Gino, A. (2015).  George.  NY: Scholastic.

George is a story about a transgendered boy who believes he is a girl.  George thinks this a secret he must keep.  When his teacher announces that the class play is going to be Charlotte’s Web, George really wants to play Charlotte, but his teacher tells him he can’t because he is a boy.  The story is one of keeping and expressing secrets.  When he finds a friend in Kelley, he/she is finally able to experiment which who he/she believes he really is.

My research recommends this ext for grades 3 – 8 I’m guessing because of the age of the characters. There are paragraphs, which approach concepts such as taking hormones and gender reassignment surgery that 10 year olds would not understand.  The content is entirely too mature for it’s younger target audience. Teaching in a small rural East Texas school district I am confident that this text would also encounter significant opposition. This text might be useable in more urban districts where LGBT issues are more common.  I personally was uncomfortable with the content, which hindered me somewhat from interacting with the text.  Try as I might I was unable to find a single site that had any recommendations for using this as any type of instructional text.  I think the target audience and characters are way off base on this one.