Community Reviews
I absolutely love that Alex Gino writes books intended for a middle grade audience but specifically writes about characters that many children probably don't see in other books! In this story, we meet Green Gibson who identifies as non-binary. We do see some characters return from previous books as they are all part of the rainbow spectrum club but this book focuses on Green and his identity. The world is changing but many still do not fully understand what it means for someone to identify as non-binary. This becomes even more of conversation when the school decides to perform The Wizard of Oz where all characters are either male or female. What does this mean for someone like Green?
In addition to this story line, Green is also dealing with two other major dilemmas: crushing on a boy who they aren't sure is straight or not and debating whether or not to start hormone blockers. Once again, these are dilemmas that many other adolescents might be dealing with today and Gino writes this story with a lot of heart and information. Many students will learn a lot from this book whether or not everything applies to them.
This story is not as in-depth as Melissa or Rick but it is still a great piece of queer middle grade fiction. One thing that this books stresses in many different ways is that we don't all fit into neat boxes or even labels, and who you are is more important than what you are. This book really puts out the message that we must love our bodies and our personalities as they are since we are all special and unique and putting a label on ourselves isn't always what is best for us. Thank you Alex Gino for another wonderful book for middle graders on a very important topic.
Quotes I Love:
"And maybe I'm not the one who should say it. Sometimes working in alliance means passing other people the mic" pg. 26
"It's not that nonbinary people should get to play both boys and girls. It's that all the roles are of boys and girls. Which is pretty much saying the rest of us never get to be a part of the story" pg. 46
"Having everyone stare at you because you were doing something cool was way better than when they stared because they were trying to figure out what you were" pg. 60
"Green thought about people who couldn't say that they were queer, not because they didn't know, but because it wasn't safe. They had to hide whether they wanted to or not. Green wondered what people who weren't sure whether they were queer did if they didn't have a safe place to ask questions and try out possibilities. Probably nothing. They probably never got to explore who they really were. When Green thought about it that way, what people call themselves mattered a whole lot less than who they wanted to spend time with" pg. 202
In addition to this story line, Green is also dealing with two other major dilemmas: crushing on a boy who they aren't sure is straight or not and debating whether or not to start hormone blockers. Once again, these are dilemmas that many other adolescents might be dealing with today and Gino writes this story with a lot of heart and information. Many students will learn a lot from this book whether or not everything applies to them.
This story is not as in-depth as Melissa or Rick but it is still a great piece of queer middle grade fiction. One thing that this books stresses in many different ways is that we don't all fit into neat boxes or even labels, and who you are is more important than what you are. This book really puts out the message that we must love our bodies and our personalities as they are since we are all special and unique and putting a label on ourselves isn't always what is best for us. Thank you Alex Gino for another wonderful book for middle graders on a very important topic.
Quotes I Love:
"And maybe I'm not the one who should say it. Sometimes working in alliance means passing other people the mic" pg. 26
"It's not that nonbinary people should get to play both boys and girls. It's that all the roles are of boys and girls. Which is pretty much saying the rest of us never get to be a part of the story" pg. 46
"Having everyone stare at you because you were doing something cool was way better than when they stared because they were trying to figure out what you were" pg. 60
"Green thought about people who couldn't say that they were queer, not because they didn't know, but because it wasn't safe. They had to hide whether they wanted to or not. Green wondered what people who weren't sure whether they were queer did if they didn't have a safe place to ask questions and try out possibilities. Probably nothing. They probably never got to explore who they really were. When Green thought about it that way, what people call themselves mattered a whole lot less than who they wanted to spend time with" pg. 202
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