When I was young, I’m sure that the books I read didn’t have much in the way of subtext. The odd risqué double entendre, perhaps, but certainly nothing the likes of which you’ll find in David Bedford and Russell Julian’s diversity-affirming picture book, It’s a George Thing!
To its young readers, It’s a George Thing! will be a simple story about a zebra named George who discovers that he has a talent (and, indeed, a passion) for dancing. The trouble is, George doesn’t reckon that his mates will be into dancing at all; their preferred pastimes are much more butch. And so poor George puts up with playing Peachy and Moon’s macho games and does his dancing in secret, until it’s time for him to come out and star in a big show - the prospect of which terrifies him so much that he freezes in the spotlight... until his two friends appear on stage to dance alongside him, even though dancing isn’t really their thing. It’s a George thing...
Of course, to those a little older, It’s a George Thing! might not be such a straightforward story at all, but instead a very well-crafted - if agonisingly transparent - allegory on a young homosexual ‘coming out of the closet’. Some parents might well balk at the idea of such adult themes being explored in a book aimed at young children, but I take the view that with books such as this one delicately influencing the nascent minds of the next generation, in the future those of George’s inclination are more likely to be greeted with the warm reception that George gets when he ‘comes out’ here, as opposed to the prejudice that regrettably some still suffer.
