Who's out there?

February 5, 2008 8:18 AM

Children/young adult literature with transgendered characters?

I'm wondering if any folks know of children's and/or young adult books, short stories, movies, etc. that include transgendered characters. The actual word may not necessarily appear, but often (especially if you've read adult books on the topic or been otherwise involved with the TG community) you learn to see the signs.

A recent example: I was leafing through this month's Cricket magazine and spotted a story by Nancy Springer called "Girl Wears Tie, Says Hi." The girl in question was clearly more than just a "tomboy"--and the portrayal was lovely and sympathetic. I showed it to my TG family member and she broke down in tears, saying that such a thing never would have been around ten years ago. (Actually, I just discovered that this story was a reprint from the 1996 Cricket, so she's wrong--which gives me even more hope for my question!) A few days later I spotted a character in Lauren Child's Clarice Bean, Don't Look Now who gave me pause (girl named Stan who mostly wore boys' clothes). Again, a well-treated character whose choices weren't considered a big deal.

Now I'm starting to wonder who else might be out there. I'm especially interested at this point in anything about male-to-female TG characters, since I'm mostly seeing female-to-male so far (I suspect that they're more publicly palatable, much like "lesbian chic"). I'm very familiar with Julie Anne Peters's excellent novel Luna, and I understand that she has also published a short story collection that includes at least one story about a transgender teen.

Audience age doesn't make a huge difference at this point--I suspect we'll be wanting this stuff for a long time, since the kids in my family get some very nasty messages about transgenderism from fundie branches of the family, and the more we can counteract them, in as many ways as possible, the better. Books like the Clarice Bean book in which the TG character is sort of incidental might actually be best; we're almost more interested in normalizing the experience rather than making it a huge issue.

Thanks much.

posted by dlugoczaj to media & arts (24 answers total)

Hmm.. George in the Nancy Drew novels seems, in retrospect, to have been much more than a tomboy.

Yes, I read Nancy Drew as a kid.

And yet, coming out to my parents surprised them...
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 8:22 AM on February 5, 2008

I just saw the movie, "Bruno" where the main character is a little boy who likes to wear dresses. He is quite victorious at the end though the movie goes through some tough scenes where he and his mom are teased and humiliated.
posted by pinksoftsoap at 8:42 AM on February 5, 2008

Ma Vie en Rose (My Life in Pink): Ludovic is a young boy who can't wait to grow up to be a woman. When his family discovers the little girl blossoming in him they are forced to contend with their own discomfort and the lack of understanding from their new neighbors. Their anger and impatience cave and Ludovic is sent to see a psychiatrist in the hopes of fixing whatever is wrong with him. A movie that addresses trans-gender and gender issues in general through the eyes of a child.
posted by kidsleepy at 8:49 AM on February 5, 2008 [1 favorite]

Keep an eye on the fabulous blog Worth the Trip, which explores any and all queer themes and characters in books for young readers.

It's non-fiction but the young adult anthology The Full Spectrum has a few personal essays by trans kids. One is by the sister of a trans kid and I found it really touching.

Also check out the books of Ellen Wittlinger. Her newest book was just reviewed by Worth the Trip, but for this question Parrotfish seems to really fit the bill.
posted by lampoil at 9:15 AM on February 5, 2008 [1 favorite]

Trans Young Adult fiction picks from The Advocate.
posted by Ambrosia Voyeur at 9:20 AM on February 5, 2008

Isn't there a transgendered character in Fruits Basket? My 12-year-old daughter is reading the series, and I seem to remember her saying something about that.
posted by MrMoonPie at 9:32 AM on February 5, 2008

Yes, Fruits Basket has a TG character or two.

Another anime that might be worth checking out is Tokyo Godfathers (as in "people who take care of children", not "people who are in the mafia"). It's somewhat dark, with some violence & adult themes, but
it's also PG-13, so it should be fine for older/more mature kids. I thought that Hana (the male-to-female TG character) was great, a very complex and empathetic character. Also a very Japanese character, so this movie might give the kids a glimpse at gender relations in other cultures, as well.
posted by vorfeed at 10:01 AM on February 5, 2008

Dykes to Watch Out For is not aimed at children, and has a healthy dose of bare breasts and sex jokes. However, the character Jonas is a 13 year old bio-boy who undergoes a very sympathetic and sweet transition to a Hello Kitty and Britney Spears obsessed girl named Janis.

The collection Invasion of Dykes to Watch Out For has a healthy chunk of the Janis storyline in it.
posted by Juliet Banana at 10:22 AM on February 5, 2008

Perin in Meg Cabot's Princess Diaries series seems to be leaning transgender.
posted by brujita at 10:59 AM on February 5, 2008

Luna, Julie Anne Peters
posted by misanthropicsarah at 12:06 PM on February 5, 2008

Juliet B--absolutely. I have the entire DTWOF oeuvre, and I've been very fond of the Janis storyline. That one'll be introduced to the kids in a few years.

