Wandering Son, book 1 - Manga about Transgender 5th graders

Wandering Son, book one, by Shimura Takako, translated by Matt Thorn

Fifth graders Shuichi and Yoshino connect during the first days of school, discovering that they share a love of many different things... including the secret that each wants to be the gender that the other was born.  (Shuichi is a boy who wants to be a girl, and Yoshino is a girl who wants to be a boy.)

Secrets don't stay secret, and there's even a production of  The Rose of Versailles as the farewell ceremony for the sixth graders — with boys playing the roles of women, and girls playing the roles of men.

This manga has won a lot of accolades, including being a 2012 Eisner Award Nominee: Best U.S. Edition of International Material – Asia, One of ALA/YALSA's Top Ten Great Graphic Novels for Teens 2012 and Named to the ALA GLBT Round Table's 2012 Rainbow List of recommended books for young readers.


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