Rainbows, Unicorns, and Triangles tells the story of how LGBTQIA+ people have communicated without words throughout history. This book is beautiful and can be a great material to bring these ideas up to anyone looking to learn more about communicating without words or the history of this community.

This is a wonderful book. I really enjoyed it and learned a few things. The illustrations are charming and cheerful. They are a little diverse but definitely could have been more inclusive of races, abilities and body types. At only 40 pages, the book was unable to cover all queer symbols. I feel there was too much emphasis on historical symbols for gay men specifically, while completely leaving out many other groups of queer people that really could have been covered. However, this doesn’t take any stars off my rating, because there really is only so much that can be done in this format. What it does do, it does very well.

This short non-fiction children’s book is appropriate and informative for all ages. It is probably best suited for grade 3+, when children can best process some of the more complicated concepts, like why Nazis would force gay and lesbian people to wear triangles on their sleeves. For young children, this is a book intended to be read to them, as the reading level would be too advanced for most. It really is enjoyable, appropriate and educational for people of all ages. I received a temporary digital advanced review version from the publisher and will be purchasing a hard copy for my classroom.

Many thanks to NetGalley for letting me read an eARC of this book :)

This is a delightful little book with stunning illustrations by Jem Milton
I legitimately learned a lot, and enjoyed finding out the origins of queer symbols, and even language that has been adopted into common vernacular today! I'd love to know more about these symbols in great detail, but I'm aware that this isn't what this book is trying to achieve.

I've seen some people categorising this as a children's book - and though the writing style is clear and easy to understand from an adult perspective, I'm not sure kids would know what some of it means - such as mentions of laws and legal organisations. Perhaps this is more for older children/teens/young adults.

I imagine it would be a great coffee table book; it's a light read that has made me immensely interested in researching more queer history. Overall brilliant and beautiful.

Thank you so much to Hachette UK for the opportunity to read and review this picture book for my students.
Personally, as someone who knows very little about Queer history and its symbols, I found this very interesting and something I would love to reread for myself and try to teach others what I have learned. However, I do not think personally, for my specific speech students that it would be something I would teach with. Because of these points, I have to give this a 3.5 out of 5 stars.

Thoughts:
I received an advance review copy for free, and I am leaving this review voluntarily. This book is a great short introduction to LGBTQ+ symbolism that introduces the importance of them on the first page and then touched upon the persecution of the community throughout the years in an age appropriate, non-traumatising manner such as how the pink and black triangles were handled. The images throughout the book look great however there was a serious lack of disability representation which stuck out more to me as races and the LGBTQ+ community were divinely represented. The questions for discussion at the end is helpful to all ages to get them thinking and promote open conversations.

Favourite Quote:
"Throughout history, LGBTQIA2s+ people could not always be open about their lives. At various times, queer people used different symbols to communicate who they were to each other. Other symbols were used as sources of pride. Some symbols were used to persecute queer people."

"A wonderful guide for children 5+ to the visual worlds of queer life". I would say this book is not suitable for young children. It has a lot of illustrations but they aren't particularly fun or eye-catching for kids. The short book consists of pages showing a symbol and a very brief explanation of what it means in the community. There are questions for discussion at the end, which are actually quite ridiculous in a child's book. More suited to older teens and adults wanting to understand the symbols.

I absolutely loved this, it was so informative and the illustrations were beautiful. I will definitely be recommending this going forward.

This was such a cute and informative book. The artwork was beautiful and the way the pages were decorated draw you into what you're reading. I wish there had been more to the book but that's less a complaint and more of me longing for more. All in all It was short, simple and sweet.

What a delightful book! I think it’s great for people of all ages. It’s simple enough to introduce to young children, but also nuanced enough to start discussions with older kids and adults. There are even discussion questions at the end! I’m a queer person in my mid 30s, and I honestly learned a lot from this short book. There were some symbols I wasn’t familiar with, and was glad to be introduced to. There were others that I’ve seen and even used but had never learned the history of. I’m glad to be more informed!

This is a short read (40 pages) aimed at children, but I learned a few new things. The book provides a short summary of each item with illustrations.

I think this will be a great addition to any classroom or library looking to add some diverse books.

I received a free copy of this book from NetGalley in exchange for my honest review. All opinions are my own.

This was an absolutely beautiful book about pride symbols, which would be great for a young child to learn about queer history. I found it so touching and I loved how it honors our history.

This was a fun and informative read! I definitely learned something new while reading this and really enjoyed the beautiful illustration style. I especially appreciate that the book doesn't gloss over the difficulty and persecution within LGBTQIA+ history but still kept the topic kid friendly. The discussion questions at the end were really well thought out and created a nice framework for kids to take the book deeper if they wanted. This was a great read and one I could definitely envision sharing with my students.

Thanks to NetGalley for providing the Advanced Reader Copy.

Nice and simple introduction to some symbols LGBTQ+ people have used throughout history. I will order a copy for my library's collection.

Thanks NetGalley for the advanced reader copy. This book is a great way to introduce kids and adults to the many different symbols associated with the LGBTQ+ communities. It shows not only common ones like the rainbow but also ones that may be less well know like a red bowtie. It also touches on less positive symbols (like the pink and black triangles used in World War two) in an age appropriate way.
It even has discussion questions at the end if you need them.

Good overall educational book. I learned some new symbols although fairly familiar with the topic. Not sure of the target audience.

The book was wonderful. But. I think that the target age might be better understood by people aged 10 and up. It's the past cruelties that bother me about my ability to explain and answer the inevitable questions. The artwork is brilliant but I couldn't find artist to credit.
Well suited for reading WITH someone of any age, great for gifting to anyone, but especially to a school or your public library!
I requested and received a temporary electronic copy on Adobe Digital Editions from Hachette UK, Jessica Kingsley Publishers via NetGalley. Thank you!

This is a simple and basic introduction to some icons from LGBTQ+ history. It's aimed at children so it doesn't go too far in depth and definitely leaves room for more research. It's something that you can make a little more basic for younger ones or talk more in depth with older children.

This book doesn't quite know what it wants to be. It is definitely aimed at young children, but has no story or rhyme. It reads like an encyclopedia, with a concept and then a definition.
It's attractively and cheerfully illustrated with people of all races and body shapes. The concepts are very varied, from the historical (green carnations) to the current, but ill defined (unicorns) to the very bad (pink triangles). The book attempts to site these in an historical context, but there is too much, and it's aimed at too young an age, to be able to be more than snippets. The other issue is that the (correct) term LGBTQIA2S+ is used throughout. Good luck reading that to your kids! There are discussion questions at the end that are thoughtful and interesting, and could generate some good conversations.
I would give this book to the child of a gay couple, to prove I comfortable with that, but I feel like it's too earnest to genuinely interest the age group it is aimed at.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publishers for providing me with an e-arc in exchange for an honest review.

Ahh I really enjoyed this book. It was informative and appealing to the eye. I learned about new symbols about the queer community I wasn't aware of before. It was also a bit of a history lesson in the best way. I'd reccomend this to anyone of any age that is curious.

Thank you for the e-arc. I really like the concept and artwork, but could have used more information on each symbol. Only one or two paragraphs wasn't enough. I ended up googling more, but it would've been nice for more to have been given as part of the book. I wonder if the author was trying to make it too concise.