Living outside the Lines
Dallas author’s book for children focuses on the joys of being yourself TAMMYE NASH | Managing Editornash@dallasvoice.com Linus by Stuart Hausmann; c.
2023, Atheneum; $18.99; 40 pages. “I need colors. I need shapes. I need … to get away!” Just about any LGBTQ person who ever grew up in a small town knows what it is like to feel that need to get away, to get out into the great, wide world and find a place full of shape and color, a place where they aren’t being told to straighten up and toe the line.
Even those of us who grew up with families that loved us and supported us still yearned to find a place where we could fit in, where we could find other people who were like us, or who, at least, weren’t afraid to be different.
That is the premise of Linus, a children’s book released this year by Dallas author Stuart Hausmann: It’s not just ok to be different; it’s wonderful to be different.
