Awards:
Award Winner, CBC Kids Reads, 2024
Commended, Best Books for Kids and Teens, Canadian Children’s Book Centrre, 2024
Nominated, OLA Blue Spruce Award, 2025
My Review:
Still My Tessa
by Sylv Chiang
Illustrated by Mathias Ball
North Winds Press
Scholastic Canada Ltd.
2024
32 pages
9781443196239
Younger sister Evelyn misses her older sister Tessa, but Tessa doesn’t want to play or talk. She stays in her room or wears her headphones everywhere. When Tessa confronts her older sis, Tessa tells her that she is not her sister anymore. Tessa instructs Evelyn to refer to her as her sibling, not sister nor brother.
Tessa explains that pronouns are important, and she uses “they” or “them.” It takes about a week, but Evelyn learns the correct pronouns, and Tessa seems happier. When the family goes on a bike ride and gets ice cream, their parents warn the siblings that it’s not necessary to tell everyone Tessa’s gender. Evelyn disagrees, knowing it is important. Later, Mom uses “non-binary” as she refers to Tessa and Tessa smiles. Readers see the personal growth of the entire family of four: Tessa is much happier when people use her pronouns and understand that she is neither a boy nor a girl, Evelyn becomes her sibling’s ally and instructs others about how important pronouns are, the parents use the correct pronouns and introduce Tesssa as “non-binary.”
Included in the book are pages defining the terms: non-binary, ally and pronouns as it refers to gender and tips to become a “pronoun ally.”
Still My Tessa is a powerful story about a family learning to use pronouns and understand how important being an ally is for any person, young or old.
This picture book is a must-have for all library collections. Ages 3 and up.
