Ensilumi
(First Snow) Book not yet available in English
Summary:
Tuisku’s grandfather does figure skating. Together with Tuisku’s grandmother they make a fancy figure skating costume. When Tuisku asks, grandfather tells Tuisku that she is a woman, who everyone else thought of as a man. Only when she got older, she got the courage to tell others that she is actually a woman, and got help from the doctors.
Edited by: Lastenkirjainstituutti
Comment:
The picturebook discusses the trans identity of a grandparent. Tuisku’s grandfather’s, who Tuisku later on starts calling grandmother, partner is accepting of the situation and there is a tolerant atmosphere in the whole family as well. Passersby are also friendly when they see the grandfather/grandmother in a sparkly and flowing figure skating costume. Tuisku’s gender has not been specified. There is only one third-person pronoun in the Finnish language: hän. Gender is not defined through the pronoun, so sometimes gender can be faded or left unstated. Tuisku is a gender-neutral name in Finnish, and the illustration does not lead to interpreting the child as a specific gender.