George by Alex Gino (review)

Fourth-grader George has a problem: everybody considers her a boy, but she knows she’s really a girl, although she hasn’t yet told anyone this realization. When her class plans to put on a theatrical version of Charlotte’s Web, she gets an idea: if she rejects the boy’s roles and instead plays the girl’s role of Charlotte, then it will be apparent to all—classmates, her teacher, her mother—that she’s a girl. When her teacher sternly forbids George’s consideration for a girl’s part, George and her friend Kelly concoct a scheme to get George onstage as Charlotte nonetheless. George’s plight is keenly conveyed, and Gino sets it out in terms easily understandable to contemporary elementary-schoolers; crass but affectionate older brother Scott is a solid anti-authoritarian authority who capably demonstrates low-key acceptance while providing some voice for those surprised by George’s secret. However, the writing is sometimes awkward and the book treats the Charlotte plan with perplexing seriousness, given its obvious flaws (surely Charlotte’s most salient characteristic is her species, not her gender; wouldn’t Fern be a more effective role?); most characters are generally flat and directive, shifting instantly from opposition to support to maximize the book’s climax. Despite the book’s flaws, this is one of the more approachable books about transgender kids and one of the few aimed at younger readers, and its emotional depiction of George’s quandary will likely elicit reader sympathy.