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A review by qtlibrarian
The Ship We Built by Lexie Bean
5.0
the ship we built had me feeling all the feels - i can only imagine what it would've been like to read this during my own queer coming-of-age. instead, i can't wait to gift this to all the young people in my life who i hope will read this book and see themselves and their friends reflected in its pages. it's a middle-grade novel written in letters that follows a trans boy named rowan living in the midwest during the late 90s. it captures all the messy, lonely, scary feelings of his fifth-grade year in such a careful, hopeful voice.
it's a story about how to be yourself when who you are is changing (and the rest of the world refuses to let you change at all). about the ache of constantly feeling out of place. about sending your secret truths out into the world, hoping someone will see them and see you. about wanting more than you think you could ever have. about finding the people who will love you for everything you are. and about imagining a future you can belong to.
rowan explores what it's like to be afraid of your own changes. he questions if he can still be a boy if he cries and sings loudly and his favorite hero is matilda. he worries about what it will be like to grow up when he doesn't see an example of the kind of man he might want to be. but by the end, he begins to see that there are a lot more ways to be a boy than he thought. and just like rowan, this book reaffirmed for me that there are a lot of ways to be trans and tell trans stories.
i also loved what it has to say about friendship, especially between queer people, and all the kinds of "ships" we can build to take us to places we're not sure how to get to. rowan's friendship with sofie is so precious. together, they help each other to expand, check in on their feelings, and hold close the good times and get through the hard.
it is by no means an easy read, but it is honest and spacious. reminded me of lynda barry's my perfect life, jerry spinelli's stargirl, and nicole panteleakos' planet earth is blue. i will be rereading often <3
a big thank you to netgalley & lexie bean for sending me this genuine rosebud of a novel.
it's a story about how to be yourself when who you are is changing (and the rest of the world refuses to let you change at all). about the ache of constantly feeling out of place. about sending your secret truths out into the world, hoping someone will see them and see you. about wanting more than you think you could ever have. about finding the people who will love you for everything you are. and about imagining a future you can belong to.
rowan explores what it's like to be afraid of your own changes. he questions if he can still be a boy if he cries and sings loudly and his favorite hero is matilda. he worries about what it will be like to grow up when he doesn't see an example of the kind of man he might want to be. but by the end, he begins to see that there are a lot more ways to be a boy than he thought. and just like rowan, this book reaffirmed for me that there are a lot of ways to be trans and tell trans stories.
i also loved what it has to say about friendship, especially between queer people, and all the kinds of "ships" we can build to take us to places we're not sure how to get to. rowan's friendship with sofie is so precious. together, they help each other to expand, check in on their feelings, and hold close the good times and get through the hard.
it is by no means an easy read, but it is honest and spacious. reminded me of lynda barry's my perfect life, jerry spinelli's stargirl, and nicole panteleakos' planet earth is blue. i will be rereading often <3
a big thank you to netgalley & lexie bean for sending me this genuine rosebud of a novel.