And She Was

And She Was by Jessica Verdi
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

This book was a great read! It was thought provoking and engaging.

Dara is an 18 year old tennis player who is ready to start doing tournaments. She asks her mom for her birth certificate, but she says she can't find it. Dara does her own searching and finds a lock box under her mom's bed with the birth certificate, some pictures, and some bottles of pills. When she confronts her mom, Dara cannot believe what her mom is telling her.

Dara's mom, Mellie, used to be her dad. Dara's birth mom died when Dara was 6 months old. Dara is shocked, not that her mom was transgender, but that she lied to her for 17 years. Dara and her best friend Sam journey to find her birth mother's (Celeleste) parents. On their trip Dara has to work through her thoughts and feelings. Through a series of emails, Mellie tells Dara her story from the beginning. She shares her struggles, tribulations and her love for Dara and Celeste. Dara meets her grandparents, and at first, thinks she has found everything she needs, but soon realizes that Mellie did what she felt was best for Dara.

This book does an amazing job answering questions about being transgender or having a transgender parent for readers who have never experienced it. Verdi does a amazing job of discussing Marcus' struggle with being who he felt he was on the inside but not on the outside, and realizing how important it was to transition to Mellie. She also shows different reactions and levels of acceptance and bias. This book should be in every library!


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DNF- without the Guilt!

So, at TLA, I meet an author. The author was very personable, relatable, and very excited about their debut novel. So excited, that I could not wait to read it. I was not impressed with the cover, but once I talked to the author, it made sense. I finally got a copy of the book, and put all my other TBR books on hold. I WAS SO EXCITED! Then I started reading...I tried. I really tried! The book was not great. The writing was not good. The characters were one dimensional. It was breaking my heart. I talked to a friend of mine, whom I knew was also excited to read this book, and we commiserated over how bad the book was.  She made me realize that it is ok to stop reading a book. Most of my reading is done so that I can put great books in my students hands, and I realized that this book is not one that I would give them. Not when there are so many other books out there that fit the same niche or genre, but are written better.
I thought back to when I was teaching sixth grade, and worked hard to build a reading culture in my classroom. Self-choice is such an important part of becoming a lifelong reader, and I always taught my kids that if they read some of a book and realized it was not for them, it was ok to switch books. So know, it is ok to abandon a book, it is what good readers do.