Book Description
for Tomboy by Liz Prince
From Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
This cartoonlike black-and-white graphic novel is funny, sharp, and poignant as Liz Prince recalls growing up with complete disregard for both stereotypical and traditional girl-like things, from the color pink and My Little Pony to wearing girls’ clothes. She had no doubt she was a girl but felt a deep disconnect between what she knew herself to be and her peers’ — and society’s — perceptions of how she should appear and behave. She was the only girl in Little League, and the “only girl-who-wanted-to-be-a-boy” in Girl Scouts (she endured humiliation at camp when it was discovered the boys’ clothes she always wore included underwear). A succession of individual friends seemed to understand her but she often found this understanding didn’t extend as far as she thought. Puberty brought the agony of both her developing body and crushes on boys. (When isn’t a crush agony?) In high school, however, she finally found a community among quirky, creative kids following their individual passions. She also discovered feminist zines, which opened her eyes to the realization that she’d been letting society dictate what she thought a girl could and should be rather than embracing girlhood on her own terms and defining it for herself. (Age 13 and older)
CCBC Choices 2015. © Cooperative Children's Book Center, Univ. of Wisconsin - Madison, 2015. Used with permission.