A family read-aloud binge of picture books for my daughter's 21st birthday!

A favorite episode from the TV series gets a beautiful adaptation with a meta twist. Ruby and Sapphire serve as narrator and commentator for this origin story of Garnet and find it difficult to not be affected by the tale unfolding before them. Very cute! ( )

Cute allegorical story for a same-sex relationship between two female "gems" from the Steven's Universe universe. I'm not hugely familiar with the property but the story was enjoyable and resembled a fable or a modern fairy tale. It has a clever meta element to it as well that I'm sure kids will find amusing. ( )

I do wonder how well this book would read for its intended audience. a child might be put off by the concept of Gems and fusing if they haven't seen the show. It is still incredibly important as a queer children's book, however, and one I will probably read to my child, whenever I have one.

As an adult fan of Steven Universe, I obviously love it. I do wish it had been a bit longer, but for $6 I don't feel miffed over it at all. ( )

Gorgeous tale about love and being yourself...
10:10 am 30 October 2016
The Answer (Steven Universe) - Rebecca Sugar, Tiffany Ford, Elle Michalka
It's nice to get Rose Quartz's past, but Ruby And Sapphire? Well, they have a love story of their own here, and one that's met with resistance and horror by the other Gems. (Although it has a lot to do with breaking conventions; this could be seen as a simple act of rebellion against fascism, or as something more. Ruby and Sapphire literally merge. I didn't read it as sexual, but I did read it as an act of love: Ruby knows that it's forbidden and does it for Sapphire's sake, anyway.)

It's not that the Gems aren't sexual at all. Rose Quartz has to have some kind of contact with Steven's father to have him, but it's all alluded to: she has to give up her body and whether or not she has sex - as humanity thinks of sex - or Gem sex (whatever that might be) , or something that's in between? It's hard to tell.

Is merging sexual for them, as well as a military tactic to create larger, and more powerful, Gems? Or are they asexual? (Again, given Rose Quartz, and Ruby and Sapphire here, we know they aren't aromatic.)

This leaves us with many questions and one answer: love. Love another, and you can do what seems impossible. In the end, that was the only answer I needed, and I ended up crying happy tears at the end of this book.

There's also a lot of playing with narratives - when a book should end and when it does, what is the proper narrative - and those mini Ruby and Sapphire's at the bottom and top of the book are amazing.

Absolutely loved this book!
media tie-in Juvie read in 2016 ( )

The Answer is a children's book based on a popular Cartoon Network show, Steven Universe, which is also written by Rebecca Sugar. Both the book and show features characters known as Gems who look female but technically do not have genders making their romances with other Gems technically not gay. Despite this, homosexual themes are without a doubt present in this book. The plot focuses on the relationship of two Gems, Ruby and Sapphire, and how things in their lives didn't turn out as they were supposed to, but it didn't matter. In the end, what matters is love. That is what changes fate and saves them both.
I love this book and television series as it brilliantly challenges censorship and teaches love and acceptance of others.LGBT children's books and media is a very small, yet slowly growing genre. Most LGBT media in general focuses so much on the character's gender or sexuality that they fail to give the character any more depth. In this short picture book, however, Rebecca Sugar not only gives her characters depth, but explores other reasons why people-or gems- might not want them to be together. In her universe, them being together isn't scandalous because of homosexuality, but because of class difference. Sapphire gems are seen as far superior to Ruby gems who are mainly used as bodyguards. By adding this distinction, Rebecca Sugar normalizes homosexuality while still discussing the problems faced by the LGBT community today. ( )