The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish

The Hips on the Drag Queen Go Swish, Swish, Swish is written by Lil Miss Hot Mess, a drag queen based in Los Angeles. It’s illustrated by Olga de Dios, a Hispanic woman living in Madrid. Lil Miss Hot Mess is a white queer person with a lot of experience being a drag queen. Olga de Dios’ background is slightly more unclear, but she has not illustrated any other queerrelated books before this one.

I would give the illustrations a low score. The pictures in the book stereotype drag. They portray the drag queens in a way that may be unsettling to children. The drag queens are drawn scary and in a way that makes them look like they aren’t human. For example, the way the eyes are drawn makes the characters look creepy.

This book does not have much of a storyline. The plot of this story follows drag queens as they walk through a town together dancing and doing various other activities. They all seem to be grouped together to spread their color into a colorless city, which sends a positive message about how being yourselves can make the world a better place. However, their relationships with each other aren’t developed much due to the lack of a plot.

The message the book sends is that drag queens are always these loud, theatrical people. The book also perpetuates that drag queens dress a certain way. They all are dressed overly feminine or very made up. The book shows one style of drag, but it doesn’t show how drag can vary on the gender expression spectrum. It pushes one picture of what drag can be. The only characters in this book are adults, none are kids. Therefore, there are no children advocating for change. This book only lets children see adults being who they are, and it doesn’t let them see themselves in the story being who they are or advocating for change like the drag queens are.

The book uses simple language and repeated words. It does not introduce any new terms or any loaded words. There also are no gendered words in this book. It repeats words like “up, up, up”, “bling, bling, bling”, and “blush, blush, blush” to describe the drag queens and what they do.

The language in this book is simple and easy for children to understand and even read along with when they are able to read. It also goes along with the tune “The Wheels on the Bus Go Round and Round,” which is a popular children’s song, making this book even more relatable and exciting for children to read. With all of that being said, the illustrations are an entirely different story. Because the words are so simple, this book would likely be read to kids anywhere from 3 to 10. But the illustrations are scary and the drag queens look like they aren’t humans and are closer to monsters. Kids from the ages of 3 to 10 would likely be scared by these illustrations and would view drag queens as a negative thing after reading this book because of how unsettling the illustrations are. Overall, the appeal to children is good in terms of the language used, but awful in terms of illustrations, which are more important to kids reading the book than the language.