I know. It is a true miracle. This book could not go untalked about though! I read it in about two hours, and I am honestly so happy. This book was so amazing, and cute, and I am going to gush about it more, so let's go!
Title: The Pants Project
Author: Cat Clarke
Expected Publication: March 1st, 2017
Page Numbers: 272 (Hardcover Edition)
Genre: Middle Grade/LGBT+
What I Rated It: 5+
Publishing Company: Sourcebooks Jabberwocky
Favorite Quote: "You were right last night. When you said there's nothing to be ashamed of. No one should ever be ashamed of being who they are."
Goodreads Blurb: My name is Liv (Not Olivia)... I'm not technically a girl.
I'm Transgender. Which is a bit like being a transformer. Only not quite as cool as cool because I probably won't get to save the world one day."
A Transformer is a robot in disguise. Liv is a boy in disguise. It's that simple. Liv knows he was always meant to be a boy, but with his new school's terrible dress code, he can't even wear pants. Only skirts.
Operation: Pants Project begins! The only way for Live to get what he wants is to go after it himself. But to Liv, this isn't just a mission to change the policy- it's a mission to change his life. And that's a pretty big deal.
Disclaimer: I got this book from Net Galley and was no way paid for this review.
Okay so. This book, y'all.
It was truly so amazing and lovely, I loved it so much and I did cry a bit.
The book is about Liv, who is a boy, but he is trans (in the book, Liv is always referred to with she/her pronouns but, continuing to use those pronouns is misgendering so I'm not doing that.) and that means his gender doesn't align with how the doctor incorrectly identified him when he was born. Other people don't know this though, Liv hasn't came out to anyone else, so he is the only person who knows he is a boy.
The book follows Liv's struggle to have the right to wear pants to school, when the dress code says he has to wear skirts because everyone sees him as a girl, and how some people in the school are not exactly accepting of that, and how some aren't accepting of him having two moms, either. In his classmates eyes, he is a "freak", and his best friend, Maisie, doesn't stand up for him either. She thinks he isn't trying hard enough to fit in, and she stops being friends with him because she wants popularity, and she can't have that if she associates with Liv, which is a completely horrible thing. But, along the way, Liv meets Jacob, and him and Jacob become friends, and Jacob helps him with the Pants Project, as Liv calls it. Jacob is the first person Liv tells of him being transgender, and Jacob is very accepting and it was great.
In the end, Liv, Jacob and some of their other friends, challenge the principal and the uniform policy, and they're successful! The policy gets changed and Liv can wear pants to school, and Liv finally comes out to his moms, and his other family members. Everything was good and happy, and cute. And I loved it.
I was skeptical going into this book, you kinda have to be with books that involve trans characters, because a majority of the time, they are written wrong and by people who are cisgender and don't and will never understand, so it's very hard to find a book with a trans character that is inclusive and really well written. This book was those things, and I'm very happy with it.
This whole topic, being trans and coming out and misgendering, hits incredibly close to home and it's such a nice thing to see it represented properly. As I said, a lot of the books with trans characters aren't inclusive, and fit that one trans stereotype, and it's great to see that differ. It's also great to see a middle grade book talk about this, because it's showing that you aren't too young to understand this stuff, and to know who you are, even when people tell you that you're something else, or that you're a freak or disgusting. It's a step towards people not thinking this is wrong or bad and accepting it. A step in the right direction.
So, thank you for this book.
Until next time,
Mal
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