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Parrotfish Ellen Wittlinger Books

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Parrotfish Ellen Wittlinger Books

This was an incredible little book.

My only gripe with it, at all, was that sometimes the pacing was a bit sluggish, and too many details were crammed into scenes that seemed ancillary to the plot.

But Grady, he's amazing.

From the very beginning, you can sense that Grady is a brave soul. He has decided, in high school, to transition to male and defy what his principals (and several teachers), classmates, siblings, and family think about the situation. He puts himself through mental and physical agony, so he can be mentally at peace, and it is an incredible look into the brutal battle that transgender individuals are forced to face, whether they like it or not.

Some stars of the show are Kita (the crush), Sebastian (who may be the cutest character I have ever read on the planet...seriously...I want him to be real so we can hang out/I can adopt him), and the PE teacher who goes to bat for Grady in a HUGE way.

The end is beautifully written including an obvious message to the reader, "Sometimes it's hard to remember that by tomorrow or next week or at least next year, the stuff that seems so awful today might actually be funny. That what makes you miserable today will alter on in life be a good story to tell your friends. Why does that happen? I don't know. Things change. People change. We spend a long time trying to figure out how to act like ourselves, and then, if we're lucky, we finally figure out that being ourselves has nothing to do with acting" (287).


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Parrotfish Ellen Wittlinger Books Reviews

I read this book for a college course and I really enjoyed it. It was very enlightening and gives good insight to the trials that a young adult might have in attempting to claim the gender they identify with.
great read
Simply written with a good message for anyone trying to understand changes in themselves. Somewhat idealistic with a happy ending "for the moment."
Book was purchased for my daughter for her Highschool honors English class.
She started reading it last night and has not put it down. Book was in good condition.
Although there are parts of the story that are a bit hard to believe, it's basically a good story of a young man who needs to follow his heart and become the person he knows he is. I have personal experience with a young transman who said this book was the catalyst in his own (successful) transition. Kudos to the author for the research on this subject, and for not being afraid to put it out there in hopes of openings hearts and minds.
This is overall an excellent read. It's engaging, well written, with actual humor. Characters are well developed and their behavior is true to life even when their actions are ugly. I was pleased to see a transition from female to male to augment the more common male to female plot.

The roles of the parents are particularly well portrayed. They need time to cope with losing a daughter and gaining a son, and their behavior during this time is described realistically. Naturally everyone's experience is different, but at least this story isn't completely told through rose glasses.
This was a really sweet read and that's probably why I didn't like it nearly as much as I was hoping to.

This is the story of Angela as she takes the first steps to becoming a boy named Grady. While this change was met by Grady's friends and family with variations on shock, dismay, confusion, disgust, empathy, kindness, understanding and even apathy, the whole story just seemed to skim the surface of many of a transgender teen's issues.

The first few chapters broke my heart as Grady deals with generally negative reactions of family, teachers, friends and kids at school. I braced myself expecting a tumultuous emotional journey towards acceptance but *spoiler* even though some fairly awful things almost happened, nothing bad actually did happen and the entire story wraps up all very neat and nicely with a cutesie happy-ever-after kind of feel to it *end spoiler* I just didn't buy the ending and the ease with which the resolution was reached.

This book almost seemed to make light of transgender issues. Where was the psychologist or at very least a counselor? Why didn't Grady's parents take him to see a physician? Fairly standard practices for someone considering changing their gender. The parents seemed oddly detached; the bigger, darker issues at hand skirted if not brushed off altogether, and this frustrated me.

To be honest, I was more interested in Danya, what made her such a spiteful bully, why was she so afraid of her parents? The more intriguing story seemed to lie with her and yet she's painted as a pretty one dimensional antagonist.

The prose is pleasant and there are a few metaphors such as the titular parrotfish comparison that manage to inject a little more substance into this story. Even so, reading parrotfish felt a bit like eating a carrot-cake cupcake by starting with the frosting everything was nice and sweet if slightly tangy, but I couldn't wait to get to the rich, nutty, spicy substance - sadly, all I got was frosting when what I really wanted was the cake.
This was an incredible little book.

My only gripe with it, at all, was that sometimes the pacing was a bit sluggish, and too many details were crammed into scenes that seemed ancillary to the plot.

But Grady, he's amazing.

From the very beginning, you can sense that Grady is a brave soul. He has decided, in high school, to transition to male and defy what his principals (and several teachers), classmates, siblings, and family think about the situation. He puts himself through mental and physical agony, so he can be mentally at peace, and it is an incredible look into the brutal battle that transgender individuals are forced to face, whether they like it or not.

Some stars of the show are Kita (the crush), Sebastian (who may be the cutest character I have ever read on the planet...seriously...I want him to be real so we can hang out/I can adopt him), and the PE teacher who goes to bat for Grady in a HUGE way.

The end is beautifully written including an obvious message to the reader, "Sometimes it's hard to remember that by tomorrow or next week or at least next year, the stuff that seems so awful today might actually be funny. That what makes you miserable today will alter on in life be a good story to tell your friends. Why does that happen? I don't know. Things change. People change. We spend a long time trying to figure out how to act like ourselves, and then, if we're lucky, we finally figure out that being ourselves has nothing to do with acting" (287).