The Pants Project by Cat Clarke

★★★★½

*** Warning: This review contains spoilers!! ***

First off, it's worth saying that The Pants Project is just a well-written, funny book! It was really enjoyable to read.

Reading this book on the heels of George, I can't help but compare the two. This write-up is going to be less of a "review", and more of just "my impressions".

While George was written for an upper elementary audience, and features a transgender girl in the 4th grade, The Pants Project was written for a middle school audience, and features a transgender boy in the 6th grade. Both books were well-written for their relative age groups.

In both books, the main character had already realized they were transgender, but it was a secret they kept to themselves. Both George and Liv unfortunately attended schools that had gender-specific policies that exacerbated their discomfort, and in both cases, it was something school-related that helped to precipitate their coming out - first to a trusted friend, and then to their family.

George was written in the third person, and female pronouns were used throughout. In The Pants Project, Liv narrates in the first person, so we don't know what pronouns he/she would prefer... I honestly wasn't sure what pronoun to use in this write-up, and I guess I settled on "they".

Anyway. Both George and Liv had that one awesome friend who didn't bat an eye about their being transgender. I kind of wonder how realistic that is, but it seems like a good thing for kids to read books that portray that kind of compassionate friendship.

Both George and Liv also happened to have "non-standard" families - George had a single mother, and Liv had two moms. While single motherhood was not at all an issue in George, Liv did have to face some cruel bullying directed at their moms. In that way, The Pants Project was about more than just being transgender; Liv faced other typical middle school problems, like friend drama and family struggles.

George's mom had a bit of a harder time coming to terms with George's transgender identity, while Liv's moms were immediately 100% accepting. I do suspect that in real life, most parents are not nearly as readily supportive as George and Liv's parents, but again, it seems like a good thing for readers to see that kind of acceptance modeled in books.

Both books had happy endings that stopped short of exploring what a transgender student might go through to come out in school. I'm sure that's a huge, difficult-to-tackle topic that maybe is best addressed separately from these brave stories about children coming out to close friends and family. Still, it's the logical next step, and I'd be interested in seeing Liv continue to challenge her classmates, teachers, and school administrators.

I also wish The Pants Project could have revealed what Mom said to Jade, to make Jade stop bullying Liv. It just seems like it would be really useful to have a model of a speech that people could emulate if they ever have to tell off a bully - which I'm sure is quite common.