#ccbcchoicesbook

“Straight people have it so much easier. They don’t understand. They can’t. There’s no such thing as openly straight.”

Rafe is a high school junior from Boulder, Colorado who has been out and proud since eighth grade. Unlike so many other gay youth, he’s never been bullied nor has he been made fun of because of his sexuality. Rafe knows how fortunate he is to live in a welcoming community and to have such an incredibly supportive family, but he’s starting to feel like the fact that he’s gay is the only thing that people really notice about him. This leaves him wishing that he could start over...

...so he decides to move across the country and attend an all-boys boarding school in Massachusetts and, most importantly, keep his sexuality a secret. Given his love of writing, Rafe is encouraged to keep a journal about his experience by one of his teachers who knows his secret. Given his love of soccer, Rafe immediately finds himself in an athletic clique and loves how his classmates think of him as jock.

Everything starts to get a bit complicated with Rafe’s experiment when he falls for one of his teammates. His teammate, Ben, is rather dreamy in how smart, articulate, and sensitive he is, but he’s straight. Or is he? The unique friendship that develops between them transcends labels, but is it all meaningless if Rafe can’t tell Ben the truth?

This book is refreshing in its approach and in how it encourages you to think about your own identity. Anyone that has ever struggled with labels, be they related to their sexuality or not, will identify with this incredible novel.

Book: WorldCat | Amazon | IndieBound | Goodreads | LibraryThing Author: Website | Twitter

“Tired of being known as "the gay kid", Rafe Goldberg decides to assume a new persona when he comes east and enters an elite Massachusetts prep school—but trying to deny his identity has both complications and unexpected consequences.”

Arin Andrews was born feeling trapped inside of his own body. Entering into this world as a female, he struggled with his gender from a very young age, well before he ever even knew the word "transgender" or what it meant. His childhood was largely spent with his mom putting him in dresses, applying makeup, and entering him into lots of beauty pageants to try and curb his camo cargo shorts wearing, rough and tumble ways. Years later, when he came out as trans to his mom, she, like him not too long before that fateful moment on a highway off-ramp, was confused. Her confusion and concern lead to education and understanding as she became one of Arin's biggest supporters as he began his physical transition as a high school junior. What led Arin to undergoing gender reassignment then? How did the anger and humiliation of getting kicked-out of his private school impact his life? How did the internet, community resources, and magazine articles impact his journey? What types of physical and mental changes did he experience through all of this? This is Arin Andrews's incredible story.

Some Assembly Required is a frank and thoughtful coming-of-age story, written in a conversational tone, about family, friends, and love. Arin's memoir leaves no topic untouched in an attempt to breakdown barriers and help readers get as complete of a picture of one person's journey to self-acceptance as possible. If you've ever had questions you were too afraid or too embarrassed to ask about what it means to be transgender, this book is for you. If you know someone who identifies as transgender and want to know how to best support them, this book is for you. If you're simply looking for a poignant and brave story of one teen's journey into adulthood, this book is for you.

Book: WorldCat | Amazon | IndieBound | Goodreads | LibraryThing Author: Twitter

“The author details what led him to undergo gender reassignment surgery as a high school junior, sharing the challenges he faced as a girl, the changes he experienced once his transition began, and his relationship with a transgender woman.”