2007: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
ISBN: 9781416916222
“Last week I cut my hair, bought some boys’ clothes and shoes, wrapped a large ACE bandage around my chest to flatten my fortunately-not-large breasts, and began looking for a new name.”
Some reviewers on Goodreads have written that Parrotfish by Ellen Wittlinger is unrealistic because of the supportive friends and family in Grady’s life. I can’t be sure. Of course, there are stories of rejection leading to suicide and homelessness that are important and need to be told. I have read some of those stories like in Kicked Out by Sassafras Lowrey and I am J by Cris Beam. And I have heard those stories from my students. I carry those with me.
One thing that literature does for us is to imagine for us and teach us to imagine. When a novel imagines something better, ways of being with others that is better, then that feels possible. Parrotfish imagines ways parents, teachers, and friends can support a trangender loved one. And, I think it helps transgender readers imagine what human beings can say and do to support him or her. I like that.
So, I think there is space for books that are really real and books that might be a bit more ideal.
I’ll invite my middle school students to read Parrotfish as a mirror for some (perhaps distorted) and a window for others (perhaps clouded) and hope that we can see how teens might respond and support all shades of gender on this spectrum of identity.
On another note, one that I am still pondering and one that was brought up in the Goodreads reviews: Does it matter that the author is an “outsider”? My initial reaction is “sure?” Readers want to trust the author and know that the work is authentic even coming from personal experience. However, I have to believe Wittlinger did her research and might have some personal experience because she seems to be treating the subject with care.
- Could or would an ‘insider’ write this book as idealistic as some suggest it is?
- Do you have other recommendations or gender representations that I can/should share with my junior high students?
Sarah, thanks for the kind review. I thought it would interest you to know that, although I am, indeed, an outsider, I have a transgender friend who helped me enormously in understanding the feelings and emotions of being trans. Although Parrotfish is not his story, his transition was, in fact, very much like Grady’s. That is, parents who were confused, but very quickly supportive, and a school community in which tormenting by students and faculty was in evidence, but not horrible and not scarring. He asked me to write a book in which the transition was primarily a positive experience, which is what I did. My feeling is that not all transpeople have terrible stories, and certainly, portraying the experience as mostly positive can be a balm to those just embarking on that journey. –Ellen Wittlinger
I have not read Parrotfish—yet, but I agree that adolescent readers need to see what could be and different perspectives in having and handling problems. Knowing that support is possible may be the most important message they can receive from a novel. One purpose of fiction is to share the possibilities.