The Pants Project by Cat Clarke 267 pages

Liv is 11 years old.  Liv is starting a new school.  A school with a very strict dress code, including that girls must wear skirts.  There's one big problem with this.  Liv is not a girl.  Finding a way to tell her moms that she is trans is hard enough without discovering that her best friend is more interested in being popular than being her friend anymore.  One thing that Liv absolutely cannot let go is getting the stupid dress code changed.  Why can't people dress in the clothes that make them feel like themselves?  Liv finds unlikely friends and the end of the book is not just hopeful, but really lovely.  The nice thing about this book was that, while it dealt with the issue of transgender, it wasn't so unrealistically optimistic as Gino's George.  This had a much more believable timeline for its characters.  I loved it.  I thought that Liv was a truly cool and strong character, and I appreciated the message that we are who we are and that's something we should all appreciate.

George by Alex Gino 195 pages

This is a lovely book that dealt with a topic most readers don't usually get to read about.  The main character, George, is a 9-year-old child who was born a boy, but has always felt like she is really a girl.  The use of pronouns was a very powerful tool to drive home that this is who George is.  She feels this way, she loves these things, she wants to be Charlotte in the school play of Charlotte's Web.   It had a sensitive approach to it without being saccharine.  The only thing that might have been a little unrealistic was the glossing over of negative reactions.  This is how I would like to see children able to express themselves, it is not the reality of anyone I have ever personally known.  There were no moments in this book where I felt this would be unsuitable for a young audience either.  In fact, it will quite possibly be very helpful for kids who have friends or who themselves are questioning how to let the world know that the person they appear to be is not the person they are.  I really hope that this book can help someone be more comfortable and content in themselves.  I loved this book.