A book that encourages individuals who may be afraid and uncomfortable in their own body, to have confidence and express themselves. It also raises awareness on how to support transgender individuals, be a friend, and respect others.
What is this story about?
This book is about a fourth grade girl named Melissa and her journey to finding her true self. Growing up, Melissa struggled in school and at home because she had to hide her true feelings and identity. She had to deal with bullying, not being understood, being an outcast, and being uncomfortable in her own body. Melissa dreamed of being a girl and finds the courage to express herself through the play, Charlotte's Web. Once Melissa plays Charlotte, a girl character, in her school play, she gains more confidence and is able to open up to her family and the rest of the world about her true identity. This leads to Melissa truly feeling free and herself as she changes her name and her outward expression, with the help of her friend Kelly.
Meet the Author:
Alex Gino
"Alex Gino loves glitter, ice cream, gardening, awe-ful puns, and stories that reflect the diversity and complexity of being alive." They are an award winning author writing the books: You Don't Know Everything, Jilly P! and Rick. Alex was born and raised in Staten Island, NY and resides in Oakland, CA. They are an active advocate for the LGBTQIA+ community and was the former co-chair of LGBA at the University of Pennsylvania. Visit their website, http://www.alexgino.com/books/, to find out more about them.
My Critique/Review:
After completing the sketch-sketch about gender before reading this book, I was intrigued to see how gender was going to play a role in the book. When I opened the cover of the book, I saw the huge list of book awards that this book has won, making me even more excited to start reading. This book did not disappoint! It does such a wonderful job of discussing the hot topic of being a transgender, and further creates a story aimed towards children. Like Alex Gino said in the back of the book, until recently, there has not been many resources for children who may feel uncomfortable in their body and having a book like this, gives students an outlet. For this very reason, this book should be a necessity on every teachers' bookshelf. Lastly, this book meets my requirements for a good children's book because it is relatable, one of a kind, shows the value of friendship, and is educational for individuals going through the transgender process, as well as, how family and friends can be supportive.
Thoughts:
A major theme of this book is identity. Throughout this book, Melissa struggles to fully grasp and express her true identity. She is constantly hiding her true self and her thoughts when she hides the magazines, can't write her true thoughts in her journal at school, and not wanting to practice the Charlotte lines for the school play in front of anyone (Gino, 2015). This struggle to find and express your identity is a theme that many children/teens can relate to. Like Melissa, when you are young, you are automatically expected to be a kid, dress, and behave like your gender given to you at birth. For instance, girls typically wear bows and participate in things like dance, while boys play all types of sports when they are young. This makes kids feel stuck and misunderstood like Melissa did in this book. Furthermore, this book relates to kids who may feel scared to come out to their family or friends because of responses like: "You are only ten years old. You don't know how you'll feel in a few years" (Gino, 2015, pg. 129), like Melissa's mother responded when Melissa confided in her. Overall, I think this book provides a very real and relatable story that is a great reference for students who may be going through the same situation.
When thinking about identity in our society, I thought about something I had just read for Dr. Fitts class from the book, Teachers as Allies. This chapter from the book focused on immigrants, the LGBTQIA+ community, and how we can better support and educate these students. It brought up the point that being a transgender is acceptable in many other countries but in Europe and the U.S. specifically, individuals are forced to identity as one of the binary sexes due to society's views.(Ríos Vega & Franeta, 2018). After reading this, it made me stop and really think about what the authors are saying. Living in the U.S. and seeing how progressive the LGBTQIA+ community has become, I just imagined that our society was becoming more accepting and open to individuals expressing themselves how they wish, however, I now better realize that this is not the case. People are still very oppressed in the U.S. and feel that they do not have the same rights. When thinking about this globally, especially with immigration being as big as it is today, I can't imagine how a person feels coming from a country where they can express themselves and be fully welcomed, to coming to a place like the U.S. where they cannot. Lastly, this book brought up the important issue of LGBTQIA+ and teacher education. Ríos Vega and Franeta mentioned: "Educators are not educated about students' multiple issues and identities. Integrating sexual orientation and gender practices more decisively into teacher education programs would add this important cultural dimension to all programs" (2018, pg. 117). I think this is a great point the authors bring up because if we want to become a more accepting and welcoming society, we need to promote this in the classroom. We need to make sure educators are well informed on the issues so they can better educate students, challenge stereotypes, be advocates, and teach students to think critically.
One thing that stood out to me in the book is Melissa's constant mention of the girls and boys line at school. Melissa is very bothered by this because even though she really wants to be a girl and stand in the girls line, she is looked at as a boy due to her gender given at birth. As a future teacher, this is a perfect example of why we shouldn't segregate students by gender. I have never been in a class where students line up in two lines: a boy and girl line, however, I have seen teachers segregate based on gender many times. Whether this is to call boys to line up or to call girls to pack up for the day, gender is a common way that teachers manage students. After reading this book, it is more apparent to me that we need to move away from this and use other descriptive things like shirt color or eye color to better manage the classroom.
