Almost Perfect

I've just finished reading Almost Perfect, a young adult novel about Logan, a high school senior who becomes attracted to Sage, a pretty new girl at school.  Sage insists that they remain "just friends" but Logan wants to be more than that.  When they finally do kiss, Sage reveals why she has been reluctant to move beyond the friend stage.  She's transsexual and is biologically a boy.  Logan, a small town boy who's only dated one girl before Sage, is shocked and repulsed.  However, he comes to realize how much he cares for Sage.  There's much more but I don't want to give the plot away.

Both Sage and Logan are wonderful, likeable and flawed characters.  Although the story is told from Logan's point of view, we learn a lot of what Sage has experienced in trying to live as the woman she knows she is.

Almost Perfect recently won the 2011 Stonewall Children’s and Young Adult Literature Award. 
Now in it’s second year, the award is given annually to English-language children’s and young adult books of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered experience.

“A young adult novel about a transgender girl—told from the perspective of the straight boy who falls for her—Almost Perfect is exceptional. The writing is sensitive, haunting and revelatory,” said Lisa Johnston, Stonewall Children’s and Young Adult Award committee chair, via a press release.

Almost Perfect is a excellent book, exploring the nature of friendship, prejudice, courage and gender.

Here's a link  to a story about Almost Perfect winning the Stonewall Award and another to an excellent review at Bibrary Bookslut.


Here's a different take on the book from Megan Honig.  Although I don't agree with Megan's review, it's very well done and presents a thought-provoking critique.