“…it takes a special person to cry over a book. It shows compassion as well as imagination…Don’t ever lose that, George, and I know you’ll turn into a fine young man.” – George, pg. 15
Stats:
Title: George
Author: Alex Gino
Genre: Juvenile fiction
Erin’s teaser synopsis: What many people see about George is not what she knows about herself. Everyone sees a boy, but George knows that she is not a boy, she’s a girl. If only she could simply wear pink all the time and play Charlotte in the school’s production of Charlotte’s Web, then everyone else would see.
Why I relate to it: Even today, I still marvel at how people can’t just accept people for who they are. “Life is easy, if you really want it to be,” some say. I would argue that the best way to make life easy is to simply accept people for who they are, and not what they may appear to be or what you want them to be. So this book and the struggle of transgendered people today both speak to me on this level.
Judgement call: The book is perfect. It’s beautifully written and unassuming, and I read it in one single bath (this was aided by the fact that it’s a mere 195 pages of juvenile style/spaced writing). Children are beautifully open to suggestion, and I think that this book teaches them exactly how they should deal with an issue like this – no matter who they are in the scenario.
Purchase it for your fave kiddo, or yourself, at Amazon.
