MANILA, Philippines — While the gay experience is certainly nothing new to young adult books – bestselling series' like Cassandra Clare's “Mortal Instruments” and Alex Sanchez' “Rainbow Trilogy” are two examples – the experience of transgender teens is something that is rarely discussed.

However, the past decade has seen a change for the better when it comes to stories about the transgender experience.

In 2004, Julie Ann Peters came out with “Luna”, the story of a male-to-female transsexual named Luna, as told through the perspective of her sister Regan.

Transgender author Charlie Jane Anders came out with “Choirboy” in 2005, while Ellen Witlinger came out with “Parrotfish” in 2007.

Joining this canon of young adult books featuring transgender characters is Brian Katcher's “Almost Perfect”, which recently won the American Library Association's Stonewall's Children and Young Adult Literature Award. Published in 2009, the novel is about the change of perspective that a young man undergoes when he finds himself falling in love with a transgender female.

She's a boy!
Logan Witherspoon is just your typical 18-year-old boy reeling from a break-up with his longtime girlfriend, Brenda, who has been cheating on him. They’ve been together for three years, so he is understandably wallowing in the exquisite pain of it all. His family and friends have practically given up on him ever getting over Brenda -- until Sage comes along.

Sage is different from anything Logan has ever seen. She’s taller than most girls, her voice is huskier, and she’s unconventionally pretty. Pretty soon, Logan is smitten with her, and throughout the course of several chapters awkwardly tries to become Sage’s boyfriend. He is constantly rebuffed, and when he finally manages to kiss Sage, he finds out exactly why she was so apprehensive of things escalating between the two of them.

Sage, it turns out, is biologically a boy, and the revelation causes Logan to lash out at Sage, almost to the point of hitting her. But after avoiding her like the plague, Logan finds out that he just can’t stop thinking about her and tries to restart the friendship. Impressed by Logan’s attempts at understanding her situation, Sage gives him another chance.

However, rekindling this friendship is more complicated than either of them expect. Will their friendship manage to remain intact even with Sage’s less-than-accepting parents and Logan’s own unexpressed apprehensions about their relationship bearing down on them like storm clouds about to burst?

As real as it gets
The first thing that will strike readers about “Almost Perfect” is the grittiness of Logan's hometown. In a young Wadult literary scene overcrowded with either moody reform schools or the high class hallways of an Upper East Side school, it's refreshing to be introduced to a town populated with trailer parks and meth addicts.

Katcher extends the same realism to his two leads, Logan Witherspoon and Sage Hendricks. Logan is a heterosexual everyman, not too popular so he doesn't end up off putting, but not so much of a loser that he ends up being unappealing. Katcher's descriptions of Logan's home life – which consists of an overworked but loving mother and a supportive older sister – help explain why Logan, a straight guy, perseveres with his friendship with Sage, even after Sage's big reveal.

When Sage is introduced about three chapters in, she doesn't arrive as an ethereally beautiful girl that everybody ends up falling in love with, as is often the case with most of the young adult books populating the bestsellers list. She’s got braces, she’s a little bit too freckly, and uncomfortably tall for a woman.

While the intensity of Logan's affections is certainly evident, very few of the student body actually finds Sage all that interesting.

The flirting that happens between the two is also refreshingly crude and awkward, in keeping not just with the characters' personalities, but with how teenagers themselves are like. There are no witty lines or extravagant declarations, because no teenager is that smooth unless they are actually a centuries-old vampire, a secret werewolf, or an angel fallen from on high.

It is this strong grounding in reality that paints such a clear picture of the characters in readers'
heads and makes it easy for them not just to sympathize but emphatize with the dilemmas that the characters undergo. When Logan almost punches Sage after she reveals that she is biologically a boy, it is a realistic and understandable reaction, if a bit unpleasant to read. When the pair decide to take their friendship to the next level, their intimate moments are hot and filled with tension at the same time. And by the novel's last nine chapters, readers will probably be bawling their eyes out.

No grim read
With the spate of gay bullying happening in the United States, as well as previous depictions of transgenders, notably Hillary Swank's turn as Brandon Teena in “Boys Don't Cry”, it would have been easy for “Almost Perfect” to devolve into a “message” book too intent on delivering a “lesson” to focus on good storytelling.

Fortunately, Katcher is far from didactic, mainly because most of the transgender experience is filtered through the eyes of Logan, who as previously stated, often has a realistic and believable reaction to the information he receives.

And as dramatic as the book's final chapters are, “Almost Perfect” is far from being a grim read.
Katcher infuses Logan and his friends with a sophomoric sense of humor fitting for a bunch of teens. It lightens up the mood early on in the novel, and makes the transformation Logan undergoes throughout the novel even more poignant.

Heartfelt, heartwarming, and heartbreaking, “Almost Perfect” is a great read, especially for people who have a transgender person in the family. It's clear why this book won, and hopefully spurs even more writing into this still taboo topic in young adult fiction.

(The author blogs about books at http://ronreads.wordpress.com)