Challenging, emotional, relatable.

Ultimately, this is a book about parenthood and love.  About how we love our children SO HARD.  About how we never know if we are making the right choices.  About how we have to let them out into the world even though it’s a harsh place.  I don’t have 5 children or a child that is questioning gender.  But what these parents go through and strive for, they are exactly what every parent deals with, just in a different arena.  

 

This quote perfectly sums up the book for me:

"You never know. You only guess. This is how it always is. You have to make these huge decisions on behalf of your kid, this tiny human whose fate and future is entirely in your hands, who trusts you to know what’s good and right and then to be able to make that happen. You never have enough information. You don’t get to see the future. And if you screw up, if with your incomplete, contradictory information you make the wrong call, well, nothing less than your child’s entire future and happiness is at stake. It’s impossible. It’s heartbreaking. It’s maddening. But there’s no alternative."

 

There are so many lessons to be taken from this book.  It’s a reminder that no matter how different we are externally, we are all the same internally.  What matters is the heart.  What matters is who we are rather than what we are.  It’s also a reminder that every beautiful creation deserves love.  

 

Don’t go into this book focused on the gender dysphoria aspect.  It won’t do you or the story any justice.   This book is SO MUCH more than whether this story is about Poppy or Claude.