I Am J

by Beam, Cris

• ISBN13: 9780316053617
• ISBN10: 0316053619
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2011-03-01
• Publisher: Little, Brown Books for Young Readers

Summary

J spun. His stomach clenched hard, as though he'd been hit. It was just the neighbour lady, Mercedes. J couldn't muster a hello back, not now; he didn't care that she'd tell his mother he'd been rude. She should know better. Nobody calls me Jeni anymore. J always felt different. He was certain that eventually everyone would understand who he really was: a boy mistakenly born as a girl. Yet as he grew up, his body began to betray him; eventually J stopped praying to wake up a 'real boy' and started covering up his body, keeping himself invisible - from his family, from his friends...from the world. But after being deserted by the best friend he thought would always be by his side, J decides that he's done hiding - it's time to be who he really is. And this time he is determined not to give up, no matter the cost.

Author Biography

Cris Beam is the author of Transparent and has written for public radio's This American Life, as well as for several national magazines. She has an MFA in writing from Columbiaand teaches creative writing at Columbia, NYU, and the NewSchool. While living in LA, Cris volunteered at Eagles, a high school for gay and transgender kids. During the 2.5 years Cris taught there, she became deeply involved with a complex but marginalized tribe of transgender teens who had nowhere to go but the streets, one of whom became her foster daughter.