This is great, keep going.
posted by dlugoczaj at 12:07 PM on February 5, 2008

The Invisibles by Grant Morrison. 100% awesome.
posted by dminor at 12:26 PM on February 5, 2008

Children of Arable is one in a series of sci-fi books about a future world where gender is abolished. (Broadly. I read just the first in the series when I was about 12 and LOVED it, as a gender-oddball. I don't remember what happens in it, and I don't know how I would feel about it now, but definitely check it out.) It's partly an examination of the concept of gender, partly a swashbuckling tale. Here's a short excerpt from the very beginning:

[Your grandmother was a epic hero, with many names, although you only know her by the name Mary.]...your father and his followers could not stand the thought that his sainted mother had a man's name.

Male names, female names - I grew up not knowing there were such things. Male and female were not important principles in our life. To us, the sexual body parts were like a strange and beautiful survival from early evolution. That world we lived in was a paradise, of sorts. Without knowledge of male and female. And your grandmother brought us that knowledge, and was expelled, and now you live in… Well, enough of that.

Names don't matter. Mary, or Martin, or Mariammo was the same person throughout.

Left Hand of Darkness by Ursula LeGuin is a classic sci-fi examination of alternate gendering systems. I must confess when I was a young teen sci-fi fan, I found it a bit wordy and dull
posted by LobsterMitten at 1:06 PM on February 5, 2008

If you're willing to go back a bit and move out of kid lit per se, there're a lot of trans folk in mythology. Tiresias shows up all over.
posted by klangklangston at 1:25 PM on February 5, 2008

Some quick googling has confirmed that I did not dream Bill's New Frock.
posted by greytape at 1:30 PM on February 5, 2008

Peppermint Patty
posted by happyturtle at 1:37 PM on February 5, 2008

Argh. I've been trying for ages to remember the name of a YA book I read when I was a YA. It was about a girl who dressed as a boy so should could work in a ballpark -- selling hotdogs, I think. She totally passes, somehow gets involved with the Mob, and at one point some mobster hires a prostitute for her (thinking that she's a guy, and a virgin). I remember that she used bandages to flatten her breasts.

I can't remember the name, sorry. It would've been in the early 1980s, and was probably one of those Dell paperbacks. (And now I'm wondering just why my parents let me read it...)
posted by The corpse in the library at 1:48 PM on February 5, 2008

Oh! Also, George in the Famous Five, and (sort of) Nancy in the Swallows and Amazons.
posted by The corpse in the library at 1:50 PM on February 5, 2008

Camp (IMDB, Wikipedia) includes a sympathetic mtf/drag-queen teen whose subplot is one of a host of others (some relating to sexuality, some not). In general, Camp handles different sexualities pretty well except for that one part where the female lead gets pissed off and says "there's no such thing as bisexual" and she's never corrected and I have a little chip on my shoulder about that okay. But everything else is good.
posted by booksandlibretti at 2:09 PM on February 5, 2008

If you include stories of girls/women dressing as men to fight or otherwise enter the "man's world", there are loads. Eg: Katherine Paterson has a series on woman warriors in ancient China (her first two books and then Rebels of the Heavenly Kingdom, I think - double check on this); the Lioness series by Tamora Peirce. Both have heroines who dress as men but fall for men they're fighting with. (IIRC)
posted by LobsterMitten at 2:32 PM on February 5, 2008

Hourou Musuko (The transient son) is a very sweet manga about a boy who wants to be a girl, a girl who wants to be a boy, and the reactions of their friends and families.

The link goes to a scanlation, as the books haven't been translated to English, and I doubt they will be.

I also second Tokyo Godfathers.

There are many transgender characters in manga/anime, but few of them go outside the usual stereotypes.
posted by clearlydemon at 7:46 PM on February 5, 2008

Mercedes Lackey's books have several GLTBQ characters; they might be worth checking out. The first trilogy (Heralds of Valdemar) is the best and has a few main characters that are gay and lesbian. I seem to remember her later trilogies having several gender-queer characters....I think the Mage Winds and the Mage Storms are the sets and those would probably be best for what you're looking for. (Also, the Vows and Honor pair has a character who is completely asexual due to a sworn vow of revenge--maybe not what you're looking for they are but some of her better books.)

Like many authors, the earlier books are better and the later books are less well-written and more paid-by-the-word, but all are entertaining and very YA-friendly, especially for teenage girls who like talking magical horses. ;)
posted by min at 8:54 PM on February 5, 2008

OH GOD NO

NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO NO

Mercedes Lackey is horrific tripe of the worst kind. She presents gay relationships as if they're these quasi-holy perfect things, and gays are all perfect, and boy aren't you just the cutest widdle homopets? Who wants a treat?

Christ, please, no.
posted by dirtynumbangelboy at 8:52 AM on February 6, 2008

To be fair, she does it to straight relationships, too -- the lifebond thing makes it sort of inevitable.
posted by booksandlibretti at 11:29 PM on February 6, 2008