Katie Rain Hill

This book reads like Katie cleaned up her diary for freshman comp. (Which she more or less may have; she wrote it when she was 20.) It's full of all-caps and instantly dated pop culture references and lines like, "God, I wanted to kiss him so bad." I got through two chapters. The goal seems to be to show that trans girls can be aggressively ordinary college students, and it certainly succeeds at that! My students sometimes have a higher tolerance for dishy blog style than I do, but make no mistake -- they do notice it and recognize that it's poor writing. The transgender YA field is starting to open up, and I think we as gatekeepers can do better than this.… (mer)

This is a book about a person who realized at an early age that she was born in a body that did not match her self identified gender and her struggle to become who she wanted to be. Katie Rain Hill chooses to start her story after her corrective gender surgery and she is in her first year of college. This book chronicles Katie's relationship with her parents, her peers, eventual boyfriends as well as the doctor's visits, hormone shots and eventual surgery. This is told in a very conversational tone and would work well in a upper grade high school classroom.… (mer)

This is the story of Katie, born Luke, and the struggles she went through in her conservative town and school as he came to terms with the fact that he was a girl trapped in a boy’s body. While it was tough for everyone to accept, Luke became Katie and is now a strong voice in the LBGT community. She describes her journey from dealing with bullies to dating. She also gives the reader sound advice on how to treat transgender people as well as other resources to consult. She has an interesting story to tell.… (mer)