'When people look at George, they think they see a boy. But she knows she's not a boy. She knows she's a girl.
'George thinks she'll have to keep this a secret forever. Then her teacher announces that their class play is going to be Charlotte's Web. George really, really, REALLY wants to play Charlotte. But the teacher says she can't even try out for the part . . . because she's a boy.
'With the help of her best friend, Kelly, George comes up with a plan. Not just so she can be Charlotte -- but so everyone can know who she is, once and for all.'
I've had George sitting on my shelf for about five years. I picked it up as soon as I saw what the story was about because I knew it was a topic that was going to appeal to me, but just never found the time to actually read it (I feel bad that so many of the books I own have yet to be read but I'm working on it). I honestly don't know when I was going to read it, but when I heard someone gushing over how good they found the book on a podcast I knew I had to find the time; so I cleared aside a couple of hours and sat down with the book. And I didn't regret it at all.
George tells the story of a girl in the fourth grade called George. George has some issues to deal with though, a bully at school who likes to pick on her, her changing relationship with her teenage brother, and the fact that when people look at her they see a boy. You see, when she was born people thought that she was a boy, and ever since people have expected her to be one. They make her line up with the boys at school, she has to use the men's bathrooms, and people tell her that she's going to grow up to be a fine man. All of this causes her pain and distress.
However, when her class learns that they're going to be putting on a performance of Charlotte's Web George finds herself really wanting to play Charlotte. George feels a strong connection to the character, and with the help of her best friend Kelly she practices and practices the lines until she's perfect. Unfortunately, her teacher tells her that she can't be Charlotte because she's a boy. But George isn't a boy, she's a girl, and she just wants everyone to understand that so that she can be herself.
George tries to get her mother to understand, to see her for who she really is, but she doesn't seem to want to George. After coming out to her friend Kelly the two of them hatch a plan to show George's mum, and everyone else, who George really is, and decide that George is going to play Charlotte after all.
George wasn't an easy read at times. I don't mean that it was a complex book, if anything it was very easy to understand and I finished the whole thing in one sitting. It was the content that was sometimes hard to get through. George was a character that made my heart break more than once. Her desperation to be herself, for others to see who she really is and accept her, and her struggle to find the bravery to do so were some of the more emotional things I've read in a book in a long while.
There are more and more books dealing with trans character and the struggles they face, and whilst most are handled with a great degree of sensitivity you can always tell which ones are written by trans writers, because they're able to put so much more emotion and pathos into the book. Whilst Alex Gino isn't a binary trans woman, they do fall under the trans umbrella, and you can tell that they've put a lot of them-self into George. There are small moments, things that George says and does that reminded me of my own journey growing up trans and coming to terms with my situation. These are tiny things that cis authors could include sure, but I don't think they'd hit the same way they do here; there's something so true and honest to the trans experience in this book that makes it hit all the harder.
More than once I found myself fighting back tears as George has to listen to people tell her she has to do certain things because they see her as a boy, or when she wishes desperately to be able to change and be who she really is, or the horror she feels when she thinks about her oncoming puberty. These moments were hard to read for me. They made it clear the kind of pain that George, and other trans people, go through before they're able to come out.
The book also covers some of the different ways that people can handle learning someone is trans, from thinking it's just a 'different' kind of gay, to denying it all together, to being supportive. One of the moments that got me the most was when Kelly learns that George is really a girl, and after taking some time to process the information accepts her friend for who she is. When she uses the name that George has been holding inside herself all that time, Melissa, the sheer joy it bring to George is so overwhelmingly beautiful that I had to put the book down for a second.
Whilst I don't normally like spoiling books, or talking about their endings, I'm going to with this review, because I want people to know that this isn't a sad book. Things ultimately go well for George, and it ends on a note of hopefulness. She shows her mother who she really is by being Charlotte on stage, and her mother seems to accept her for who she is. But the best part is when Kelly takes her to the zoo for the day with her uncle. Kelly's uncle has never met George before, so Kelly tells her that she should go as who she really is. The two of them go through Kelly's clothes and George picks out an outfit, does her hair and make-up, and finally gets to see herself as the girl she knows she is.
It's during this part of the book that George's name changes to Melissa in the text. I don't even know if the first time I realised I'd read her real name was the first time it was used, and I didn't go back to check. In that moment I just realised that she was finally getting to be who she was, and it was so beautiful. After she gets to spend the day being herself Kelly falls asleep in the car on the way home, but Melissa doesn't; to quote the book 'Melissa didn't nod off for a moment. She couldn't. She was too busy remembering the best week of her life. So far.' The story end on such a wonderfully happy note that it made all those moments of heartbreak and pain before it all worthwhile, because I knew Melissa was going to be okay. And now I'm crying again thinking about this book.
George could have just been a story about a trans kid learning to come out and be themselves, but it was so much more than that. It was filled with so much heart and honesty that it became something beautiful. It might be written for children, but it's a book that people of all ages should read. With so many people attacking the trans community, fighting to take our rights and freedoms away from us people need to realise that we're just people. People who want to be who we are and live our lives in peace. George shows that. It shows the pain and suffering that trans people can feel when we're not able to be seen for who we are, and the sheer euphoria of something as simple as people treating us like human beings.
Whether you're trans or not, whether you're the intended audience for this book or not, please do yourself a favour and read it. If you're on the fence about how you feel about trans people, if you're not sure about the topic give this book a chance, because it can show you a small part of our struggles, and how even the simple kindness of seeing us for who we really are can save a life.
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