With the recent suicide of the transgender teenager Leelah Alcorn, understanding and awareness of transgender people has increased a little, but the understanding is still not enough. There is a lack of teen fiction that discusses the subject – I guess because it's still not known or accepted as much as people would hope, but this book should change that.
David has always known he was different, hiding under the mask that he's just 'gay' he conceals his real feelings: David wants to be a girl, and on the inside without all the biological matters he feels he is one. The bullies torment him for being different and his two best friends are in a relationship which makes him feel an outsider. A new boy named Leo joins the school and wants to go unnoticed, until he sticks up for David when one of the bullies finds his notebook filled with measurements of the body parts he hopes will not mature and an unexpected friendship forms and the secrets they both wanted to keep - or in some cases not keep - come out.
This is a book that has to be read and has to be talked about; with our society becoming ever more accepting of different types of 'normal' it is important that we don't leave anyone out or exclude any members of the LGBT community because until now, I don't feel like transgender people are spoken about enough, let alone understood.
Williamson has written an amazing debut novel that I'm sure will spark many conversations both on what it really is to be normal and also what it is to be transgender. I hope that it helps kids who are too scared or just don't know what's different about them to stand up and be free, because they deserve it just as much as we do. The book handles things perfectly and has opened up a whole new discussion and place in YA, where everyone is accepted and all people are mentioned. I hope that this book inspires many more because I think everyone could learn a little more about the different types of people we live amongst.
• Buy this book at the Guardian Bookshop.
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