The funny this is that even though Julián Is a Mermaid is just the latest in a long line, it feels to me like this is the one I’ve been waiting for all these years. These books vary considerably in quality from title to title, but they all offer a challenge to society’s demand that boys look and act in a very specific way, and woe betide you if you’re different. There’s been Sparkle Boy by Leslea Newman, I Love My Purse by Belle DeMont, Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress by Christine Baldacchino, Jacob’s New Dress by Sarah Hoffman, Big Bob, Little Bob by James Howe, 10,000 Dresses by Marcus Ewert, and (of course) William’s Doll by Charlotte Zolotow. Over the years we’ve seen this tackled in a number of different ways. In this case we’re talking about picture books where boys identify with nonconforming ideas of gender identity and beauty. When children’s books break taboos it’s usually done in fits and starts. With minimal language and an abundance of love, the author/illustrator gives everyone with a mermaid inside of them a tale of sweet, near speechless belonging. They join the throng and Julián knows he belongs. That is, until she leads him by the hand to the Coney Island Mermaid Parade. Caught by his grandmother he’s unsure of how to feel. While abuela showers he turns plant fronds into hair, lacey curtains into a tail, and on his lips goes some lipstick. In short order Julián begins to imagine himself as a mermaid and when he gets home he starts his own transformation. Their gowns flow like tails, their hair moving like it’s caught the ocean currents, and everything about them is simply wonderful. Even when it’s a reality that some people refuse to see.Ĭoming home from the pool with his abuela one day, Julián’s subway car is suddenly boarded by three beautiful mermaids. I’m there because Jessica Love has been granted a very remarkable gift. I can smell the apartment that Julián shares with his abuela. A book like Julián Is a Mermaid comes along and there.
And then one day, my waiting is rewarded. You cannot require an illustrator to be able to capture the intangible in their art. Imbuing a book with that kind of realism is beyond difficult, though. When I enter a character’s house I want to almost be able to smell the shampoo in the carpet or the faint aroma of dinner from the night before. It is this experience of walking into a house and being overwhelmed by the sense of the place that I hope for in my picture books. I love it when a friend moves house because when I walk into their new home it smells just like their previous place of occupancy, with just a twinge of difference.
Homes absorb the lives of their occupants, and the end result is as much an olfactory experience as a visual one.
When you walk into another person’s home, there’s always a distinct smell to the place.
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