George by Alex Gino, 195pp, RL 4

This Review Originally Appeared on 9/14/15 George by Alex Gino is a groundbreaking, vitally important, perfectly written addition to the shelves of children's literature. George is the story of ten-year-old George Mitchell who knows she is a girl, in spite of physical appearances. Over the course of the story, George struggles with what she knows to be true and wanting to tell the people in her life this truth. I came to George , after reading laudatory reviews and interviews, expecting a novel with the character development, layering and emotional power of RJ Palacio's Wonder and found myself initially disappointed. George is a quiet story, told simply. As I read into the story, I realized that, in their ( Gino prefers to use the singular pronoun "they") writing style, Gino had transported me into the mind of a ten-year-old. George doesn't know everything that I know (which is not much, admittedly) about gender in the 21st century. George does