[Welcome to the EL Book Introductions series. These posts are all short (<180 words) introductions/reviews of books in the EL library. They focus on telling you what we think will be interesting for you, a college student and English learner, so use them to help you find the right book for you. You can also use the tags to find books about topics you might be interested in.]
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One of the strengths of comics and manga is their ability to show instead of just tell. Sometimes we cannot use words to express how we feel, so we can use pictures. This is exactly how Summers tells the story of her pregnancy, as a gay, butch (masculine-presenting) woman. And she tells that very personal story with a great sense of humor!
Pregnant Butch is written and drawn like a zine. “Zines” are handmade subculture magazines with a punk style. This is a good match with Summers’ experience as an “outsider”: few people around her even understood how a lesbian could get pregnant!
Note: While there are a few jokes and cultural references that you will probably not understand, there is a lot of information here about medical culture, pregnancy, LGBTQ culture, and more.
My two cents: One thing I appreciate from reading this book is Summers’ struggle with her identity as “butch” in a world where more and more people are coming out as transgender. This is a perspective you don’t often hear from, but it is important, too!
