George (novel) facts for kids
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| Author | Alex Gino |
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| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre | LGBT, children's fiction, transgender |
| Published | 2015 |
| Publisher | Scholastic Press |
| Pages | 195 |
| ISBN | 978-0-545-81254-2 |
George is a children's novel about a young transgender girl written by American author Alex Gino. The novel tells the story of Melissa, a fourth-grade girl who is struggling to be herself to the rest of the world. The rest of the world sees Melissa as George, a boy. Melissa uses the class play, Charlotte's Web, to show her mom that she is a girl by switching roles with her best friend, and playing the part of Charlotte.
The novel has been subject to much literary analysis, including articles from the Journal of Children's Literature and the Lambda Literary Review. The articles discuss how Alex Gino uses their novel, George, to fill the void of transgender middle grade literature. Additionally, Gino has a positive impact on both transgender and youth literature.
Scholastic first published the novel on August 25, 2015. Jamie Clayton, a transgender actress, narrated the audio book. After a positive reception from literary sponsors prior to its release, the number of copies to be printed was increased by 15,000.
Alex Gino received largely positive feedback for George, from sources such as the New York Times and the National Public Radio. However, the story's young transgender protagonist, Melissa, was controversial to parents and teachers, which led George to be listed on the American Library Association's list of the 10 Most Challenged Books of 2016, 2017, 2018 and 2019; It topped the list in 2018 and 2019 and ultimately became the fifth-most banned book between 2010 and 2019. Two authors in the Journal of Children's Literature wrote that the book did not accurately represent the struggles of the transgender community because members of the transgender community are criticized for more than just their gender identity.
Contents
Background
Alex Gino wrote George because it "was a book [they] wanted to read" growing up. This book is not exactly based on Gino's life because they are gender-queer, while Melissa is a girl. In addition, they grew up in different environments; unlike Gino, Melissa has access to the internet and more positive representations of the transgender community. Gino also wanted to write George because they noticed a lack of transgender middle-grade literature aimed for 3rd grade to 7th grade. They wanted to fill this need and teach children about these issues. George simultaneously teaches kids to be tolerant of trans people and shows children who are trans that there are other people going through similar experiences.
Gino started their work on George in 2003 before it was published on its August 2015 release date. They needed to make frequent draft revisions to adjust to the changing social environment towards trans people. In the future Gino wants George to become "historical fiction," meaning that in the future, people will wonder why people were opposed to trans people.
George was Gino's first published book. In September of 2019, they published You Don't Know Everything, Jilly P! which discusses the intersection of Deafness and Black Lives Matter movement. They were also featured in the anthologies Our Story Begins and How I Resist. They want to continue writing "progressive middle grade fiction," and address societal issues.
Plot
George by Alex Gino follows Melissa, a transgender girl who her family, and the rest of the world view as George. Melissa is in the fourth grade. Her class is about to begin their production of Charlotte's Web. Auditions are fast approaching, and the class rules are that each girl will audition for the role of Charlotte and each boy will audition for the role of Wilbur, the pig. Melissa wants to audition for the role of Charlotte. When Melissa gets called out into the hall and does her audition as Charlotte, her teacher, Ms. Udell thinks Melissa is making a joke and tells Melissa that she cannot play the role of Charlotte because Ms. Udell sees Melissa as George. Since Melissa does not want to play a role other than Charlotte and Ms. Udell said that was not an option, Melissa takes a role in the stage crew. Meanwhile, at home, Melissa's mom finds her secret collection of female magazines. Melissa's mother views her actions as childish and says that she does not want to see Melissa wearing girl clothing, shoes, or going in her room at all. Back at school, Melissa is still upset with Ms. Udell's reaction to her audition. In addition, she feels distant from her friend Kelly because Kelly got the role of Charlotte. However, as the classes' efforts to prepare for the upcoming production increased, Melissa finds a way to become the "Charlotte" of the stage crew by playing a supportive role for her friend. Inspired by Charlotte's courage, she gains the confidence to tell Kelly that she is a girl. After processing this news, Kelly is supportive of her best friend Melissa, and her efforts to tell the world she is a girl. One afternoon, as the stage crew is working on the set, Jeff, the class bully, says that if he met a talking spider he would step on it. Melissa feels the instinct to protect Charlotte and paints "SOME JERK" on a piece of paper and drops it on Jeff's back, painting his sweatshirt with the words. After Jeff sees the damage, he punches Melissa to punish her for ruining his favorite sweatshirt, causing her to vomit on him. As a result of the fight, both Melissa and Jeff are in trouble with their teachers. However, in the process of getting punished, Melissa discovers that the Principal is sympathetic to transgender people.
Later in the evening, when Melissa's mom questions her about the magazines, Melissa reveals to her mom that she is a girl. Her mom disregards her feelings, crushing Melissa in the process. On the other hand, when Melissa tells her brother Scott that she is a girl, he thinks her feelings match her behavior, and he offers his help and understanding to her. The night before the performance, Kelly and Melissa devise a plan for Melissa to be Charlotte in the play, which will help show the world that she is a girl. Kelly will perform in the morning, and Melissa will perform at the evening show. Melissa does an excellent job performing as Charlotte and receives many compliments for her performance from classmates and the principal. Her mom is initially shocked at this performance but the performance later helps her become a more supportive and understanding mom to Melissa.
After the excitement of the performance, Melissa feels more comfortable with herself. When Kelly invites her to spend the day with her uncle at the zoo, Melissa takes this opportunity to show herself as she chooses because she will be surrounded by people who do not already know her as George. Dressed in Kelly's clothing, she and Kelly happily enjoy the day at the zoo.
Genre
George falls under several genres of literature. The intended reader for George is eight to twelve years old. George is a fictional novel that also falls under the genres of children and LGBTQ+ literature. This novel contributes to the small but growing repertoire of middle-grade literature about gender and sex identity.
Publication
Gino started their work on George in 2003, and the novel underwent several drafts before its August 2015 release. Gino worked closely with editors Jean Marie Stine and with David Levithan from Scholastic Corporation. One of the major edits to Gino's work was the title; the original title was Girl George (a reference to Boy George), but Scholastic changed it to George during the editing process. Prior to George's commercial release, Scholastic sent over 10,000 copies to teachers in the United States which received mixed, but largely positive feedback. The teachers and librarians who opposed the novel argued that children are too young to be discussing these issues. However, the positive feedback convinced Scholastic to increase the first printing order from 35,000 to 50,000.
Scholastic Press and Scholastic UK prints copies of George in both hardcover and softcover. Translated copies can be found in English, Spanish, French, Catalan, Chinese Complex, Danish, Dutch, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Swedish and Vietnamese. Trans woman actress Jamie Clayton narrated the audio book for the novel. Clayton is best known for her starring role in Sense8. Gino felt it was important to have "trans voices to telling trans stories" to make the story feel genuine.
