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Reviewed by: Dotson: My Journey Growing Up Transgender by Grayson Lee White Meg Cornell White, Grayson Lee Dotson: My Journey Growing Up Transgender; illus. by Stephanie Roth Sisson. West Margin Press, 2024 136p Trade ed. ISBN 9781513139333 22. 99 Paper ed. ISBN 9781513141770 13. 99 Reviewed from digital galleys R* Gr. 5-7 Growing up feeling more like his parents' son than their daughter, Grayson Lee White, the twelve-year-old author of this illustrated memoir, started calling himself "Dotson"—a combination of both daughter and son—long before he and his family learned the word for what he was: transgender. In this way, White puts into his End Page 265 own words his trans youth experience, from his earliest memories of drafting his own trans nomenclature and dodging tutu-clad recitals, to his current preteen life, socially transitioned at school and preparing to go on puberty blockers. As White shares, there are people who think he shouldn't want to play football, or cut his hair short, and others tell him that he's a girl "because that's who God made you. " His parents, by contrast, offer only support when Grayson tells them his feelings about being a boy, and his twin sister helps introduce his new name and pronouns to his second-grade classroom. Artfully conveying the privilege of his generally supportive environment at home and school, White also shares the more arduous things he's been through as a trans boy: the unnecessary anxiety of non-inclusive bathrooms, the often-scary repeated process of coming out as trans to friends and crushes, and an exhausting schedule of legal, medical, and administrative work to affirm his gender identity. White arranges his memories insightfully, generously bringing into his experience other kids undergoing transition as well as readers encountering trans issues for the first time. Sisson's affable watercolor illustrations have a warm, outdoorsy palette, inviting the reader to share in Grayson's glee at Spiderman costumes and name-change documents alike. Most impactfully, White's narrative about being able to access support posits a hopeful and necessary vision for trans youth: a world of affirming parents, classrooms, and public institutions that help create, rather than obstruct, trans-boy freedoms. Copyright © 2024 The Board of Trustees of the University of Illinois
Meg Cornell (Tue,) studied this question.