There's a Boy in the Girls' Bathroom

Tengo sentimientos encontrados con este libro. La historia está hecha para ser bonita y emotiva y para encariñarte con los personajes. Todo eso lo veo. Pero no lo siento. Veo lo bonito de la historia, pero emocionalmente, no me ha llegado casi nada. Sobre todo tratándose de un tema que me toca tan de cerca, y con lo sensible que soy, siento que debería haber llorado mares, pero desafortunadamente, no lo ha hecho. 5/10

To be fair to this book, I really should have read a description of this book before I started it. This is because I expected this book to be about gender identity in young children (based on the title of the book) and I was excited to read a story about this, but this book has nothing to do with gender identity and as such, I was a little disappointed because it wasn't what I expected. But I will start with what I did like about this book. So the plot of this book was exploring how young children's behaviour is related to their emotional/psychological wellbeing. The main character is a young boy who is always classed as the 'naughty child by teachers and other adults, but through his inner dialogue, you see he is a very anxious child and that is what causes his 'naughty behaviour and how he is perceived by peers. So firstly this book is written for children/young teens and as such, I believe the plot of the book would be a good starting point to have a conversation with children about wellbeing and mental health. Being that we live in a world where we are starting to realise the importance of mental health and how issues can start arising in young children this book can be used in educational ways to help children and young people understand more about this. Furthermore, with the target audience being young people, I feel the writing style, dialogue and chapter lengths are all appropriate for this age group and could be an easy read for young people being that it isn't too long. Moving onto the aspects of the book that wasn't personally for me. Firstly, as mentioned I was disappointed in the fact the plot wasn't about gender identity (but as mentioned maybe I should have read a description of the book first then I wouldn't have been disappointed). Secondly, I didn't like how the therapist character was written. Now I will say I am a psychology student and have a big passion for mental health so maybe others will think I am a bit harsh on her character. But I personally felt that it gave a bad idea of therapists. She made some questionable decisions such as kissing the main character on the cheek when she was proud of him, which would be considered unethical in real life. Additionally, at the end of the book, she becomes a primary school teacher, now these are two very different professions that require different education and training so it kind of irked me that this happened and didn't see the point of this. When she left the school she was working at why didn't she just start a new therapist job, why did she change professions she wasn't trained for, it just made no sense to me. Lastly, I felt like some things were brought up in the plot and then never explored again and were neglected. Now to be fair this is a children's book so it wasn't going to explore loads of issues within one book, but personally, I would have liked a bit more exploration of these. Overall, I think for children/young teenagers, this book could be a great starting point for understanding the connection between emotional and mental wellbeing on our actions. But this book is that just a starting point and so maybe boring and disappointing to older readers. I don't think I will reread this book myself again but will appreciate the conversation it is trying to have.