Las Niñas Pueden Ser Reyes (Girls Can Be Kings) - A Coloring Book I Wish I'd Had When I Was a Little Kid

Las Niñas Pueden Ser Reyes by Jacinta Bunnell, translated into Spanish by Fernanda Siles

This new Spanish translation of Jacinta Bunnell’s feminist coloring book Girls Are Not Chicks features 32 pages of girl power fun, translated by Nicaraguan educator, Fernanda Siles. Every day we hear on the news stories of Latinx folks here in the U.S. and those south of the U.S. border being recipients of brutal hostility and violence. At the same time, we see these same communities courageously risking everything so that they and their children can thrive. We see young Latinx people organize despite this repression, many of them young girls. I am so inspired by their mobilization. I offer this book as a token of love and appreciation that celebrates these brave and powerful activists, educators and communities of care. The title in English of this book is Girls Can Be Kings.

Measures 8 x 11 inches. Black & white line drawings, fun to color with colored pencils or crayons. This is the coloring book you should have had when you were a kid. Color the Rapunzel for a new society. She now has power tools, a roll of duct tape, and a bus pass! Paint outside the lines with Miss Muffet as she tells that spider off and considers a career as an arachnologist!

Girls are thinkers, creators, fighters, healers, superheroes, and kings.

¡Veintisiete páginas de diversión feminista! Este es un libro para colorear para cualquier edad y nunca puede uno ser demasiado grande. Las niñas pueden ser reyes ofrece una manera alegre y subversiva de examinar como los estereotipos de género que están en todos aspectos de nuestras vidas. Este libro ayuda a deconstruir la homogeneidad de la expresión de género en los medios infantiles, presentando imágenes más diversificadas que refuerzan los roles de género positivos para niñas.

Niñas son pensadoras, creadoras, luchadoras, curanderas y superhéroes.

One of the brilliant interiors - The page showing a young girl who traded in her Barbie for "something less destructive"/"algo menos destructivo."

I particularly love Jacinta's explanation of the title:

The title of this book is Las niñas pueden ser reyes: Libro para colorear (Girls Can Be Kings Coloring Book), inspired by Seondeok of Silla, a 7th-century Korean girl who became the first queen of Silla despite a misogynist uprising against her fueled by the motto “girls can’t be kings!” I learned of her from the incredible book Good Night Stories for Rebel Girls.

It's inspiring to see how powerful knowing real history that includes woman can be -- the story of Seondeok, told in one book, inspiring Jacinta's Spanish version of this book, and reaching out to all the readers (and colorers) to come!

The Spanish version of one of my favorite pages in the original: "Nobody wants to fight the patriarchy alone. Make friends."

I'm very excited about this coloring book—it's absolutely something I wish I'd had back when I was a little kid!

Add your review of "Las Niñas Pueden Ser Reyes" in comments!

Girls Are Not Chicks: A Feminist, Gender-Non Conforming and GLBTQ-Friendly Coloring Book

By Jacinta Bunnell and Julie Novak

From a girl puppet's strings being snapped as she breaks free of expectations and takes up rock climbing to a Rapunzel who this time has "some power tools, a pair of scissors, a roll of duct tape, a Tina Turner album and a bus pass" this coloring book is as much for adults as it is for kids.

Women and girls in our culture are under so much pressure to conform, and this coloring book is a creative way to re-wire all of our brains to believe in the limitless possibilities for all women. It even has advice, including "Cover the bathroom scale with plastic dinosaurs and action figures so you can't see the numbers."

Here are two great pages from inside:

"When she stopped chasing
the dangling carrot
of conventional femininity,
she was finally able
to savor being a woman."

"Not all girls who like makeup
grow up to be dainty young ladies."

I adore this coloring book, and while it wasn't something I had when I was a kid, I'm giving a copy to my daughter - so we can talk about it, and she can learn that girls can truly color their lives outside the lines!

Thanks, Jacinta and Julie!

Namaste,
Lee

Sometimes The Spoon Runs Away With Another Spoon: A Gender Non-Conforming and GLBTQ-Friendly Coloring Book!

By Jacinta Bunnell, illustrations by Nathaniel Kusinitz

From a Girl riding her dinosaur best friend to a Prince riding off into the sunset (on his sparkly pony) with the boy next door, the pages of this coloring book do more than just shimmer with the possibilities of coloring... they sparkle with the possibilities of life being more than what "society" says is okay for our gender.

Pushing these boundaries in this format is fantastic, because I want to live in a world where children accept that just as a Prince might want to find the girl who fits the glass slipper to marry her, a Prince might need to find her because he has to know where she got them so he can get a pair in his size!

Here are two of the great pages from the interior:

I love that she's hoping for a Frog Princess!

"Grumpy hasn't been grumpy
ever since he borrowed Snow White's shoes.
Now the only problem is
what to do about having two Happys in the family."
How awesome is that?

I totally wish that back when I was a kid I'd had this coloring book to read and color and dream outside the lines...

At least we have it now.

Thanks, Jacinta and Nathaniel!

Namaste,
Lee