The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish - Book Review

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The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish is a children's picture book that was written by Lil Miss Hot Mess and illustrated by Olga de Dios Ruiz. It is 40-pages long and was published by Running Press Kids on 5 May 2020. It is suitable for children between 4 to 8 years of age. Lil Miss Hot Mess is an American drag queen, activist, children's book author, and one of the founding members of Drag Story Hour.

Drag Story Hour is a non-profit organisation with over 50 chapters across the globe that involves storytellers dressing up in drag to read books to children. Drag Story Hour started in San Francisco in 2015 with the goal of promoting reading and to present children with queer role models and to be inclusive and affirming to LGBTQ families. Lil Miss Hot Mess is a storyteller and serves on the board for Drag Story Hour.

The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish is a parody of the classic children's nursery rhyme "The Wheels on the Bus." In an interview about the book , Lil Miss Hot Mess explained that she got the idea to write a book about drag queens after working as a storyteller for Drag Story Hour. She'd found that there were a lot of diverse books out there that dealt with queer and gender themes, but not many of them talked about drag queens. She wanted to write a book that explained to children in simple terms what a drag queen was and to get them shimmying and twirling and having fun.

Drag Story Hour has been subject to controversy due to a moral panic about drag queens that originated in the United States in 2019. Conservatives have accused drag queens of "grooming" children to join their lifestyle and there have been attempts to ban Drag Story Hour due to the misguided belief that family-friendly drag events could "indoctrinate or sexualise" children. The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish has come under attack from conservatives who labelled the book "sexually charged content." In response to the criticism, Lil Miss Hot Mess described the remarks as an attack not just on freedom of expression, but on imagination as well. Her goal with writing the book was so kids and drag queens could learn from each other, and get in touch with their curiosity, conscience, and creativity.

The criticisms of this book had me shaking my head in disbelief. There is no sexual content in this book. It is harmless, child-friendly, and fun. Children will love the illustrations and singing and miming along to the book. There is nothing sexual or inappropriate about the drag queens in the book. They are just happy characters dressed up in fancy outfits that spread colour and a little bit of sparkle across each page. The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish is a celebration of diversity, joy, creativity, and LGBTQ culture.

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