Girl Mans Up

This book was provided to me as an uncorrected digital review copy by the publisher, via Edelweiss.

All Pen wants is to be the kind of girl she’s always been. So why does everyone have a problem with it? They think the way she looks and acts means she’s trying to be a boy—that she should quit

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trying to be something she’s not. If she dresses like a girl, and does what her folks want, it will show respect. If she takes orders and does what her friend Colby wants, it will show her loyalty.
But respect and loyalty, Pen discovers, are empty words. Old-world parents, disintegrating friendships, and strong feelings for other girls drive Pen to see the truth—that in order to be who she truly wants to be, she’ll have to man up.

Girl Mans Up is currently the most satisfying read of the year for me. I was happy with the depiction of Pen, a girl who doesn’t really feel like a girl, but doesn’t want to be a boy either. She digs girls, but doesn’t feel comfortable with the labels gay, lesbian, or queer. The thing about Pen is that she isn’t interested in putting other peoples’ questions about her gender or sexual preference to rest. She just wants to be allowed to be herself, without being treated like she’s a freak. This rings very true to me, and I feel it will do the same with teenagers. Even those who aren’t going through the same circumstances as Pen, will recognize the frustration of feeling that you have to fit into everyone else’s expectations, and God help you if you don’t. At the heart of it, this book is about acceptance: Acceptance of one self and of others, even if the only acceptance you can give others means accepting that they are asshats.
I would recommend this book to any teenager who struggles with needing the approval of others. I also highly recommend this to parents of tweens and teens, because a little understanding can cover a lot of hurts.

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Amazing book. I hadn't realized how much YA fiction needed a character like Pen (or how few times I'd seen butch characters and this sort of exploration of gender roles and experiences).

Girl Mans Up covers a lot of ground... family relationships, both good and bad, frienships, also both good and bad, teen pregnancy, being a lesbian, respect, loyalty, doing the right thing, and above all, being true to yourself.
The narrator, Pen, is a Junior in a Catholic high school in the suburbs

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near Toronto. She knows who she is, but nearly everyone else seems to want her to be something else. She dresses like a boy, acts like a boy, hangs out with boys, and loves video games. She has trouble at school and at home because of it. The only two people who seem to really accept he as she is are her adult brother, Johnny, and her low-life friend Colby. Johnny is awesome. Colby is scum. And a big element of the book is Pen's growing realization that her best friend is a pretty horrible person.
Pen has a crush on Blake, a girl works at the gamer's store in the mall, and is also a fellow student. Pen describes how she feels having a crush, and how she feels when that crush turns out to have the hots for her too, and Girard's writing is absolutely spot-on. Anyone who has ever had a crush (and I think that's about everyone) will recognize those feelings. Doesn't matter if you're hetero, lesbian, gay... those feelings towards your crush are the same.
Although the book will surely be embraced mainly by a lesbian audience, it is entirely accessible to anyone, teen or older, regardless of sexual orientation. Because it's just a damn good book.

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fiction (LGTBQ; teen/school drama, girl gamers, and some fist-fighting; incidentally, Pen's parents are Old World Portuguese immigrants). I love the cover and how Pen grows as a character (learning about true friendship and how to make smarter choices in her actions) in this story. More,

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please!

Parental note: Pen is an 11th grader and she and her friends deal with some adult situations (teen pregnancy and the sort of actions that result in teen pregnancy (though nothing explicit), weed and alcohol consumption, fist-fighting (in which the inherent dangers are handily pointed out by a cop--namely, accidental death and going to jail for manslaughter).

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