I liked it enough to finish it in a few hours, but this is actually the first book I've read about transgendered people. ( )

Super sweet and very heart-wrenching. As a whole, it's not very nuanced, but I think that using George's birth name with feminine pronouns was a very effective way to show how George thought of herself vs how the world saw her. And when she began thinking about herself as Melissa, good grief, it was straight to the heart. I teared up (a lot).

It is a kiddo story and as such, is fairly straight-forward, both in style and in substance. The ending is gorgeous, but also very sunshine-and-rainbows-and-sparklefarts. I don't think that it needs to be super realistic, but it is maybe a little too idealistic. I'm not complaining though, because trans* people deserve happy endings too. ( )

When will you ever be able to feel like yourself in schools? Maybe being different isn't always the best but in the end you will see that everyone around you will truly love you for you and accept that not all things have to make sense.

We need more books like this in the classroom. Middle grades need to learn about gender from a young age, not pushing any one on them, but letting them discover it on their own. It talks about kindness, acceptance, bullying, and stereotypes/societal customs. I will always recommend this and will try to bring it into my classroom (if my district hasn't banned it. if so, I will fight them on it).

This book was well written and shows another side of how children feel about themselves. Even at the age of 10 children know who they are. We have to learn to listen to them. ( )