The book was borrowed to me and oh my god. This gave me a gender crisis at 2 am and then solved it again.

Ash is a really interesting character and they especially have a very messy perception of gender (which sent me in a crisis). For them everything was so clearly defined when its not and it was a lot of fun being a part of their journey discovering that it is maybe not the way they think it is.

Of course the other side of the story with Chewbaka was really interesting and the perception of emotion in the story is beautiful.

The writing is a bit to simple for my liking but a great book overall! ( )

(review also posted on Netgalley)

4.5/5 Stars

In my middle grade classroom (I am a teacher), the only nonbinary character representation we had was through George by Alex Gino--which students loved, but also felt a bit young at times (it features a 4th grade protagonist). I was excited to see this book available on Netgalley!

The representation in this book is strong--our main character, Ash (Asher/Ashley -- our 13 year old genderfluid main character) is very honest and direct about his/her feelings towards his/her gender, and how they feel their gender presentation and innate feeling alternates, with their not having any real control over it. Ash has a fairly realistic family--Mom is supportive to the extent of advocating for puberty-blocking medication, while struggling with how to verbalize Ash's struggles (there is a passage were Mom talks about "taking time to decide", which felt a bit cringey, but added to the characters feeling honest and flawed).

We also have Daniel, another 13 year old, who is learning how to navigate his feelings, while feeling as though he is too emotional--despite his friends validating him and seeing his truth. This definitely opens up the opportunity to talk about how to navigate emotions, and how some genders are permitted more range and opportunity with how to express themselves. While this sounds more heavy, there is also an elderly dog named Chewbarka that our characters are seeking to take care of. All in all, I would recommend this be in all middle grade classrooms, and potentially 9th grade rooms. The writing was a bit choppy and disjointed for my preference (although it did support character development, so I am rounding up to 5 stars), so I am not sure I would want to teach this text, but I would certainly recommend to students for independent or book club reading. ( )

What a great middle grade book. As an adult I found myself screaming at the characters to just SEE each other and what they were going through. Then I put myself in their places and realized and remembered the angst of being in the 7th grade! ( )

As an "own voices" story of fluid gender identity, this book is unique and wonderful. As a MG novel, it has some hiccups, particularly with pacing. I found it slow to get started with too much wrapped up too quickly at the end, and the characters -- especially Ash -- sometimes had too much going on. When Ash went to the music rehearsal and was all, "music is my life!" my reaction was, "...really? since when?" Not that a character should only have one or two Things, but myriad character traits can be hard for middle grade readers to track, especially in a book with two POV characters, so I want every trait to matter and clearly be in service of the larger story. I predict this will be super important for some of my genderqueer kiddos, but less engaging as a "window" for kids who don't share Ash's experience. I could totally be wrong, though! ( )