Lily & Dunkin is a middle grade novel about a trans girl and a boy with bipolar disorder with psychotic features. I loved this book. 

 

I know that the author is not trans. However, I felt like she did research and approached to topic with sensitivity. I do not know if she had sensitivity readers, but I imagine that she did so. I am non-binary trans and there is so much of it that hit close to home. No two trans people are the same, so not everyone’s story will match that of Lily’s. 

 

Dunkin has bipolar disorder. His father also has it. Once again the author does not have it, but her son does. Dunkin’s experience was based off of her son’s experience. Again, I assume that her son read the novel. I also do not have bipolar, but I have a child who was diagnosed with bipolar with psychotic features at a young age. I also have a masters degree in developmental psychology. I thought the rep was spot on. I wish that my daughter had this book when she was younger so that she could see that there were others out there. 

 

I made the mistake of reading the reviews for this novel after I finished reading it. So many of them were transphobic and ablest. It is ironic that people complain that we are not writing stories for middle grade about real issues, then someone does and people complain more. Middle grade students are trans. Middle grade students have mental health diagnosis. 

 

The rep in this book is not perfect. No rep is - even if it is own voice. However, I respect what the author did and think many middle grade readers will be overjoyed to see themselves in a story. Yes there is a lot going on. The trans kids is friends with the kid with mental health concerns. . . but as an autistic trans kid. . . this is real life. I didn’t hang out with the “normal” kids. I hung out with the other kids that were different. It didn’t matter that our differences were not the same, we just knew that the other different kids weren’t going to beat the crap out of us.