S. Bear Bergman

An illustrated guide of practical parenting advice informed by queer experiences for anyone doing the work of parenting, from the author and the illustrator of Special Topics in Being a Human Being a parent is enormously joyful, but it is also an enormous amount of work. Parenting requires you to make dozens of decisions a day, every one of which in some way shapes the person your child will grow into. It can be difficult to know in these moments whether you're on the right track. Progressive parents especially can feel adrift when caregiving in ways that were not modelled for them. From S. Bear Bergman--advice columnist, educator, and queer dad with fifteen years of parenting under his belt--comes Special Topics in Being a Parent, a witty and insightful collection of child-rearing tips for those in search of realistic ideas about screens and lunches that don't come with a side order of judgment. Using his own choices--and errors--by way of example, Bergman offers suggestions for various stages of the parenting journey, from asking "Are we ready to have a kid?" to talking with children about diversity and difference, to questioning gender expectations placed on both kids and parents. With plenty of humor and compassion, and featuring charming illustrations by Saul Freedman-Lawson, this guide helps parents to live their parenting values while enabling their kids to grow their capacities, understand the world, and above all, feel connected and loved.

As an author, educator, and public speaker, S. Bear Bergman has documented his experience as, among other things, a trans parent, with wit and aplomb. He also writes the advice column "Ask Bear," in which he answers crucial questions about how best to make our collective way through the world. Featuring disarming illustrations by Saul Freedman-Lawson, Special Topics in Being a Human elaborates on "Asking Bear"'s premise: a gentle, witty, and insightful book of practical advice for the modern age. It offers Dad advice and Jewish bubbe wisdom, all filtered through a queer lens, to help you navigate some of the complexities of life--from how to make big decisions or make a good apology, to how to get someone's new name and pronouns right as quickly as possible, to how to gracefully navigate a breakup. With warmth and candor, Special Topics in Being a Human calls out social inequities and injustices in traditional advice-giving, validates your feelings, asks a lot of questions, and tries to help you be your best possible self with kindness, compassion, and humor.

Backwards Day, set on the planet Tenalp, introduces us to a world where there are seventeen seasons, including one where bubblegum falls from the sky for three days and a single day when everything--everything everywhere--is backwards. Andrea looks eagerly forward to Backwards Day every year, so she can turn into a boy for the day. But one year she doesn't turn along with everyone else. She's miserable. The very next day, however, she turns into a boy--and stays that way He's delighted, but his parents are distressed, and take him to the big city to consult with Backwardsologists. When they finally figure out what's happened, the miracles of Backwards Day are fully revealed.

Have you ever wondered what happens to your birthday wishes? Funny or serious, sad or wonderful, every wish gets read by a Birthday Wish Fairy. This year, David wishes for something his Wish Fairy has never heard of before - to turn into a girl.

The other animals of the earth are SO interesting--thankfully, we have Derrick, Izzy and Abby to take us on a trip through the zoo and teach us some fauna-tactic facts We aren't the only creatures on this planet to love others of the same sex, change our genders or have complex family structures. Come along with these kids and learn a bit about the queerness of nature.

It's a real bummer when the world judges you for having a big gender vocabulary. Meet some awesome kids who have gotten pretty tired of being told some things are for girls and others are for boys. See how they mix and match everything they like to get what suits them best

S. Bear Bergman is an acclaimed writer and lecturer who travels regularly across North America to speak on trans issues. Bear's first two books, "Butch Is a Noun" and "The Nearest Exit May Be Behind You," are considered seminal texts on the subject of trans life. In his third essay collection, Bear enters, describes, and rearranges our ideas about family as a daughter, husband, father, and friend. In Bear's extended family "orchard," drag sisters, sperm-donor's parents, Sparkles and other relations provide more branches of love, support, and sustenance than a simple family tree. Defiantly queer yet full of tenderness and hilarity, "Blood, Marriage, Wine & Glitter" is a beautifully thought-provoking book that redefines the notion of what family is and can be.

In the 15 years since the release of Gender Outlaw, Kate Bornstein's ground-breaking challenge to gender ideology, transgender narratives have made their way from the margins to the mainstream and back again. Today's transgenders and other sex/gender radicals are writing a drastically new world into being. In Gender Outlaws, Bornstein, together with writer, raconteur, and theatre artist S. Bear Bergman, collects and contextualizes the work of this generation's trans and genderqueer forward thinkers , new voices from the stage, on the streets, in the workplace, in the bedroom, and on the pages and websites of the world's most respected mainstream news sources. Gender Outlaws includes essays, commentary, comic art, and conversations from a diverse group of trans-spectrum people who live and believe in barrier-breaking lives.