Book Rec: Parrotfish

Angela Katz-McNair has never felt quite right as a girl. Her whole life is leading up to the day she decides to become Grady, a guy. While coming out as transgendered feels right to Grady, he isn't prepared for the reaction he gets from everyone else. His mother is upset, his younger sister is mortified, and his best friend, Eve, won't acknowledge him in public. Why can't people just let Grady be himself?

Grady's life is miserable until he finds friends in some unexpected places -- like the school geek, Sebastian, who explains that there is precedent in the natural world (parrotfish change gender when they need to, and the newly male fish are the alpha males), and Kita, a senior who might just be Grady's first love.



The Good:
"Issue" books like this can come across as preachy, but this one manages to express the problems transgender teens face without being obnoxious about it. It does this with a decent plot and a variety of different characters. Sebastian is my favourite because he's such a little geek.

The Meh:
It feels short. I finished it in under 3 hours and I reached the ending feeling like I hadn't had enough time to get to know the secondary characters.

The Picky:
Contemporary books don't have much of a choice because this is how modern life is for most teens, but I still don't like books that take place in school. It gives me the impression I'm reading the same book over and over again.

Overall:
Books like this are important. They can help confused teens understand themselves a little better and help everybody else understand what being transgendered means and how hard it can be. People who already know about transgenderism and associated issues may not find it especially engrossing though.