Homebody by Theo Parish

Homebody Cover

Homebody by Theo Parish

Reviewed by Myka, Heidi, Melody, and Jorge

Review:

Homebody: A Graphic Memoir of Gender Identity Exploration by Theo Parish was published in 2024 and was a finalist for the YALSA Excellence in Nonfiction category, as well as a Carnegie Medal for Illustration and Audie Award winner of that same year. It follows the author’s journey of exploring their gender identity and discovering what it means to be nonbinary. Homebody tells a touching narrative through a blend of journal-like entries and colorful illustrative panels. However, beneath its cute, cartoonish surface lies a story that is surprisingly deep, relatable, and unrelentingly optimistic. 

Homebody is aimed at teens and young adults who are trying to understand who they are as a person, how they see themselves, and where they fit in the world. In a world where there is limited literature exploring the themes of sexuality, gender identity, and gender expression, Homebody is an important work for the younger audience who might be navigating difficulties finding acceptance for who they are. This is also an important read for others who don’t necessarily struggle with their sense of gender identity or gender expression, as its themes and messages can be applied to other matters surrounding identity or self-acceptance. Parish uses the medium to detail when they first started to notice stigmas and expectations around what they chose to wear, later even questioning if it was safe to show their true selves to others without fear of repercussions or negativity. 

The brilliance of Homebody is its accessibility to audiences of different age ranges, due to its expressive illustrations and continuously uplifting messages. The simplistic color palette of purples, pinks, and grays helps to strengthen the gender-neutral themes within the novel. The images wonderfully convey the feelings that Theo experienced during various interactions, oftentimes without needing any supplemental explanation. This helps to make the novel an easy reading experience for those how might have difficulty learning strictly through words or perhaps even struggle with attention spans. There are also plenty of lighthearted jokes and metaphors for those wrestling with how they feel about being true to who they are, which helps to put the reader at ease and feel reassured by connecting through comparable experiences. Homebodyis an eye-catching, easy read, making it ideal for its younger target audience. 

Parish addresses the fears surrounding being true to oneself and exploring different facets of identity, without making the narrative overly dark or stressful. Homebody leaves readers feeling hopeful, confident, and most importantly, seen by others who have had similar concerns or struggles with identity and acceptance. It can also be an effective tool to better explain what it means to be non-binary and gender fluid, especially during a time when there is just starting to be more awareness surrounding these types of identities and self-expressions. Homebody is an important work for not just explaining what it means to be non-binary or gender fluid, but because it encourages people to celebrate their differences instead of feeling trapped and isolated by them. Homebody is a rare gem that is full of heart, hope, and empowerment.

Biography:

 Author/Illustrator Theo Parish: Pan Macmillan

Theo Parish is a nonbinary author and Illustrator whose work has become increasingly influential in graphic literature for its engagement within gender identity and embodiment. Best known for their debut graphic novel “Homebody”, Parish has rightfully earned recognition for blending intimate storytelling with expressive visual design, creating a narrative that deeply resonates with readers of all ages seeking selfhood. 

Born and raised in Norwich, England, Parish grew up in a household marked by freedom to be creative and expressive. From an early age they were drawn to visual arts, attending Norwich University of the Arts to further pursue illustration, specifically video game design, which only spurred on a deeper interest in narrative and storytelling.

Over time, with further creative exploration, deeper self-introspection, and a deep love for comics, Parish began laying the frameworks for what would someday become their full length graphic novel that would establish them as a vital voice within queer and trans literature. What started as a comic posted online, quickly became something much bigger, connecting with a larger audience and further exemplifying to Parish why a novel about finding self-identity was so important and crucial and something they found themselves writing as an homage to what they would have wanted to read as a young adult.  

Theo Parish at Gay's The Word Bookstore in London: Gay's the Word Facebook Post

Growing up reading graphic novels by other Queer artists, such as “Gender Queer” by Maia Kobabe, helped Parish understand that there was a space for a novel like Homebody, and an audience who needed to hear their voice.  

In writing this novel which discusses finding one's true self however and whatever that may look like for every individual, Parish wanted to write something that provided hope in a world very full of negativity, specifically surrounding trans identity. This novel is their message to young adults who are beginning to question their identity, and be the voice that reminds them it is possible to find happiness and joy as someone who is nonbinary or trans. 

