Thank you to Netgalley and the publisher for granting me free access to the advanced digital copy of this book.

a short simple story, but tells it well

Thanks to the publisher and netgalley for the review copy.

This was so good. A perfect pride month read. I would highly suggest this one if you are looking for a queer read.

Baby Drag Queen is a nice, rudimentary story about someone trying to uphold their family’s financial troubles while getting exposure to drag. I’ve not read many stories that have a centre around drag, but after Tanaka’s work, I will definitely be on the look out for similar reads.

The character development leaves a lot to be desired. The main protagonist didn’t feel real which comes from limited detail and not enough focus on certain plot points. From the cover, this is a story about drag, but drag doesn’t come into play until way past the halfway point. Even then, the actual drag moments start and finish in the blink of an eye. The one-dimensional aspect of the characters doesn’t let the reader connect, relate, or care about them. The best way I can describe it is Baby Drag Queen feels like the outline or rough draft for what the story is supposed to be. Lastly, Tanaka’s writing style contributes to this by focusing on short, simple sentences, resulting in a more as a middle grade (grades 4-8) read rather than YA. This is not a bad introductory story, it’s just not the best either.

Baby Drag Queen is about Ichiro, a trans teen who is trying to help out his mom & along the way learns more about himself. Although drag was not the focal point, it does help Ichiro become more in tune with himself & his peers.

This book has enhanced features to increase reading accessibility for dyslexic and other driven readers. It read smoothly & the words and lettering were spaced out very nicely.

Very glad to have been given the chance to read this story!

I received a copy of this book in exchange for my honest review. Thank you NetGalley.

Baby Drag Queen was truly an unique read. It's novella length, coming in at 144 pages, so it was an easy / quick read. We meet Ichiro whom is a trans teen just trying to help his mom. He's trying to .. find himself at the same time. The book does feature drag which is fabulous. But there is more to the storyline than just drag.

Keep in mind that this book is written for those reading BELOW grade level. I think the idea of the series is amazing - a series of books that are written in a manner to help those that maybe aren't reading at grade level, aren't normally great readers or interested in reading.... Due to this, the writing style won't be everyone's cup of tea. I'd love to check out other books by this author though!

Baby Drag Queen was such an iconic book. This book was so good and I love the fact that it was written with struggling readers in mind.

Ichiro wants to help his mother, so gets a job as a dishwasher to bring in money. He has an idea that he will get a camper, and live on "the island" that his aunt lives on, on her land, and is trying to persuade his mother to join him. Ichiro is trans, and assumed his other high school friends knew that too, and is surprised when he mentions it in passing that they are surprised.

And the title of the book? It is only because he wants to make enough money for the camper, that he gets in a drag show, with the help of more experienced drag queens.

Because this is a book of high interest with low reading ability, the text is very simple, and there is a lot of dialogue, which can get confusing if you are trying to follow what happens.

This book was not written for me, and I'm sure it speaks to those it was written for. But for me, it got repetitive, towards the end, when Ichiro kept harping on wanting to buy the camper.

<em>Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review.</em>

Thank you netgalley for this ARC

Okay so i did enjoy this book i felt that it started off strong but it started falling off at the endish meaning the story that i thought the book was about which was drag only got some airtime i wish the story had way more stuff about the drag storyline because i loved that and the queens in the book as well i will say this was a cute short read and a very important read regarding representation i really enjoyed reading the main characters journey finding himself and his passion. I wish this book was a little longer tho and didnt focus more so on the van storyline