You have exceeded your limit for simultaneous device logins.
Your current subscription allows you to be actively logged in on up to three (3) devices simultaneously. Click on continue below to log out of other sessions and log in on this device.
Ramos’s worldbuilding is at once authentic yet wholesome, while never veering into the saccharine. While Daniel himself would prefer not to be in the spotlight, romance readers will not be able to get enough of him as a protagonist.
While young adult literature is finally seeing more trans* protagonists, very few can be categorized as genderfluid or nonbinary. SLJ caught up with Robin Talley to discuss her inspiration for What We Left Behind, the books she wished had existed when she was in high school, and what she’s working on next.
A required purchase for any collection that serves a middle grade population.—Ingrid Abrams, Brooklyn Public Library, NY
George is, outwardly, a boy. But inside, she is a girl, and now that she is ten, that disconnect is becoming impossible to endure. She tries to tell her (single) mother, but Mom doesn’t seem ready for that conversation. Desperate, George decides to try out for the part of Charlotte in the school production of Charlotte’s Web: maybe if Mom sees her playing a girl’s part, Mom will be able to see who she really is. There are setbacks along the way (the teacher refuses to let a boy audition for Charlotte; Mom discovers and confiscates George’s cache of girls’ magazines; bullies harass her), but with the help of a few supportive allies, particularly best friend Kelly, George prevails. By the last chapter, George has become “Melissa”—all girl, at least for one perfect day on an outing with Kelly, and clearly a preview of what life has in store for her. George isn’t without flaws: the mother’s sudden about-face is too sudden, and author Gino can employ a heavy hand (Mom’s response to one of George’s early overtures: “You will always be my little boy, and that will never change. Even when you grow up to be an old man, I will still love you as my son”). But the heart of this novel—for slightly younger readers than Ami Polonski’s similarly themed and plotted Gracefully Grayson (rev. 11/14)