As Bright As A Rainbow

By Remy Ash & Blue Jaryn

Reviewed by Mia Macrossan

This is Remy’s (she/her) debut picture book. Her first novel Floundering was shortlisted for several awards. Blue (they/he) is an author/illustrator who illustrated Payden’s Pronoun Party, a picture book introduction to nonbinary pronouns. I haven’t read it but it looks like a possible companion title to As Bright As A Rainbow. While more books on these topics are appearing they are sometimes hard to find which is why I mention it.

As Bright As A Rainbow is a non-fiction book about gender and being yourself. The book has no story as such but consists of a series of statements and questions  brightly illustrated by children doing a variety of activities, mainly playing.

The play gives a positive spin to the text which describes gender as a circle where ‘we can be anywhere in that circle’. Several pages describing the many words for the colour blue and the  many colours of the ocean.follow, as a  way of illustrating how to be ‘anywhere in that circle’.

 A  connection is made between the ocean going round the world and the rainbow being a circle. The final  message is that there are many ways to be a girl or boy and you don’t have to be either, you can just be yourself.

This book will need the sensitive interpretation of the adult sharing it with young children. Its aim is positive and the attractive illustratons of gender neutral children does much to enhance the message. For age 3+

Working Title Press AU 2024

Blue Jaryn