It’s Pride, Baby!

“It’s Pride, baby!” Wells’s enthusiastically affectionate debut sees a close-knit queer Black family attend Washington, D.C., Pride. After early pages follow two adults encouraging their child to “take up this space/ With your beautiful Black self,” the family heads to the rainbow-strewn parade route. There, mural and other images of LGBTQ icons, including Marsha P. Johnson, invite further affirmations (“You are our perfect child.// The child of so many/ Heroes before you”). Subsequent pages focus on the parade and celebration: drag performers in glitzy dresses ride floats, participants bear a banner that reads “unapologetically Black,” flags fly, and fireworks burst overhead. Throughout this tenderhearted tribute to unconditional love as a form of protest, Valle’s warm-toned digital illustrations convey Pride’s air of defiant celebration without losing the text’s endearing warmth of two parents’ love letter to their child. Background characters are portrayed with varying abilities, body types, and skin tones. More about Pride concludes. Ages 3–5. (May)