Jazz Jennings

I read this book because a review of it was "in progress" during Banned Books Week 2022 in my racist, radical right-wing rural Republican school district, that had already banned Out of Darkness by another Latina author, for "sexually explicit content."

Subtitled "My Life as a (Transgender) Teen," Being Jazz is a memoir by transgender rel="nofollow" target="_top">Jazz Jennings of her first 16 years.  Assigned male at birth, Jazz was diagnosed with gender dysphoria at a very young age.  The book details some of hers and her parents' struggles to allow her to dress as a girl at school and play soccer on the girls' team, and later some of their transgender activism.

The book is clearly written by a teen, and would be a good read for teens and tweens (and adults) to learn more about being transgender, recognizing that many transgender youth don't have the supportive parents and family Jazz has. If anything, that makes a book like this even more needed in a repressive community like mine.

So what happened with this book in my local school libraries?  Apparently, this book made it through the challenge process (although why it did and Out of Darkness did not is beyond me).  As of this writing, the book is listed in the online catalog as available in the main high school library (but not at the alternative high school).  I borrowed the copy I read from the e-book collection of another public library in Texas, as my local public library does not own a copy (physical or electronic).… (more)