Out of all we have read in our reviewing from a Christian perspective journey, this ranks high on the list of most concerning. Like many of those books, it is an emotional and heartfelt plea to something that is 100% deception (promotion of transgenderism and related topics), something that truly saddens God’s heart and points deeply to just how much sin has impacted our broken world.

*** Important: This is the content in just the first quarter of the book, see more on why below ***

Sometimes deception is hidden a good bit below the surface in a book. In this one, we as Christian parents get some very clear warning signs before the story even begins. The first of these is actually very telling. There is a small note that this book “Melissa” was previously published under the title “George”. And confusion over what something should rightly be named and called is very fitting here. On close inspection, we see the top of a child’s head sticking out and it is hard to tell if it is a little boy or girl. Again fitting. Then in the reader bio, to add to the confusion of something that should be very straightforward, young readers will see the language they have been taught all their life turned on its head, as they read that “Melissa” (formerly “George”) is “their” first novel and that “they” have several other books, using totally improper pronouns for a singular author.

So, what about the actual story? Young readers will immediately see the main messaging of this one, as we are told, “When people see Melissa, they think they see a boy named George. But she knows she’s not a boy”. Now, look at the cover, think of the intended audience based on that, put yourself in the place of a child that age and then let that single line sink in for a second…

The final main section that we read before feeling we had to stop reading came when young readers read the following (remember the audience): “George had seen an interview on television… with a beautiful woman named Tina… The interview said that Tina had been born a boy, then asked if she had had ‘the surgery’. The woman replied that she was a transgender woman and that what was between her legs was nobody’s business but hers and her boyfriend’s”. It goes on, “So George knew it could be done. A boy could become a girl. She had since read on the internet that you could take girl hormones that would change your body, and you could get a bunch of different surgeries if you wanted them and had the money. This was called transforming. You could even start before you were 18 with pills called androgen blockers that stopped the boy hormones from turning into a man’s”. Again, really let that sink in. The author is doing everything short of offering to guide your child very young children through this process... all delivered in a “heartfelt” story. This is so incredibly heartbreaking.

Throughout this book young readers are barraged by this ultra confusing and incredibly harmful language. They read lines like the following:

• When taking a bath, “She immersed her body in warm water and tried not to think about what was between her legs, but there it was bobbing in front of her”
• At dinner George desperately wants to say, “Mom, what if I’m a girl”
• George isn’t permitted to try out for the lead female role in a play “because she’s a boy”
• “George had to steady herself”
• “her” and “she” gets used for George
• “Boys didn’t like George, and George wasn’t so sure what she thought about them, either”.
• “Playing a girl part wouldn’t really be pretending, but George didn’t know how to tell Kelly that”
• “George thought for a moment about kissing a boy, and the idea made her tingle”
• The author uses George’s friend Kelly to make a big deal that in Shakespear’s day men played all parts, even the kissing scenes
• “Mr. Mitchell was her dad’s name, but it would never be hers”

Much worse though than just overall confusion caused is just the indoctrination into the extremely harmful current secular viewpoint on this whole topic, delivered in an extremely heartfelt and emotional package. We see mean bullies picking on George to really get our sense of justice riled up. We see through the eyes of poor George who just wants to be who he “really is” (“she was a girl and no one knew it”). This book (and other like it) feel like very effective propaganda aimed at children.

Sin always breeds more sin. As we always see in books like this where there is a major area of sin highlighted as good, many offshoots will present themselves as well. As you read these examples, PLEASE keep in mind the audience attracted by the cover design as well as the fact that this is only the content from the first quarter of the book):

• George has a secret stash of girl magazines he keeps hidden from his mom and brother (we hear of articles like, “How to tell a hottie you like him”)
• George’s brother Scott needs to use the bathroom while George is hiding in there looking at his magazines. Brother later apologizes, “sorry if I busted in on you while you were taking a dump”. When George says he wasn’t, Scott guesses that he had “a dirty magazine”. To make this much worse Scott, who clearly is meant to represent macho manliness here in contrast to George, celebrates this discovery, “My little bro! Growing up and looking at dirty magazines”. The icing on the cake is when Scott reassures George, “Don’t worry. I won’t tell mom”.
• Scott goes on about a horror movie he is excited to see with some detail given
• As you would probably expect, George’s parents are divorced, as well as his best friend’s parents. Sadly we see another example of the very common in kids books “it’s better for everyone” type argument when we read that “Dad made a better part-time father than a full-time one”.
• Kelly disrespectfully corrects her father, “Didn’t I tell you to knock first”

All this within only the first quarter of the text. And there is certainly MUCH more. Read this comment from one of the other reviews we include below: “This is age-inappropriate to the point of being straight-up creepy. I know that since it’s about a transgender person, everyone on the liberal side feels compelled to say how great it is, but come on … porn references, talking about chopping off genitals, kids trying on each other’s underwear … even if you want to support transgender people surely at some point there must be a line where you acknowledge the sexual topics are just too adult for a third grader!”. Another review add some additional concerns that come later, references to porn and children clearing their browser history to avoid parents finding what you are looking for.