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Backwards Day
"BACKWARDS DAY, set on the planet Tenalp, introduces us to a world where there are seventeen seasons, including one where bubblegum falls from the sky for three days and a single day when everything - everything everywhere - is backwards. Andrea looks eagerly forward to Backwards Day every year, so she can turn into a boy for the day. But one year she doesn't turn along with everyone else. She's miserable. The very next day, however, she turns into a boy - and stays that way! He's delighted, but his parents are distressed, and take him to the big city to consult with Backwardsologists. When they finally figure out what's happened, the miracles of Backwards Day are fully revealed to the reader."
34 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 2012
149 people want to read
About the author
S. Bear Bergman
22 books177 followersS. Bear Bergman is a storyteller, a theater artist, an instigator, a gender-jammer, and a good example of what happens when you overeducate a contrarian. He is the author of Butch Is a Noun (reissued with a new foreword by Arsenal Pulp Press, 2010), Lambda Literary Award-finalist The Nearest Exit May be Behind You (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2009), Backwards Day (Flamingo Rampant, 2012), Lambda Literary Award-finalist The Adventures of Tulip, Birthday Wish Fairy (Flamingo Rampant, 2012) and Blood, Marriage, Wine, & Glitter (Arsenal Pulp Press, 2013) – as well as the editor (with the inimitable Kate Bornstein) of the multiple-award-winning Gender Outlaws: The Next Generation (Seal Press, 2010). Bear is also the creator and performer of three award-winning solo performances and a frequent contributor to anthologies on all manner of topics (see his CV for an extensive list of publications of presentations). Bear can be found many days in an airport lounge, writing stories on his laptop and letters on any piece of paper that can pretend to be stationery.
A frequent lecturer at colleges and universities regarding issues relating to gender, sexuality, and culture, Bear enjoys digging in to complicated ideas and getting dirty doing it. He also works extensively helping to create queer and trans cultural competency at universities, corporations, health care providers, and governmental organizations. This work has included training, policy development, policy reviews, and process/barrier audits, as well as cultural awareness consulting for external marketing.
As a Jew, Bear also speaks extensively about how his religious and cultural lives have shaped one another and the intersection of identities, especially as it relates to being both Jewish and queer. He remains exceptionally pleased to have been asked to write the chapter on trans inclusion for Hillel International’s LGBTQ Resource Guide
Less recently, Bear was one of the five original founders of the first Gay/Straight Alliance, a frequent lecturer at high schools and colleges on the subject of making schools safe for GLBT students, and a founding commission member of what is now called the Massachusetts Safe Schools Project. Bear was an insufferable know-it-all in high school, but is reformed these days. Somewhat.
Bear was educated at Concord Academy, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts. He currently resides in Toronto, Ontario where he has set up housekeeping with his husband j wallace skelton and their children, and travels frequently to visit the many people close to his heart.
A frequent lecturer at colleges and universities regarding issues relating to gender, sexuality, and culture, Bear enjoys digging in to complicated ideas and getting dirty doing it. He also works extensively helping to create queer and trans cultural competency at universities, corporations, health care providers, and governmental organizations. This work has included training, policy development, policy reviews, and process/barrier audits, as well as cultural awareness consulting for external marketing.
As a Jew, Bear also speaks extensively about how his religious and cultural lives have shaped one another and the intersection of identities, especially as it relates to being both Jewish and queer. He remains exceptionally pleased to have been asked to write the chapter on trans inclusion for Hillel International’s LGBTQ Resource Guide
Less recently, Bear was one of the five original founders of the first Gay/Straight Alliance, a frequent lecturer at high schools and colleges on the subject of making schools safe for GLBT students, and a founding commission member of what is now called the Massachusetts Safe Schools Project. Bear was an insufferable know-it-all in high school, but is reformed these days. Somewhat.
Bear was educated at Concord Academy, Hampshire College, and the University of Massachusetts. He currently resides in Toronto, Ontario where he has set up housekeeping with his husband j wallace skelton and their children, and travels frequently to visit the many people close to his heart.
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Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews
December 31, 2012
This is a cute story, and I had the good fortune to hear S. Bear Bergman read it live. It follows a child named Andrea who lives on a planet where, once a year, everything is backwards, including gender. However, Andrea secretly wishes she could be a boy all the time, not just on Backwards Day. One year, something surprising happens and Andrea remains Andy even after Backwards Day ends. Ultimately, scientists on the planet conclude Andy is supposed to stay a boy and he goes on to enjoy his life. I was surprised this book wasn't already on this site, but I think it should be. There aren't a lot of stories for or about gender-variant children out there. This one is kind, respectful, and makes it easier for kids to understand that one's gender identity is real and should be taken seriously.
July 12, 2013
As a trans* person with small nephews, I rejoiced at finding this book - it is a great way to start the discussion with children about gender variance. The story is kind, funny, and affirming.
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December 21, 2017I don't really like books about "opposites" because "opposites" are mostly a social construct that isn't that helpful (e.g., we "know" that dogs and cats are opposites, but what does that even mean?) and encourages the idea that everything has to be a binary.
This book tries to straddle that tension -- explaining that on Backwards Day "Some people don't look very different at all, though. Boys who are normally girlish look mostly like they usually do. And girls who are normally boyish also look pretty like their everyday selves" -- but it didn't entirely do it for me.
It's trying to be a nice wish fulfillment story of a trans kid who gets to live in the correct body, and I know it was published in 2012 and we've come so far in so few years and it's trying to operate at kid-level and all that whatever, but...
This book tries to straddle that tension -- explaining that on Backwards Day "Some people don't look very different at all, though. Boys who are normally girlish look mostly like they usually do. And girls who are normally boyish also look pretty like their everyday selves" -- but it didn't entirely do it for me.
It's trying to be a nice wish fulfillment story of a trans kid who gets to live in the correct body, and I know it was published in 2012 and we've come so far in so few years and it's trying to operate at kid-level and all that whatever, but...
Displaying 1 - 3 of 3 reviews