George

Book 93 of my 2015 Reading Challenge

read from December 24 - 25

George by Alex Gino

Summary (via Goodreads)

BE WHO YOU ARE.
When people look at George, they think they see a boy. But she knows she's not a boy. She knows she's a girl.
George thinks she'll have to keep this a secret forever. Then her teacher announces that their class play is going to be Charlotte's Web. George really, really, REALLY wants to play Charlotte. But the teacher says she can't even try out for the part . . . because she's a boy.  
With the help of her best friend, Kelly, George comes up with a plan. Not just so she can be Charlotte -- but so everyone can know who she is, once and for all.

My Opinion

I was very interested to see how the topic of being transgender would be handled in a Juvenile Fiction book.  George's behavior when she's alone was a great start, using female pronouns from the beginning and having her lose her nerve a few times before being able to confide in a few close people.  The little stand, wanting to be Charlotte in the play, starts it all and my palms were sweaty as George and Kelly put their plans, both for the play and later for the zoo, into action.

It's a good jumping off point to introduce the possibilities and ideas but once the reveal happens everything felt rushed and the ending was so abrupt.  If the issue was the number of pages, it might have better served the audience to spend less time leading up to the reveal to leave more time for what happened after.