Instructional Resources:

1. California Department of Education: Supporting LGBTQ+ Students: The California Department of Education provides a multitude of links for educators across all grade levels on how to support LGBTQ+ identifying students. These links include community resources, resources for teachers, as well as training resources. This is perhaps the most compiled list of resources that would aid teachers new to teaching topics of LGBTQ+ nature in how to correctly bring these topics up so that their students garner an understanding of different identities and how they can be more accepting.
2. GLSEN Educator Resources: Creating Spaces of Belonging: This link leads to the GLSEN Educator Resource Guide for how to create and promote the classroom as an inclusive space for all students. The Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network was founded in 1990 with the intention to end discrimination and bullying against students due to sexual orientation, gender identity, or expression. This resource guide highlights how to go about, not just making your classroom a safe space for LGBTQ+ identifying students, but also creating a supportive community that encourages student engagement with the topics. 
   
3. How I Made a Graphic Novel | Homebody by Theo Parish: This short video details Parish's journey when it came to writing and getting Homebody published. It can serve as encouragement to students who seek to tell their own stories, showing off the notion that not all stories have to be told through the standard typed word format and allow for more creative outlets to tell stories that are just as impactful.
   
4. What is a Graphic Novel: This short video serves to teach students what exactly graphic novels from a formatting standpoint. Using this video helps answer any questions students may have regarding the artwork and framing focus of graphic novels compared to the standard novel. Although brief, the video is very succinct in explaining the very important nature of graphic novels not being a genre, but a format for which stories can be experienced in.
   
5. The Importance of Queer Literature | Lea Wergin | TEDxYouth@Berlin Cosmopolitan School: A TEDxYouth video detailing the nature and necessity of queer literature. It sheds light on the nature of queer individuals at large, a lack of acceptance and understanding being felt due to prejudices aganist them. Lea Wergin discusses how the inclusion of queer literature in the classroom is one of the first, and most important, steps to destigmatization of LGBTQ+ students in the classroom and community at large.

Instructional Activity:

Grade Level: 9-12

Subject: English

Duration: 4 Class Periods

Preview: 

As Homebody is a visually driven novel that uses illustration to explore gender identity and personal truth, this lesson plan invites students to engage with its central theme: Self-Representation through art. 

By creating both a visual and written expression of their "True Self", students reflect on the novel's message that identity is fluid, self-defined, and worthy of expressing.

Learning Objectives: 

1. Students will be able to analyze how visual storytelling in Homebody helps express identity. 

2. Students will be able to reflect on their own identity through creative and written expression. 

3. Students will be able to demonstrate an understanding of the novel’s themes by making their personal connection via art.

California Common Core Standards:

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.1 / CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.1: 
Cite strong and thorough textual evidence to support analysis of what the text says explicitly as well as inferences drawn from the text, [including determining where the text leaves matters uncertain.]

CCSS.ELA-LITEARCY.RL.9-10.2 / CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.2: 
Determine a theme or central idea of a text and analyze in detail its development over the course of the text, including how it emerges and is shaped and refined by specific details; provide an objective summary of the text. / 
Determine two or more themes or central ideas of a text and analyze their development over the course of the text, including how they interact and build on one another to produce a complex account; provide an objective summary of the text.

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY/RL.9-10.4 / CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.4: 
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the cumulative impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone (e.g., how the language evokes a sense of time and place; how it sets a formal or informal tone). / 
Determine the meaning of words and phrases as they are used in the text, including figurative and connotative meanings; analyze the impact of specific word choices on meaning and tone, including words with multiple meanings or language that is particularly fresh, engaging, or beautiful. (Include Shakespeare as well as other authors.)

CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.9-10.5 / CCSS.ELA-LITERACY.RL.11-12.5: 
Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure a text, order events within it (e.g., parallel plots), and manipulate time (e.g., pacing, flashbacks) create such effects as mystery, tension, or surprise. / 
Analyze how an author’s choices concerning how to structure specific parts of a text (e.g., the choice of where to begin or end a story, the choice to provide a comedic or tragic resolution) contribute to its overall structure and meaning as well as its aesthetic impact. 

Resources and Preparation:

• Copy of Homebody by Theo Parish
• Worksheet
• Colored Pencils

Instructional Plan:

Prerequisite: Assign Homebody as reading to students over the chosen weekend. Briefly explain how to read novels and interpret their content.

DAY 1:
Have students spend 5-10 minutes answering, and then start a discussion on the following prompt. What does “home” mean to you? Other than a physical place.

Introduce the author, Theo Parish, and provide background on why they wrote the book. You can use the links in the lesson resources if you'd like, or just share them with the class yourself.

Connect how the book is poetry. Discuss poetry as a space for voice, identity, and emotional truth. Emphasize that today’s goal is not about “liking” the poems, but about reading them closely as literature.

Take 10 minutes of class to read aloud selected pages. Students should be instructed to note their initial reactions, striking images, or confusing moments. No analysis yet; this is about hearing the poem’s voice and rhythm.

For the next 20 minutes of class, have students work together in small groups to choose a page or two for a close reading and analysis of the text. Annotation Tasks: Circle vivid imagery or sensory language. Underline emotionally charged words or phrases. Mark any tonal shifts, contradictions, or surprising moments.

