The books are very different, but both tackle an important issue with sympathy and grace. George would make an interesting comparative book study with Gracefully Grayson, also about a young transgender girl using a school play as a means of revealing her true self. This is a timely and important topic, and not something schools can pretend to ignore until kids are 'old enough to know about this sort of thing.' In my humble opinion, it's never too soon to be accepting and inclusive. I have seen this struggle with several of my own students during my time in K-8 schools. Many transgender students know who they are well before puberty, as George's story makes clear.

George's brother is right, but not the way he thinks: George secretly peruses the pages of Girls' Life and dreams of being accepted as female.

The first scene is especially well done, where George's big brother questions why she was in the bathroom with the door locked, and speculates that she was looking at girlie magazines. I loved George's internal struggle to come out to her mom and her friend Kelly. I loved George's best friend Kelly and her music-composer father. This is a fast read, great for giving elementary kids a glimpse of what it's like to be a young transgender person in a world that doesn't comprehend or accept you. When the chance comes to do the school's yearly production of Charlotte's Web, George knows that she wants to be Charlotte, the wise and kind mother spider, but will taking the role force her to reveal more about her true self than she is ready to share? This is a sweet, poignant novel about an elementary school student named George, who was born a boy but knows in her heart that she is a girl.

Melissa's story alex gino