When thinking about how to incorporate this book in the classroom, one thing that I think is important to focus on is the big theme: being an ally. In this book, we see characters that are allies to Melissa such as Kelly and the principal Ms. Maldonado. I would start out by discussing with students what it means to be an ally. An ally is someone who stands up for others who are being made fun of or not being treated fairly. I would then have students find areas in the book where characters act as an ally to Melissa and how their actions affected her and the story. I would then have students relate this idea of being an ally to their own lives. Have you ever seen a friend or peer be bullied or treated unfairly? Have you been targeted yourself? What did you do to help your classmate? What could you have done? I think this can start a big discussion on the importance of not being a bystander, being an ally, and will hopefully cut down on the bullying happening in school.
"What do you think about when you hear the word “GENDER”?"
To me, gender means how a person sees themselves and expresses themselves. They may see themselves as male, female, both, neither, or anywhere in between. Expression is shown by what a person wears and what they like to do. So, in my representation, I drew sunglasses and the gender neutral bathroom sign to represent how a person views themselves. Furthermore, I drew girly things like makeup, nail polish, a dress, and a bow, as well as, more masculine/male things like sports, weights, video game controller, and sneakers. I think this idea of expression and how you represent yourself to others stands out the strongest to me when I think of gender. Overall, my views and ideas about gender were definitely shaped from church. Especially this idea of sexual orientation and how people choose to identify has really been a hot topic in society as the LGBTQIA+ community becomes more prominent. From church, I have learned to be open and accepting of how others choose to identify and express themselves, with the big argument that God doesn't make mistakes when he creates a person. So, I think my church and family views have definitely been the biggest influence on my idea of gender, as well as, becoming more educated on the topic and meeting individuals who identify and express themselves in a variety of ways. Lastly, gender norms may play into and affect a person's gender identity. Gender norms are the common ideas that a group, culture, or country has about how someone should act depending on their gender. For example, in some cultures, they believe that a female should stay home, cook, clean, and care for the children. So, these preconceived norms can greatly affect how a person is treated and if they feel comfortable truly expressing themselves.
Making Connections:
One quote that really stands out to me from the professional readings this week is: "part of the inclusion here is recognizing that we need to decenter the faces and voices of cisgender individuals" (Stachowiak, 2018, pg. 30). For those who may not know, cisgender individuals means that your gender and sex match. As teachers, we need to be careful of the books we share with students, acknowledge our own biases, and make representing all voices equally, the forefront of the classroom. In order to create a classroom that recognizing all voices equally, Stachowiak recommends six actions that educators can take. Educators need to first educate themselves on terms and definitions, work through their own biases and beliefs, be proactive not reactive with the activities you choose and how you decorate your classroom, plan to support gender nonconforming students, integrate don't separate curricula, and commit to growing. This article really stood out to me because it gives six reasonable steps, breaks down these steps to make sense, and gives ideas for educators to create a gender-inclusive classroom.
Other books from the gender text set:
Casey, a little boy, loves all things sparkly. Throughout the book, he wears a sparkly skirt, nail polish, and jewelry. His older sister, Jamie, is upset when Casey wants to wear "girl" things because he is not a girl. By the end of the book, she learns to accept her brother and stand up for him when he is teased by other kids for wearing a skirt.
Raffi is a young boy who feels like he does not fit in at school. He doesn't like to play what the other kids a school play and feels different than everyone else. One day, Raffi's teacher teaches him how to knit. Raffi takes an interest in knitting and knits his dad his dad a scarf for is birthday. Raffi continues to be made fun of for knitting, however, once he makes a cape for his class play, all the other kids think it is so cool. Soon, all the kids want something "Made by Raffi".
Useful Links:
Educational resources on the LGBTQIA+ community:
Gender Multimodal text set: https://sites.google.com/view/gendermultimodaltextset/home?authuser=0
Interview with Alex Gino: https://medium.com/@afalck/trans-author-interview-alex-gino-da00eebf1651
Book Review: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SfpPivhDddM
The Boy & The Bindi: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UIquybKDbhY
Diverse classroom library recommendation list: https://www.readingrockets.org/article/diverse-classroom-libraries-k-6-students
Teaching Resources: https://www.teachingbooks.net/tb.cgi?tid=44715
Book Discussion Sets: https://libraries.vermont.gov/sites/libraries/files/bookdiscussionsets17.pdf
Alex in the media: http://www.alexgino.com/alex-in-the-media/
Educator's guide of discussion questions: https://www.scholastic.com/content/dam/teachers/lesson-plans/18-19/George-JillyP-Discussion-Guide.pdf
We Need Diverse Books: https://diversebooks.org
Professional Readings:
Sources:
Alex Gino. Digital image. Reprinted from Medium Books, by Alex Falck, 2019, Web.
Gino, A. (2015) George. New York, NY: Scholastic Inc.
Ríos Vega, J. & Franeta, S. (2018) Teachers as Allies. New York, NY: Teachers College Press.
Stachowiak, D. (2018, July/August). The Power to Include. Literacy Today, pp. 28-30.