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Pansy Boy

Paul Harfleet author

Format:Book

Publisher:Barbican Press

Published:4th Jun '24

Currently unavailable, our supplier has not provided us a restock date

Pansy Boy cover

  • Supported by agency-led marketing campaign and strong advertising, targeting trade pubs and email subscriber lists.
  • An active podcast tour, on the LGBTQ+, Anti-Bullying, and Children's book theme, focused on such international sites as: Outsiders Talk Podcast; Be a Better Ally; Your Queer Story; My Big Gay Podcast; Queer Words Podcast; LGBTQ&A; Breaking Bully; Anti Bullying 101; Anti-Bullying with Owen and Bella; The Children's Book Podcast on Apple Podcasts, Point Perspective, This Creative Life.
  • New merchandise range with giveaways to attract LGBTQ+ audience.

    • Pansy Boy is a stunningly beautiful picture book about a child's journey to overcome bullying and be proud of who he is.

    Told as rhyming poem, the story comes to life with vivid graphic art.

    Out in the natural world, a boy is in love with its beauty. Flowers and birds in flight amaze him. But school beckons, and with it bullying from other children. How can he defend himself? Pansy boy learns the language of the flowers. Where bullies pinned his life with their hate, he plants a pansy. He hopes his plan will empower the school to value what is delicate and different.

    Pansy Boy is inspired by the childhood of author and illustrator Paul Harfleet, the founder of The Pansy Project, a worldwide movement which plants pansies at the sites of homophobic attacks around the world. The book comes complete with a field guide to the flowers and birds contained in its pages. "In the garden of Kew he read for hours, and learned the language of the flowers..."

    "Teen readers interested in LGBTQI+ graphic novels may appreciate the book’s elegant artwork and its upbeat message." Both the gentle unnamed main character and his tormentors appear in cartoonish, detailed pencil drawings rendered in shades of gray, recalling Quentin Blake’s illustrations from many Roald Dahl works. "Field notes" close out the book, with illustrations of birds and flowering plants. The lovely  jewel-toned and precise illustrations also appear throughout the pages." - Youth Services Book Review

    "Written and illustrated beautifully... the kind of book that celebrates difference" - The Guardian

    "Beautiful, heartfelt, uplifting... Pansy Boy is a story of childhood innocence told through stunningly detailed illustration" - James Wong, Botanist, TV personality and author

    "Heartfelt and Powerful" - Rachel Holmes, Polari Prize Chair 2018

    "Beautiful and thoughtful" - Kirklees Libraries

    "Pansy Boy acts as a platform for discussing the nuances of homophobia and bullying" - Let's Talk Picture Books

    ISBN: 9781909954915

    Dimensions: unknown

    Weight: unknown

    64 pages