George by Alex Gino

George

by Alex Gino

Image Credit: George at alexgino.com

1. Bibliography

Gino, Alex. George. New York: Scholastic, 2015. ISBN 9780545812573

2. Plot Summary

When people look at George, they see a boy. But George 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. GEORGE is a candid, genuine, and heartwarming middle grade about a transgender girl who is, to use Charlotte’s word, R-A-D-I-A-N-T! (Summary Credit: George at alexgino.com)

3. Critical Analysis

George was an easy character with whom you can quickly relate because she is like any child you might meet. Gino does a good job taking us through several different stages of anxiety a transgender child has to go through. The book begins with George mistrusting who she is, how people see her while yearning to be who she feels. And when she finally feels brave enough, thanks to the help of her friend, Kelly, George admits to those who she hopes will care to listen: "I'm a girl." She pulls her confession deep from the pit of her heart, where readers had watched it simmer since chapter one, and presents it, first, to Kelly, her mother, and her older brother. And as she shows herself to others she must deal with evidence of disgust, rejection, bullying, and confusion. But George is able to find contentment in the acceptance she gains from those she loves. Her big brother, Scott has the ability to sense George's distress and attempt to cheer her up with video games paired with his typical teenage response to her admission ("Weird. But it kinda makes sense. No offense, but you don't make a very good boy."). George's mom struggles to understand her transgender daughter. There was no "Ah Ha" moment or hand-holding around the dinner table. There was rejection, frustration, trepidation for her child’s future, but, most importantly, always love. Kelly is the model "best friend" character. She was constantly happy for George and always supportive. And when George was mad and lashed out at poor Kelly due to her own feelings of hurt and frustration, it was understandable. They are kids, after all. There's a substantial section of the book where they're not speaking to each other and George is sad and lonely without her best friend. Yet, their make-up scene is incredibly short. Kelly quickly forgives George and is all excited and happy to help her again.  Since the setting is at home and school, it provides the opportunity to introduce classmates reactions to George’s coming out.  You see both the classic bully response like Jeff but also some positive reactions from classmates and cast mates.

Multicultural markers do not jump out at you like they do in some multicultural children’s literature; especially since this culture does not have its own celebrations, music, food or language. But, with that said, every time George refers to how hard it is to be a girl in a boy’s body, it is a cultural reference for the transgender community. The first such reference in the story is when George takes her stash of “girl” magazines in the bathroom to look at pictures of the girls she wishes she could be, brushes her hair down on her forehead like bangs and reads the articles on how to apply makeup. In class, she cries when Charlotte dies and her teacher calls her a “fine young man”. When George goes to the restroom to compose herself, the bathroom is blue (for boys) and at the end of the day, she has to line up in the boys' line. When it is time to audition for the school play, she admits to her friend that she wants to play Charlotte. When her friend says it should be alright because acting is pretending, George thinks “playing a girl part wouldn’t really be pretending” and when Kelly tells her that in Shakespeare’s day boys always played girls and even kissed on stage, this makes George tingle. Her mom calls her “Gee Gee”, she wears a towel under armpits after a bath and when they had to pick a color that represents them she wants to be pink. And, when she’s thinking in her head “what if I’m a girl”, Kelly is saying “it’s not like you want to be a girl.” When all the stress builds up and George has a really good cry she says she’s crying about crying in class about Charlotte dying, being mad at Kelly, Ms. Udell thinking that trying out for Charlotte was a joke and “crying about myself”.  When George’s mother finds her hidden magazines, her mother’s first reaction is, “I don’t want to find you wearing my clothes.”

When Scott is consoling George with video games; George plays with Toad but wishes he were the Princess (which she plays when she is alone).  Scott asks if George is having “Girl Problems?” After George gets in a fight and is called to the principal’s office, the principal has a rainbow flag and George gets the first inkling that she has allies.  One of the reason’s George wants to play Charlotte is so that her mom finally sees that she is a girl.  When Kelly finally calls her a girl, George feels a tickling in her stomach.  And, after she tells her brother he said he thought George was “like that” and that George finally made sense to him for the first time.  At the end of the play, George felt that even though Charlotte was dead, she felt alive in a way she had never imagined and at the curtain call she curtsied.  After the play, the principal tells her mother “you can’t control who your children are, but you can certainly support them.”  When George gets back to her room she twirled around and around like a spider dancing in a web.  Kelly gets the idea to take George to the zoo as “best girlfriends” and George becomes Melissa.  We find out that when George was young she was caught wearing moms skirt and that she always wanted to be a ballerina.  After she gets dressed up at Kelly’s house, she looked in the mirror and gasped and Melissa gasped back at her. When Kelly pulls out a bucket of shoes, George says that she didn’t know that Kelly was such a girly girl. And, her uncles comments that “you girls are dressed mighty fancy for the zoo.”  At which, a wave of warmth filled Melissa from deep in her belly and out her fingers and toes.

I greatly endorse George to book lovers of all ages. With its plain writing style, it is much easier to relate to the emotions of the characters. Nothing is overstated or exaggerated to impart a message. Alex Gino delivers a great story that both warms the heart and opens the mind. I only wish that George was required or suggested reading in many schools. 

4. Review Experts

~Stonewall Award

~Kirkus Reviews: “George, a fourth-grader who knows she is a girl, despite appearances, begins to tell her secret. The word “transgender” is used midway through, but far more work is done by the simple choice to tell George’s story using third-person narration and the pronouns “she” and “her.” Readers then cringe as much as George herself when bullies mock her or—perhaps worse—when well-meaning friends and family reassure her with sentiments like “I know you’ll turn into a fine young man.” Each year the fourth-graders at George’s school perform a dramatized version of Charlotte’s Web, the essentials of which are lovingly recapped (and tear-inducing ending revealed) for readers unfamiliar with the tale. George becomes convinced that if she plays Charlotte, her mom will finally see her as a girl. George’s struggles are presented with a light, age-appropriate, and hopeful touch. The responses she gets when she begins to confide in those closest to her are at times unexpected but perfectly true-to-character—most notably her crude older brother’s supportive observation that, “No offense, but you don’t make a very good boy.” A coda to Charlotte’s Web story, in which George presents herself as a girl for the first time, is deeply moving in its simplicity and joy. Warm, funny, and inspiring.”

~School Library Journal: “Melissa is like many other fourth-grade girls; she loves fashion magazines, experimenting with hairstyles, and talking with her best friend. But the outside world sees her as the gender to which she was born, not the one with which she identifies; they see her as George. Nailing the younger middle-grade voice, Gino offers a straightforward and authentic story, crafting a character whose universal need for recognition and acceptance will be embraced by all readers.”

5. Connections

Gather for classroom reading, the follow-on book by Alex Gino:

            You Don’t Know Everything, Jilly P! ISBN 0545956242

Read other winners of the Stonewall Award, these might include:

            Colbert, Brandy. Little & Lion. ISBN 0316349003

            Slater, Dashka. The 57 Bus: A True Story of Two Teenagers and the Crime That Changed Their Lives. ISBN 0374303231

            Riordan, Rick. Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard: The Hammer of Thor. ISBN 1423163389

            Charlton-Trujillo, e.E. Fat Angie. ISBN 9780763680190

            Cronn-Mills, Kirstin. Beautiful Music for Ugly Children. ISBN 9780738732510

Read other books with similar themes, these could include:

            Ewret, Marcus. 10,000 Dresses. ISBN 1583228500

            Polonsky, Ami. Gracefully Grayson. ISBN 1484723651

Palacio, R.J. Wonder. ISBN 0375969020

Use in a unit about bullying and allies