Boston Public Library planned a family book club this week featuring a book about a girl who identifies as a boy.
The club was advertised for “kids in grades 3-6 and their caregivers.”
The book, titled The Best Liars in Riverview, was written by Lin Thompson, a self-described “queer” author. The book says it’s dedicated to “everyone who is still figuring it out.”
The library provides a brief description of the book on its web site: “While searching the woods that used to be their personal sanctuary, twelve-year-old Aubrey recalls the events and incidents preceding their best friend’s disappearance and quietly questions their own gender identity.”
The “their” refers to a middle school girl.
A reporter for NewBostonPost went through the book on Thursday, June 8. Here are some passages with context:
Context: A middle school girl and her mother are listening to an NPR show with a transgender woman (that is, a biological male) being interviewed.
Passage: “The host is interviewing someone who everyone used to think was a boy but she isn’t, really. She’s transgender. A trans woman. Everyone thought she was a boy when she was born, she says, but they got it wrong. Sometimes they get it wrong.”
Context: A middle school girl and boy learn about someone who uses “they” as a personal pronoun and identifies as nonbinary.
Passage: “Bell isn’t really a ‘he’ or ‘she’ kind of person. Just a person. We just call them by their name or by ‘they’ instead of ‘he’ or ‘she.”
Context: A middle school girl questions whether she actually is a girl.
Passage: “Being a girl is something that doesn’t feel real to me. It feels like make-believe — like I’m putting on a role, but somehow even less than our games of pretend in the woods.”
Context: A middle school girl goes into a public restroom with her friends.
Passage: “I don’t usually like going into girls’ bathrooms. It’s just another place I feel I don’t fit, another place I feel outside myself.”
Context: A middle school girl decides she is not a girl.
Passage: “Because I don’t want to be a girl. I don’t think I am a girl. I let myself think it: I’m not a girl.”
A spokesman for Boston Public Library acknowledged a request for comment from NewBostonPost on Thursday, June 8, but did not provide a comment by deadline.
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