Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress
Illustrator
Isabelle Malenfant
Publisher
Groundwood Books
Publication Year
2014
ISBN
9781554983476
Pages
32 pages
Genre
realism
Format
picturebook
Item Type
Fiction
Annotation
Morris is a little boy who loves using his imagination. But most of all, Morris loves wearing the tangerine dress in his classroom's dress-up center. The children in Morris's class don't understand. Dresses, they say, are for girls. And Morris certainly isn't welcome in the spaceship some of his classmates are building. Astronauts, they say, don't wear dresses. One day when Morris feels all alone and sick from their taunts, his mother lets him stay home from school. Morris dreams of a fantastic space adventure with his cat, Moo. Inspired by his dream, Morris paints the incredible scene he saw and brings it with him to school. He builds his own spaceship, hangs his painting on the front of it and takes two of his classmates on an outer space adventure.
Grade Level
PK-1
Diversity Topics
LGBTQ (Gender and Sexuality); Gender nonconformity; gender expression; boys who dress as girls
Main Character
boy
Race/Ethnicities
White
Family Formation
mother
Awards
Australian Family Therapists' Award for Children's Literature, 2017, Picture Book
Marilyn Baillie Picture Book Award, 2015, Finalist, Children's Literature
Prix TD De Litterature Canadienne Pour L'Enfance et la Jeunesse, 2015, Finalist, English Language
Stonewall Book Award-Mike Morgan and Larry Romans Children's and Young Adult Literature Award, 2015, Honor, Children's (Young Adult Literature)
TD Canadian Children's Literature Award, 2015, Finalist, Children's Literature
Keywords
dresses; bullying; imagination; spaceship; cat; painting
Diversity Impact
direct
STARS Citation
Baldacchino, Christine, "Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress" (2014). Diverse Families. 1219.
https://stars.library.ucf.edu/diversefamilies/1219