Name: Happy Families
ISBN: 9780375969669

Tanita S. Davis

In alternating chapters, sixteen-year-old twins Ysabel and Justin share their conflicted feelings as they struggle to come to terms with their father's decision to dress as a woman.

Happy Families

Sarah Sammis

Dorian Avers

3.75
 I really liked this book. I thought the twins seemed like realistic teens. They were confused, scared, a little embarrassed; and they didn't always say the right thing, but rarely spoke with venom. Also, their father Chris didn't have all the answers, she was growing up and changing just like her children. I hope that schools are reading this book because I think it's a rare one and important to try to understand something or someone that is treated like taboo, but shouldn't be. I hope someday soon that a book like this can be something that isn't seen as controversial, it's so ridiculous to me how people can treat members of the LGBTQ+ community. How they can hate and dehumanize so easily, it's disgusting. However, it's easy to read this book and think about how you would react. You say to yourself, obviously you'd be accepting and supportive, but it's not just you and the person transitioning, there are other people with opinions and they can be cruel. What Chris is doing is brave, what her family is doing is brave. Chris is being who she truly is and that's amazing, not a lot of people can say that.
 I just read through some of the reviews and realized that I need to read more books that look at people who are transgender and what they go through. This is a YA, so it's not meant to conquer the world and every problem in it. Maybe this is just kind of a gateway book, it seems it's a bit more surface level. There's a focus on the children and how they feel, but we barely get to hear from Chris, we never really see her being completely true to herself because she is scared of hurting her family.

Quotes: 
* Shakespeare quote: "To thine own self be true" (124)

Happy Families

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