Dotson: My Journey Growing Up Transgender

Transgender 12-year-old White details his challenges navigating his transition in this affirming autobiographical debut. Beginning with the doctor’s appointment where he would receive his first hormone blockers, White recounts his story through a series of vignettes that chronicle his life, detailing how he knew he was a boy in toddlerhood and spanning to the present day. While recollecting a conversation he had with his mother when he was two years old, he recalls asking her if she could “ask God to make me a boy please?” (To which his mother responds, “Girls are amazing!”) Subsequent events outline his joy at his parents gifting him a shirt from the boys’ section, his emotional tumult at being forced to perform in a tutu for a dance recital, and his euphoria after receiving his first gender-affirming haircut. Concise and youthful prose accompanied by full-page illustrations by Sisson (Persuading Miss Doover), rendered in soft washes of color, portray each triumph, making for a compassionate exploration of one trans child’s experience and the invaluable impact that support has had on his life. White and his family are portrayed with pale skin. Ages 8–12. (Apr.)