Julian Is A Mermaid

"I think this is a perfect picture book. It’s both gorgeous and beautifully sparse. It’s just the simplest of stories—a little boy with his grandmother on a bus, seeing these beautiful ladies dressed as mermaids. You can watch him as he gets the idea, “I could be a mermaid!” He’s clearly reading a book about mermaids, you can just make out the outline of a mermaid in the book that he’s got on his lap. That link of being inspired by the things that you read, of kids seeing themselves reflected in books. I think it’s so important. His transformation is just delightful. He’s such a character—the way he delights at his tail. “Today we need much broader definitions of masculinity and femininity” By the middle spread, you’ve got a big blue fish presenting him with a necklace, which mirrors the print on the grandmother’s dress in a later illustration. It’s just genius. I noticed that, I was like, “Oh my gosh.” This just works on so many levels. Nothing is wasted. So many details like this to notice. The book celebrates self-expression and the fact that the grandmother accepts that this little boy wants to be a mermaid, and supports him in that endeavour without question. I think that speaks volumes in this day and age—of the importance of allowing people to be themselves without judgment, without fear. Especially across generations. It’s so important, isn’t it? I think society needs to readdress these notions of masculinity and femininity and find new definitions, because they’re not serving us. They don’t do anyone any favours. It’s so limiting when we make these distinctions that you can only be a certain way as a man or as a woman—that there are certain ways that you have to behave, certain ways you have to be, when our souls are limitless. I think this book kind of just approaches all these issues so beautifully and does so with a light touch and a big heart."