes
Girls Are Not Chicks Coloring Book
A feminist Reach And Teach / PM Press coloring book about gender stereotypes and child-facing media.
Jennifer Has Two Daddies
A children's book about a father and stepfather, useful here as a cautionary context record.
Lots of Mommies
A feminist small-press picture book about a child cared for by several women.
Families, a Coloring Book
A Michael Willhoite coloring book that presents many family structures, including two mothers and two fathers.
Nearby dates
Flying Free
A firefly-narrated picture book in which a two-mother family appears inside a story about empathy and release.
Focus on MY Family
A COLAGE youth-created anthology that documents children and young adults with LGBT parents speaking in their own forms.
Jean a deux mamans
A French board book in which a little wolf's family includes two mothers.
King and King and Family
The sequel to King and King, moving from royal marriage to family formation.
Citation
Girls Will Be Boys Will Be Girls. Jacinta Bunnell and Irit Reinheimer. Soft Skull Press, 2004. Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection, Mechanics' Institute. Collection ID: KB-111.
Showing Plain text citation format.
Sources
Cover image from Open Library.
- Local collection catalog record for Girls Will Be Boys Will Be Girls · catalog
- Cincinnati State eCampus record for Girls Will Be Boys Will Be Girls · book_trade
- Open Library search record for Girls Will Be Boys Will Be Girls · library_api
- Irit Reinheimer curriculum vitae · creator_biography
- Girls Not Chicks about-authors page · creator_biography
- PM Press page for Girls Will Be Boys Will Be Girls Will Be... · publisher
- PM Press product sheet for Girls Will Be Boys Will Be Girls Will Be... · publisher_pdf
- PM Press interview with Jacinta Bunnell · interview
- Open Library cover image for Girls Will Be Boys Will Be Girls · image
