A moving novel-in-verse about a two-mom family, their magical bookshop, and one child who comes out as nonbinary, told through the eyes of their sibling.
Annie loves her moms’ magical bookshop, which sets out books on the counter in anticipation of the right reader who will come in to find them. One day, however, a book appears that none of the customers seem to want. The book with the yellow and purple cover sits there day after day.
Annie is puzzled by the book that continues to sit there, and the bookshop itself seems stressed. Or is it the financial struggles that the business seems to be having? Annie isn’t sure, and her moms’ secret arguments and sister’s odd moods add to her ongoing anxiety, which manifests sometimes as selective mutism, where she cannot speak (a condition also shared by author Meg Grehan). Her older sister has always been there to support her, though, even suggesting the family learn sign language so that Annie can still communicate when she can’t talk out loud.
Annie tries to get the rest of the family to tell the public that the bookshelf is magical, thinking this will bring in customers, but they seem scared of what will happen. Annie’s own attempts are met with disbelief.
When Annie asks her Mum one day what the curious lonely book is about, her mum says that it’s about gender. She explains that gender doesn’t just mean boy or girl, but that sometimes the gender someone is given at birth isn’t the right one, and that means the person is transgender. Other times, people “feel like they exist somewhere in the middle,” and are nonbinary. Annie reads it and finds it “fascinating,” because “It made the world feel/Bigger”—a lovely encapsulation of how an expanded view of gender can be a joyous thing for all of us.
Eventually (and this isn’t a really spoiler because it’s in the publisher’s book description), we see that Annie’s older sibling has read the book, too, and this helps them come out as nonbinary. They choose the name Charlie and they/them pronouns. The book, it turns out, had been waiting for them.
After this, the family makes an effort to share the bookshop’s secret with customers, and to extend the kindness and tolerance that they’ve learned. Customers (including at least one other queer couple) feel more at home there, now; the shop seems happier; and the family’s love is stronger than ever.
Grehan’s words are as lyrical as in her earlier novel The Deepest Breath, and she shows us some lovely moments of family love and support, as Charlie helps Annie with her anxiety; as the moms are patient so Charlie can come out on their own terms; as the moms sometimes argue about money but are nevertheless striving to provide a loving home. In one scene, Annie is reading a book about a girl falling in love with another girl; we don’t get any sense of Annie’s orientation, but she says the book makes her think about her moms, who didn’t have books like that at her age, and who make sure their shop always has stories “That anyone who comes here/Can find themselves in.”
I also love that Charlie loves pink and dresses and makes the point that “Being non-binary/Doesn’t mean/you look a certain way/Or like certain things.” Girls and boys can be anything they want, Annie reflects, so it makes sense that everyone else can, too. Annie, for her part, doesn’t like dresses or make-up, but still identifies as a girl.
My only small criticism is that although Annie’s Mum tells Annie that the book is “not just” about being transgender, but also about being nonbinary (meaning it’s about both), Annie’s subsequent actions presume that it’s only about being nonbinary. That feels like Grehan was getting a little ahead of her plot—although that’s a minor error overall.
There are wonderful messages here about learning to be comfortable in ourselves and helping others do the same; navigating change; the power of families; and the importance of providing books not only where people can see themselves but where they can also learn about others. A beautiful read.
Mama has “dark skin”; other characters’ skin is not described.
