Before I resume my links to some of the amazing titles on the 2021 NOTABLE TRADE BOOKS FOR YOUNG READERS, I want to insert a few reviews of the books I had NOT yet read, books that this list led me to discover. I try very hard to stay aware of current releases throughout the year, but this annual list ALWAYS leads me to previously undiscovered treasures. My massive hold list has paid off and many of these are now stacked beside me as I type. I've read them all and will share many, but this title rises to the top and comes first.
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| little bee books, 2021 |
This Civil War era true story is a 2021 NOTABLE TRADE BOOK for YOUNG PEOPLE, and it certainly deserves that designation. Albert D. J. Cashier is the name chosen by a person who was born a girl, Jenny. During her early years in Ireland, Jenny wore boys' clothes often: to tend the sheep in the field, to stay safer as a stowaway on a ship to America, and to work in a shoe-making factory at a job that was only open to boys. When old enough to head out into life alone, Jenny continued dressing as a man (a small but hardy and hard-working man) and took their step-father's last name.
There are other stories of women who participated in Civil War service by dressing as men or boys, a few fighting, but many serving as buglers, drummers, or in medical service. Most resumed lives as women after the war ended, and only a few received veteran pensions.
In the case of Cashier, he enrolled to fight, passing the inspection when only his small hands and feet were examined and judged to be fit enough to fight. Throughout four years of full battle engagements, Cashier developed the trust and friendship of the other men in his group before returning safely to Illinois.
After decades of life as a working man man on a farm, living on limited incomes and his small veterans' pension, health issues revealed that Cashier was a biological woman. When reporters got wind of it, the pension was denied, he was transferred to a women's hospital, and was even forced to wear women's clothes. It was visits from his former veteran friends, and their relentless insistence on the identity of Cashier as the veteran at whose side they lived and fought, that won back Cashier's well-earned pension.
I'm not marking this as a spoiler, because this is not a fictional mystery or suspense story. This, in fact, is a real life story, one that has been little known, and should be. Despite the general culture of the time, his friends acknowledged his value as a human, as a whole person of value, insisting on a military burial with honors and a tombstone marked with his chosen name and designation as a veteran.
More should know his story, and that of the many others whose chosen identity should be respected. Despite my extensive summary, the actual reading will enthrall you with its storytelling quality, intriguing details, and balance of information and sensitivity.
The author provides backmatter that fully honors the identity and intents (and unknowns) of Cashier's life. Since he was illiterate (signing his name with an X when voting, which he did faithfully) and having dementia in later life, we only know pieces of his story. Did Jenny find that assuming the role of a man provided her with greater comfort, safety, and wider choices, sustaining that throughout her life? Or Was Jenny a truly transgender man, born with a clear inner identity that did not match his body, living in times in which that reality demanded secrecy and isolation.
We'll never know with certainty, but the author used consultants and sources that widen readers' awareness of transgender life experience long before it finally broke through a social curtain of shame and attack. That also line is not to suggest that pushback has disappeared, but at least more are willing to act with the integrity of Cashier's friends and allies.
This is handled in direct and respectful way with empathy and grace, and is suitable for even young readers. In fact, it may be exactly the book needed by some young readers who struggle with gender dysphoria, and for all those who do not, but lack an understanding of how important it is to advocate for friends.
It's been a while since I've tagged a post with a COVID 19 comment. This has been the first full week of a global CORONA-versary, so I will acknowledge that. These anchors in time reveal to me that the abnormal has become normal. It also reminds me that I'm not comfortable with that language, or even calling this way of life a "new normal". I've become hyper-sensitive to the use of the word and the idea of "normal" . ( I've felt that sensitivity throughout my life, it is just more confirmed now that ever.)
This story is a reminder that "normal" assumes too much, that narrow perspectives lead to injustices and misjudgments about others and, often, about ourselves. Perhaps a full year of masking ourselves for the sake of our wider community/society should serve as a metaphor for new ways of walking through life. Wouldn't we all be safer, stronger, and likely wiser, if we observed a literal and figurative "mask" on our commentaries and attempted controls on the lives of others? Wouldn't we feel that much safer and saner and stronger if we knew that others were allowing us and (everyone else) the space to live our lives without judgment from those who have not had the same experiences, in the wide world or within inner lives? I
I'm practicing that now, and gradually improving. I hope that anyone who reads this book might reflect on that. This is especially true for adults. Kids are already very open to the ways of others, until adults insert/transfer their own boundaries and labels and limitations. Books like this serve all of us well.
I had posted this only a few hours before coming across this SHORT testimony by the father of a transgender daughter. It doesn't take long to view/listen. It is also another example of the fact that discussions of this topic (and others) effect INDIVIDUALS and their families, as in Cashier's story above. When anyone attempts to regulate society, they are causing injury to individual lives. Here's the short link, if interested:
A dad's testimony in defense of his daughter.
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