On November 7, 2024, I binge-ordered a bunch of books from banned lists – not sure why I remember the date of that order so clearly…. Anyway, my hope was to collect books that I wanted to be sure my daughter has access to, and since I haven’t read many of them myself, I’m planning to alternate them between my usual mysteries, fantasy, and sci-fi. Melissa is the first book from our new banned book collection that I’ve read.
Melissa is geared toward middle-grade kids so it’s relatively short and the story straight-forward. Melissa aka George was identified as a male at birth but knows herself to be a girl, and the author does a spectacular job of introducing us to Melissa as she is before gradually revealing how she is seen by the world. There is so much that Melissa feels – isolation, insecurity, a desire for acceptance – that is common to anyone who’s been through middle school, and it’s impossible not to sympathize with her even if you’ve never felt this at odds with your own body.
I really appreciated how simple the book kept things. It is honest about the struggles and negativity a trans kid faces in their every day life while also creating a positive picture of how small changes can make a child’s life beautiful. The author doesn’t get into the political hot topics – they simply remind us that Melissa is a child and that she deserves to be loved as she is.
As a glutton for punishment, I checked out the Goodreads reviews and the TERFs are loud, angrily decrying that wanting to wear a skirt doesn’t make Melissa a girl as women are not defined by clothing. This is a book written for children and no child would read this book and get that message – it is only there if you’re looking for it because you demand exclusivity for your brand. No one in the book gets hormones or has a body part chopped off or anything remotely like Fox News hysteria but you’d never know that from the reviews.
I hope that my daughter will read this book soon. Whether or not she knows any trans kids (she does know some adults although I’m not sure she knows they are trans), it’s a lovely reminder of how (and why) to empathize with those different from us. I also recommend it for adults who grew up never realizing that this was a reality some of our peers were living. Don’t read the Goodreads reviews but do learn a lesson from them – if you don’t understand something, put your own motivations aside for a second and listen.