Each volume in this multi-author chapter book series focuses on a different third-grade protagonist at Curiosity Academy, while protagonists from the other volumes shift into secondary characters. We see them grapple with everyday dilemmas at school and at home, and gain insights into their attitudes, passions, and concerns. This volume, by Newbery Honoree and two-time Stonewall Book Award winner Kyle Lukoff, focuses on Sebastian Metzger, who loves learning about animals, wearing a bow tie, and talking with his imaginary chipmunk friend, Jimothy. Sebastian is also a transgender boy, and although the book isn’t “about” him being trans, it does tell us something about his social transition and his feelings about his gender along the way.
The heart of the plot involves what happens when Sebastian spots a new book in the library about octopodes (which he learns is the technically correct plural for “octopus”). The librarian hasn’t even had time to prepare it for circulation, but allows Sebastian to borrow it on the promise of being careful. At home, however, Sebastian’s little sister squirts red juice on the book, and Sebastian is devastated. He thinks he’ll have to avoid the library forever. That’s not as easy as it sounds, however, and Sebastian must figure out a way to own up to what happened and make amends.
As the story unfolds, we also learn that Sebastian is interested in animals that break rules and don’t fit neatly into categories, like egg-laying mammals. He’s also learned that humans sometimes break their own rules, too, and that “Some humans were transgender, which meant that they didn’t have to stay the same gender for their whole lives.”
When Sebastian himself was younger, the book tells us, he thought that those who said he was a girl were making a mistake; then he worried that he was the mistake—but now, third grade will be the first year that Sebastian “started as Sebastian and ended as Sebastian, and he was happy that no one seemed to care.” He reflects, “He was the same as he had always been, but now he didn’t feel like a mistake. He just felt like himself.” He later shares, too, that he used to feel uncomfortable when his kindergarten teacher would try to make him stand in the girls’ line. These moments are woven into the book as parts of Sebastian’s story, neither ignored nor the entire focus of his being, making the character feel fully developed and authentic (and I trust Lukoff, a trans man, on this).
Another facet of the story is that Sebastian’s family is financially insecure. They sometimes get groceries from a food bank; Sebastian wears clothes from a church clothing drive; and his family’s lack of money adds to his stress over the possible need to pay for a replacement book. Again, the story isn’t “about” his financial insecurity, but it adds to the complexity of the character and how he responds to things around him.
Lukoff is one of the most talented writers of LGBTQ-inclusive books for young people. While this story, part of a lighthearted chapter book series, doesn’t hit the powerful emotional notes of some of his books, it still showcases his skill at presenting trans people as full human beings, neither ignoring the ways their trans identities have shaped their lives nor failing to show that they are more than just their transness. For chapter book readers, this is a welcome and highly recommended title.
Sebastian is White; his peers reflect a range of racial/ethnic identities.