For the final 15 minutes of class, use this time to guide a discussion. Discussion Questions: What feelings does the text create, and how do specific words/images shape that feeling? How does Parish use the body, home, or space as a metaphor? Which lines stood out to you from earlier, and why? How do your annotations help you understand the text on a deeper level?

For homework, assign a journal entry, have students choose one line or image from today that stood out, and write 2–3 sentences explaining why it matters or what it reveals.

DAY 2:
Open the class by having students volunteer to share their journal entries from the homework. Lead the discussion of the text's themes. In Homebody, common themes may include belonging, discomfort in one’s own body, intimacy and vulnerability, self-preservation, and identity and becoming.

Use the next 20-25 minutes to have students get into small groups and choose 2-3 pages or poems from the book to discuss theme. For each poem, students must record, the theme they notice. Evidence (quoted lines, images, metaphors). How does the theme develop? Does it become more hopeful? More conflicted? More intimate? More fragmented or resolved?
Students should begin to recognize patterns rather than analyzing poems in isolation.

For the next 20 minutes, have students rewrite a short poem/ section of the text.
Students convert a poem into a single paragraph with no line breaks. Then reflect: What meaning or emotion is lost? What changes in pacing? Does it feel less intimate or less fragmented? What does this reveal about Parish’s original structural choices? This reinforces the concept of form shaping meaning.

For homework, have students select one theme they observed today and write one paragraph explaining how the text's structure developed that theme. Use at least one specific example.

DAY 3:
Open with a discussion on their homework assignment for about 10-15 minutes.

Take an additional 10 minutes to discuss the creativity within the idea of writing a graphic novel. To then transition into the activity worksheet.

Activity: 30 minutes "Draw Your True Self"  

In Homebody, Illustration and pictures become a doorway into understanding who you are beneath expectations. Identity isn't something fixed, it is something you feel and grow into. In the blank space, draw a representation of your “true self.” This can be a literal self portrait, or perhaps it can be more symbolic, i.e. shapes, animals, objects, etc. Perhaps your true self has neon hair, or wears bright colors. You have full freedom to represent yourself however you feel most authentic. 

Let this drawing express the parts of yourself you don't always get to show, your inner colors, dreams, moods. 

On the bottom lined section, write a paragraph explaining your artistic choices. Express yourself authentically, there are no right or wrong answers to your true self.

• Why did you choose these colors?

• What emotions or identities were you expressing?

• How does this image represent your “home” within yourself?

Work on this activity until the end of class, allow students to take it home if necessary to finish. Be prepared to share worksheet at the beginning of the next class period,

DAY 4:

Students will share their worksheets with the class

(pages 64, 17, & 11)

Homebody alternative cover art: Theo Parish Books Page

Bibliography:

“Creating Spaces of Belonging.” GLSEN, www.glsen.org/activity/creating-spaces-belonging.

“Gay’s the Word.” Facebook, 2 May 2024, www.facebook.com/gaystheword/posts/homebody-%EF%B8%8F%EF%B8%8F-the-wonderful-theo-parish-came-in-yesterday-to-sign-copies-of-their-/853370603266498/.

"How I Made a Graphic Novel | Homebody by Theo Parish" YouTube, uploaded by Pan MacMillan. 5, May 2024, youtu.be/njMX7jteiVU?si=H8vsCfn26-CpCsjo

Macmillan, Pan. “Theo Parish.” Pan Macmillan, www.panmacmillan.com/authors/theo-parish/45275.

Parish, Theo. “About.” Theo Parish Author/Illustrator, www.theoblueillustration.com/about.

Parish, Theo. “Books.” Theo Parish Author/Illustrator, www.theoblueillustration.com/books.

Parish, Theo. Homebody. HarperAlley, an Imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, 2024.

“Supporting LGBTQ+ Students.” Supporting LGBTQ+ Students - Professional Learning (CA Dept of Education), www.cde.ca.gov/ci/pl/supportlgbtq.asp.

"The Importance of Queer Literature | Lea Wergin | TEDxYouth@berlinCosmpolitanSchool" YouTube, uploaded by TEDx Talks, 1, Nov. 2022, youtu.be/bB4-UDzdTYU?si=DS3xvyQSd8iQkWCr

"Theo Parish Talks Homebody" YouTube, uploaded by Cryptid Creator Corner, 9. Jun. 2024, youtu.be/uEygeS-k0XQ?si=s_ZK1YFWqwUQTemq

"What is a Graphic Novel?" YouTube, uploaded by The Bespectacled Librarian, 12. Mar.    2022, youtu.be/Xe-FYIqrZrI?si=YoAjZD5IHq4IViO3