This book gets a gold star just for existing. An important book for transgender, intersex, and transitioning teens or anyone who wants to know what their experiences are really like. I like that it's presented all in first-person narrative by the teens, with minimal questions and clarifications inserted by the author.

Kuklin, Susan. Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out. Candlewick Press, 2014.

The author interviews five transgender teens and details their coming-out experiences, how they define themselves, how they have dealt with bullying, etc.

The first 90% of this book is amazing. I love the photographs and the stories of transgender teens. I think this part of the book should be in every library to help raise awareness of issues facing the trans* community.

HOWEVER, the resources list in the back is sadly lacking. First, there are only two fiction titles listed, when I can name at least ten good trans* titles without even consulting my Goodreads shelves. The websites, videos, nonfiction suggestions are similarly lacking. If the author and publisher would do a better job with the research and get more information in a much-needed resource list for trans* teens and their parents, then this book would be excellent. Here's hoping the next edition has these errors corrected.

To ban this book is so sad. It reveals the first person accounts of how six teenagers found themselves in bodies which didn’t match what their minds were telling them. The book explored the varied family, school, church, institution reactions to this young person’s… what’s the word… internal reckoning, which moves at times on a sliding scale. From the interviews, it seemed each participant had so many aspects of all genders. No one questions if a non-athletic boy develops an interest in working out and body building. No one questions a girl who becomes more interested in makeup and fashion. These interviews show it is the same concept. Sexual conduct is not part of gender. But society seems unable to separate the two. Teens of varied socioeconomic, racial, and residential backgrounds were interviewed. Some of their family lives were excessively difficult, and fight or flight happened nearly from birth. Others had unconditional acceptance and nurturing households. Yet their experiences shared commonalities once the “ghetto” and the “gardens” (my poor word choice) were stripped away.

Nope.

As the parent of a nonbinary youth, I had hoped to gain some insight from the youth in this book. The first thing that bothered me was the author's attitude, talking about being non-judgmental and factual in a weird way... it already felt like cis BS. In the commentary in the very first story the author presents erroneous and dangers information about gender and chromosome combinations that only further harms lgbtq people. The interviewer clearly needs to study biology, or at least watch some TED talks about gender and update their way of thinking. Gender is NOT binary, not even scientifically speaking, and there are NOT only two possible chromosome combinations. How irresponsible to have this published. And why use people's pre transitional photos? If you're using fake names that doesn't seem helpful but it also focuses on their past and not who they are. I hope the kids who gave photos wanted those photos included. I am also uncomfortable with them sharing their stories and the author profiting off of them. I realize this happens in many collections of interviews, but it just feels wrong, especially if the author is cis.

The stories in this book impressed me a lot. All chapters are written as a kind of story showing how transgender teens go through the time from finding out to some major kind of change.
Many passages are rather report-like, but for me this did not really take away anything, because I understood all of what was said as part of biographies that are still in the making. There are struggles for all of the teenagers who are covered in this book, but at the end of their chapter they have found a way of coming to terms, somehow.
The stories are touching, and all I can hope for is that they are read by transgender teens, so that they can see they are not alone. This could also be helpful for some parents, teachers and others who are in close contact with kids, teenagers and young adults, to create understanding where it is needed so much. Definitely 5 out of 5 stars.

This really was a great book. Reading about Transgender teens and how things went in their own words really helps to understand the community more.

Late middle school and up. 4.5.

Pretty amazing. More thoughts when I'm not on my phone.

I think this a really important book for teens (and adults) to read, whether or not they have someone in their lives who is transgender. I appreciated that the book is a series of conversations with six different transgender teens. Hearing their experiences in their own words was enlightening and really showed the kind of struggles they faced. Family photographs also added a nice touch.

However, it was hard for me to finish the book because of its narrative style. I got bored easily because all the stories sounded the same. "I grew up in New York City, I didn't like the things other girls did. I played soccer instead of playing with dolls. I knew that I was really a boy. Now I am happy and have a girlfriend. . ." etc. If I as an adult had a hard time finishing it, I'm sure there are many teens who who know nothing about the subject who might have found it dull as well. I'm left wondering if there isn't a more teen-friendly approach the author could have taken.

I would like to see a similar book with a more diverse population: more minorities, teens from conservative small towns (not NYC), etc. This really is an important subject for everyone to become educated on in 2014, and I hope there are more, similar books to follow.

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