Birthday

"I picked Birthday because there are quite a few books out there for teenagers about the trans journey, coming out as trans and realising those feelings. Birthday is a brilliant example of that. It’s told over six birthdays, the 13th to the 18th birthday of two friends that have grown up together for their whole lives. We only see them on those six days in the book, we see them as they grow up, as they learn to understand the world around them and learn to understand themselves, and the different developments that their relationship has. What I really like about it is that we get to see the stages of not knowing who you are, being confused, being questioning, to the point of: ‘right, hang on a minute, I’m not a boy, I identify as a female, I want to be a girl,’ and that transition and how that affects the relationship. It’s enthralling as a story because you get really attached to the two characters. The story is set in America. Morgan is the character who transitions and it’s kind of based around the idea that Morgan’s father is very keen on male role models, female role models. He’s a football coach himself, so that’s adding all those extra anxieties into Morgan’s feelings, like you were saying about the families being involved in that. Eric is there as the sympathetic friend. I’ve read a lot around this book as well, and have spoken to lots of different people about it, and there are many people saying it’s a very authentic representation of that kind of friendship and relationship and that transition period. And it’s not overly sensationalised, it reads as a very compelling love story."