The Sissy Duckling is a children's picture book written by actor Harvey Fierstein and illustrated by Henry Cole.

It is based on an HBO children's special aired three years before the book was released, written by and starring Fierstein as the voice of Elmer the Duckling.

[citation needed] The Sissy Duckling, however, was not made into an episode of Happily Ever After, but rather an entirely separate TV special aired on HBO in 1999.

Fierstein was then contacted by Simon & Schuster to turn his original script into a children’s picture book.

For example, Michael Ross believes, "Any adult reader who has a child, experienced being chosen last for a team sport at a school, or ostracized because of being 'different,' will be cheering the main character.”[6]  Furthermore, research has shown that the book is beneficial.

In a case study about the effects of implementing LGBTQIA+ related books into the classroom, a teacher had her students write letters to the sissy duckling.

[11][12] Specifically, it was challenged by the Montgomery County, Texas Memorial Library System in 2004, along with 15 other children’s books said to have contained “gay-positive” themes.