
- 208 pages
- English
- ePUB (mobile friendly)
- Available on iOS & Android
Tomboy Survival Guide
About this book
Stonewall Book Award Honor Book winner; Hilary Weston Writers' Trust of Canada Prize for Non-Fiction finalist
Ivan Coyote is a celebrated storyteller and the author of ten previous books, including Gender Failure (with Rae Spoon) and One in Every Crowd, a collection for LGBT youth. Tomboy Survival Guide is a funny and moving memoir told in stories, in which Ivan recounts the pleasures and difficulties of growing up a tomboy in Canada’s Yukon, and how they learned to embrace their tomboy past while carving out a space for those of us who don’t fit neatly into boxes or identities or labels.
Ivan writes movingly about many firsts: the first time they were mistaken for a boy; the first time they purposely discarded their bikini top so they could join the boys at the local swimming pool; and the first time they were chastised for using the women’s washroom. Ivan also explores their years as a young butch, dealing with new infatuations and old baggage, and life as a gender-box-defying adult, in which they offer advice to young people while seeking guidance from others. (And for tomboys in training, there are even directions on building your very own unicorn trap.)
Tomboy Survival Guide warmly recounts Ivan’s adventures and mishaps as a diffident yet free-spirited tomboy, and maps their journey through treacherous gender landscapes and a maze of labels that don’t quite stick, to a place of self-acceptance and an authentic and personal strength. These heartfelt, funny, and moving stories are about the culture of differencea guide” to being true to one’s self.
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Information
Table of contents
- Cover
- Halftitle Page
- Title Page
- Copyright Page
- Dedication
- Contents
- Not My Son
- Hopeless Causes
- A Dark Blue Bike
- I Shine My Armor Every Night
- I Believe You
- French Kissing
- Work Equals Force Times Distance Over Time
- Journey, Man
- You Can’t Handle the Truth
- Tomboys Still
- Shouldn’t I Feel Pretty?
- Dear Patricia
- How to Build Your Very Own Unicorn Trap
- Be Careful in There
- Will You Come with Me?
- None of These Words
- Whipper Snapper
- Stronger than the Skin
- Steve Said It Would Be Okay
- I Wish My Son
- We’ve Got a Situation Here
- Kraft Singles for Everyone
- Lonely Stripper on Christmas
- A Circle Goes Round
- “Should” All Over Everyone
- Middle Seat
- Baby Strong
- Vul-ner-a-ble
- Uncomfortable
- Learn People Better
- Write Through
- Heat and Hot Water
- What We Pray For (The Tomboy Hymn)
- Acknowledgments
- About the Author