Wikipedia notes that transsexualism is a theme in Irving’s “A Son of the Circus” (have not read) and protaganist Jack Burns in the supposedly loosely autobiographical “Until I Find You” gaisn fame as a cross-dressing actor.

Aha! I knew it! It would hardly be the largest of his self-reinventions, after all…

Interesting idea. Ironically, that makes for the same dilemma for trans characters as for flesh-and-blood trans people. If their transness is seen, then the fact that it’s seen is taken as proof that they aren’t “successful” or “real” or whatever. If it’s unseen, then they can’t refute the assertion that successful trans people don’t exist.

Thanks, you beat me to it. I particularly love Marcus’s book, which is a picture book aimed at very young kids.

People might also try Questors by Joan Lennon, a middle school book that includes an alien kid from a species where physical gender differences don’t express at all until puberty. Also Cycler and Recycler by Lauren McGaughlin, YA novels about a girl who, werewolf-like, turns into a boy once a month.

Yep, I feel your pain. Science fiction in particular has a poor reputation of using unrealistic portrayals of trans people to make political points about gender. Some of the worst offenders are lesbian feminists. The point I was trying to make with that paragraph is that we shouldn’t automatically condemn a book about a trans character simply because it is by a cis writer. We need our stories told well, and if we can find cis people to do so that’s helpful. If they do so badly then we correct them. What we shouldn’t do is discourage them from trying, because that will pretty much guarantee they get it wrong.

The good news is that things appear to be getting better. That is, at least in SF, many cis writers are making a conscious to use trans characters fairly, and are consulting people like Roz Kaveney or myself for advice on doing so.

10,000 Dresses by Marcus Ewart is a recent children’s book about a gender variant boy.
http://www.amazon.com/10-000-D.....1583228500

Choir Boy by Charlie Anders is a book about a trans/gender variant teenaged boy.

I seem to recall a character in the movie ‘The Wonder Boys’ that was tranz, whose being tranz wasn’t an important part of the story. Was it a book first?