That’s my point.Īre the poodles female? We don’t know, because of this cognitive bias to apply gender to animal species and breeds. I’m sure it’s because of the long hair, and his prettiness. My dog happens to be a long-haired Border collie and strangers always gender him female. (Gaston is a white Frenchie.) I even know someone who, as a kid, used to think dogs and cats were males and females of the same species. (Dogs have sex, not gender, which is a - human - cultural construct.) Because we are human, and gendered, we tend to consider pretty dogs such as poodles girls, and broad, big-boned dogs such as the bulldog boys. We commonly gender dogs, even though dogs are agender. For readers with a more sophisticated understanding of sex and gender, this story is frustrating as all get out. The first thing that stands out about this book: it appeals to readers who subscribe to gender binary ideas. Can these puppies follow their noses-and their hearts-to find where they belong? MARKETING COPY SHORTCOMING The new families look right…but they don’t feel right.

But a chance encounter with a bulldog family in the park-Rocky, Ricky, Bruno, and Antoinette-reveals there’s been a mix-up, and so Gaston and Antoinette switch places.

He sips – never slobbers! He yips – never yaps! And he walks with grace – never races! Gaston fits right in with his poodle sisters. Gaston works the hardest at his lessons on how to be a proper pooch. This is the story of four puppies: Fi-Fi, Foo-Foo, Ooh-La-La, and Gaston. (Inversion does not equal subversion.) PARATEXT

Gaston inverts that outcome after discovering the switch, Gaston stays with the family he has already bonded with. In The Ugly Duckling, the beautiful swan finds its ‘rightful’ place among the other swans. Gaston is a spin on The Ugly Duckling and all those descendent stories for children about a young character accidentally switched at birth into the wrong family. SETTING OF GASTONįrance, mostly inside a house, also at a park. The plots are not at all similar, but they share the same ideological problems, intending to say one thing, inadvertently saying another. I liken Gaston to another popular contemporary picture book: Drew Daywalt’s The Day The Crayons Quit. Gaston is a picture book written by Kelly DiPucchio and illustrated in beautiful naive style by Christian Robinson.

Gaston by kelly dipucchio