Wandering Son by Takako Shimura
We didn't read this for class but I read it earlier this year when I went on a small graphic novel binge. I really think this book has a lot of potential for being a good piece of children's literature that has trans* protagonists (!!! plural!) and is entertaining and warm on its own merits, rather than hyperfocusing on the Issue. Wandering Son is about a boy who wants to be a girl, who meets and eventually befriends a girl who wants to be a boy. It's charming and I HIGHLY recommend it.
Another reason it appeals to me is that I think it's an example of manga that has significant crossover appeal for adults, which seems counterintuitive in some ways--why should I care that it appeal to adults, after all! But the art and the story have this understated elegance, and it really gets across in what feels to me to be an authentic depiction of childhood that dissonance between the mundane concerns of family and school and fitting in and this giant, consuming secret that these kids don't feel like they can talk to anyone about. It handles adolescent friendships really well, too. The art is often stark, the dialogue and narration spare, and it really feels like a book full of silences, while still feeling hopeful and engaged--the silence is not desolate, it is far more complex than that. The expressions conveying Shuichi's (nonverbalized) emotions about the gift of feminine hairclips from a classmate who reacts well to learning part of his secret, the way the genderswapped production of the Rose of Versailles in the kids' school reflects on their moments of difficulty and their desires and fears, as well as social interactions. I'm really looking forward to future volumes.
Also, because I'm a bookseller, I notice things like packaging. This book is being produced in America by Fantagraphics, who tend to do alternative-esque, tending more toward literary comics and graphic novels for an adult audience. The packaging reflects that, with its avant-garde typesetting on the cover, the fact that it is bound in high-quality hardcover format, the striking color against a black-and-white background. I am hoping this title wins awards, and I think it's an excellent choice to give to young people who ask for resources on gender identity. It confronts identity head-on without ignoring other aspects of a child's life, and the art is approachable and comforting. I'm glad to see manga of this literary quality to round out the more popular manga we see so much of (not that there's anything wrong with that! But it's good to have variety).