The email came that said: PW’s Grab a Galley – Guinea Pigs Don’t Wear Pants. It continued Dear You Thank you for requesting Guinea Pigs Don’t Wear Pants through Publishers Weekly’s Summer 2026 Grab-a-Galley event. I’m excited to share that your name was selected as one of the winners for the title.
See attached for your digital advance review copy.
So, since I won, I should read it, right? I had a few minutes before I needed to send some reports and a few minutes was all I needed. It is mostly a quick read. I started to watch the video of different people reading the book afterwards, but I needed two more minutes and I didn’t have time for that (dang deadlines….). Anyway, I had one small issue with the video (which I did try to start watching) which was that the subtitles went over the names of the readers and I had no idea who was reading.
But still Guinea Pigs Don’t Wear Pants by Chris Paul Rainbow Farias, the actual book, was good. Granted, it is fairly obvious where the story is going, but it is still fun. The colors and simpler images help keep things moving and bouncy. It’s good as an introduction to diversity and being yourself. No, I was not “blown away” by it, but the idea of being yourself and diversity is a nice theme. It leans more towards LGBTQ presenting by showing a male-looking child wearing stereotypical “girl clothing” and they do say “boy, girl, other, or inbetween” but there are parts that show You are able to do anything, unlike the humorous addition of how animals can’t do things (guinea pigs can’t wear pants as it will hamper their scamper) and it leans towards things such as playing music, or dancing, or non-gender focused.
Read via an online reader copy, but it might be available at your local independent bookstore or library already as it is due early June 2026.
