George

Genderqueer writer Alex Gino wrote George in response to an unfulfilled, youthful wish for a positive representation of a transgender person. The novel tells the story of ten-year-old George, who is anatomically a boy, but knows she is a girl. George has won the Stonewall Book Award, the Lambda Literary Award, and the E.B. White Honor.

The novel opens with George sneaking into the bathroom to look at her secret stash of girls’ magazines, concealing them again before her mother and brother return home. Hiding who she really is hurts George deeply, and having the world think she is a boy is frustrating. For example, her teacher, Ms. Udell, tries to reassure her that her tears at the end of Charlotte’s Web will make her into “a fine young man” in the future (15) and gives her a pass to the boys’ bathroom.

George’s main motivation at the outset is to get the part of Charlotte in the school play version of Charlotte’s Web. While her best friend Kelly is supportive, she does not understand that George wants the part not merely for the chance to pretend to be a girl on stage but to instead show the world who she really is. Ms. Udell definitely doesn’t understand: When George auditions for the play, the teacher views George’s delivery of Charlotte’s lines as a joke (70). As a result, a devastated George refuses all of the play’s masculine parts and ends up in the crew.

George achieves a measure of peace when she takes the job of stagehand to Charlotte, who is to be played by her friend Kelly. However, when the class bully, Jeff, taunts her, George takes revenge by branding the back of Jeff’s t-shirt with the phrase “Some Jerk” (116). Jeff then proceeds to beat George until she vomits, and George winds up in the school principal’s office. The principal lets George off with a warning and summons her mother. Just before she leaves the office, George glimpses a sign promoting safe spaces for LGBT children and wishfully dreams of a place where “there would be other girls like her” (125).

Back at home, George’s mother and brother have noticed her magazine collection. They conclude that she is gay. George is able to come out as a girl to her brother but not yet to her mother, who is suddenly reserved with her daughter.

Later, Kelly, in whom George has also confided, has an idea for how George can reveal her true identity. She suggests that George step in and play Charlotte in the second performance of the play. George has been rehearsing Charlotte’s role along with Kelly, so she gives an excellent performance. However, in the audience, George’s mother appears confused and melancholic.

At home, in a final confrontation, George tells her mother the truth: that she is really a girl. When her mother protests that it will be difficult for George to be so different from what is conventionally considered normal, George affirms how difficult it is for her to go through life pretending to be a boy. The two achieve some sort of truce, with her mother accepting the truth and suggesting that they both see a therapist to adjust to this change.

In the novel’s conclusion, George gets the chance to show the world who she really is once more. She and Kelly take a trip to the zoo with Kelly’s Uncle Bill, both dressed in typical girls’ clothing. George, who introduces herself by her formerly “private” name, Melissa, is delighted and feels that her real life is just beginning (168).