Amaia Brooke

Transformed Amaia Brooke

Jasper, a trans-questioning and gender-nonconforming child who uses they/them pronouns, is frequently bullied at school. To cheer them up, their grandfather tells them a fairy tale of the most beautiful butterfly who ever lived - who turns out to have more than a few similarities to Jasper. In the story-within-a-story, caterpillars Mikael and Frankie are both bullied in their little town of Coconut Grove. Mikael is a boy caterpillar who wears a pink glitter scarf. Frankie is a girl caterpillar who wears a hat and looks like a boy. They don't seem to fit in, and their caregivers are nothing shy of flat-out mean. The magic fountain grants their wish to find the island Shaman to help them find them a new home, and they set out on a grand and surprising adventure of self-discovery. This feel-good story helps children see that there is nothing wrong with being lesbian, transgender, and gender nonconforming. Transformed is for young LGBTQ+ readers in need of a positive story, and is intended to help them feel good about who they are in a world that all too often makes them feel abnormal, weird, or invisible. Ten percent of the proceeds from Transformed are going to The Trevor Project, a leading national organization providing crisis intervention and suicide prevention services 24/7 to lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer and questioning (LGBTQ) young people under age 25.