Cat Clarke

In a few months, Liv effects a major change in his new middle school’s antiquated dress code while simultaneously acquiring the courage to come out as transgender.

From the start, readers are drawn into the story by 11-year-old Liv’s believable, humor-tinged narration: “Little brothers can always be counted on to reach peak levels of annoying at exactly the wrong moment. It must be part of their job description.” Throughout, Liv’s voice is convincing and a pleasure to read. Readers learn that, over the years, Liv has become increasingly less tolerant of being assigned female pronouns and the name “Olivia.” Being required to wear a skirt daily at middle school is the last straw. He—still “she” to others—works to convince the school’s new principal that students should have some choice in clothing, moving from an unsuccessful conversation to an unpromising petition to a brilliantly orchestrated media event. Along the way, he contends with a mean-spirited bully and the loss of a former friend even as he makes new, more loyal friends and wrestles with his own shortcomings. His coming-out to friend Jacob is realistically brief and an enormous relief. Liv’s two moms add further dimension to a tale that unabashedly affirms the importance of accepting and celebrating differences. The book assumes a white default, with ethnicity cued by naming convention.

A fine addition to LGBTQ children’s literature. (Fiction. 9-12)
(Kirkus Review)… (mehr)

Great read -- Liv and his family are excellent characters, and the middle school dynamic feels accurate. Good pacing, moves right along, and I think this is a good vehicle for addressing trans identity for younger readers. I would prefer that there not need to be a hook (coming out in play, protesting uniforms) to portray young trans protagonists, but I'm glad that the books are being written and I think it's a nicely accessible read, appealing to middle grade kids. I could also just be really tired of reading the middle-school-sucks brand of book right now, but that's my issue. Middle school does suck, and middle schoolers need to see themselves and their struggles in their books.… (mehr)

Grace is impulsive, reckless, selfish and a flirt. Just your typical seventeen year old with a fiery temper and hair to match. She doesn't believe in turning down a drink or a kiss from a boy if he's not half bad looking, actually there isn't much she wont say no to, except her mum of course. But while on the outside Grace is doing her best to hide the hurt, on the inside she is desperately trying to hold on to the only two people who mean anything to her.

When Grace left home for the park with a knife in her bag and bottle under her arm she wasn't expecting to ever return, but nor was she expecting to wake, especially not to a white room with white furniture and dressed in a strange white surgical gown. With an abundant of pens and paper available Grace finds little else to do with her days then write. As her story flows the reason behind her kidnapping becomes clear, but when it comes to her life, can she find anything that's worth living for?

Entangled is a unique and intriguing story of a girl struggling with the tangled mess her life has become. A raw yet vibrant story that pulls you in, all the time wondering how a girl could come to be trapped in a white room and how it will ever be possible for her to ever escape. Through the complexities of life, where friendships are destroyed by secrets and relationships are broken by betrayal, the lies holding her life together begin to unravel leaving behind a girl with nowhere left to hide from the truth or from herself.… (mehr)