a book review

[baronessekat]

Ana on the Edge by A.J. Sass

My rating: 5 of 5 stars


Ana-Marie is 12 years old and just won the National Juvenile Girls Figure Skating Championship. She's worked hard for it and knows her single mother has sacrificed a great deal to help her get where she is.

Her coach suggests she move with him from the rink in San Francisco to Oakland where she can get better training and work with a internationally known choreographer. Ana even gets offered the chance to be an assistant instructor at the evening "skate school" to cover her ice time costs.

Things are great until Ana is given her choreography and competition costume... it's princess themed and the dress is frilly and sparkly and ... girly. Everything she's not. And despite trying hard to act the part, she becomes more and more miserable.

Then she meets Hayden - a transgendered boy in the skate school that has Ana questioning her own identity, happiness and where that falls in obligation to friends, family and most importantly to self.

++++

As a 40+ woman, I am not the target audience for this own voices middle-grade book. But that being said it was a really good story that tackles a sensitive subject with grace, humor and tact. This is a book I would definitely recommend to a tween or younger who is curious about gender identity as well as body and social dysmorphia.



View all my reviews