All Categories
Product Description The groundbreaking novel from critically acclaimed author Ellen Wittlinger that tells the story of a transgender teen’s search for identity and acceptance has now been updated to include current terminology and an updated list of resources. Angela Katz-McNair never felt quite right as a girl. So she cuts her hair short, purchases some men’s clothes and chose a new name: Grady. While coming out as transgender feels right to Grady, he isn’t prepared for the reactions of his friends and family. Why can’t they accept that Grady is just being himself? Grady’s life is miserable until he finds friends in unexpected places—the school geek, Sebastian, who tells Grady that there is a precedent for transgenders in the natural world, and Kita, a senior, who might just be Grady’s first love. In a voice tinged with humor and sadness, Ellen Wittlinger explores Grady’s struggles—universal struggles any teen can relate to. Review A compelling and richly detailed story. "The BCCB" A thought-provoking discussion of gender roles, gender identity, and the influence of nature, nurture, and social construction on both. "The Horn Book Magazine" Peopled with wonderfully wacky characters and scenes, this narrative snaps and crackles with wit, even while it touches the spirit of the sensitive reader. Wittlinger scores another success with this highly recommended novel. "VOYA" The author demonstrates well the complexity faced by transgendered people and makes the teen s frustration with having to fit into a category fully apparent. "Publishers Weekly" Wittlinger s writing skill will help YA readers understand transgender issues, and those readers will be entertained and moved as they read. "KLIATT" "A compelling and richly detailed story."--"The BCCB" "A thought-provoking discussion of gender roles, gender identity, and the influence of nature, nurture, and social construction on both."--"The Horn Book Magazine" "Peopled with wonderfully wacky characters and scenes, this narrative snaps and crackles with wit, even while it touches the spirit of the sensitive reader. Wittlinger scores another success with this highly recommended novel."--"VOYA" "The author demonstrates well the complexity faced by transgendered people and makes the teen's frustration with having to "fit into a category" fully apparent."--"Publishers Weekly" "Wittlinger's writing skill will help YA readers understand transgender issues, and those readers will be entertained and moved as they read."--"KLIATT" About the Author Ellen Wittlinger is the critically acclaimed author of the teen novels Parrotfish, Blind Faith, Sandpiper, Heart on My Sleeve, Zigzag, and Hard Love (an American Library Association Michael L. Printz Honor Book and a Lambda Literary Award winner), and its sequel Love & Lies: Marisol’s Story. She has a bachelor’s degree from Millikin University in Decatur, Illinois, and an MFA from the University of Iowa. A former children’s librarian, she lives with her husband in Haydenville, Massachusetts. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved. Parrotfish I could hear Mom on the phone in the kitchen gleefully shrieking to her younger sister, my aunt Gail. I was in the garage, as always on the day after Thanksgiving, dragging out carton after carton of Christmas crap, helping Dad turn our house into a local tourist attraction and us, once again, into the laughingstock of Buxton, Massachusetts. Dad handed me down another box from the highest shelf. “Sounds like Gail had the baby,” he said. “You guys finally got a cousin.” “A little late for me to enjoy,” I said. “I’m sure she’ll let you babysit sometime,” Dad said, grinning. He knows how I feel about that job. But then his eyes met mine and his smile faded a little, as if he’d just remembered something important. No doubt he had. I was separating forty strands of lights into two piles—white and multicolored—when Mom came flying through the screen door, her eyes