George is a fourth-grader who is anatomically a boy, but feels and believes herself to be a girl. She also desperately wants to portray Charlotte in her school's production of Charlotte's Web. With the help of her best friend, Kelly, George figures out a way to do just that. Kelly also helps George make her public debut as Melissa by letting her borrow her clothes before taking a trip to the zoo.
With the media attention that has been given recently to transgender issues, the topic has worked its way into the schema of school-aged kids. Because this conversation is happening, some kids may come out to their parents or peers as transgender at a younger age. George would be a useful tool for a counselor when a student comes to him/her with a trans-gender question or concern. Since the author, Alex Gino, is also transgender, the thoughts and feelings George experiences in the story are as close to real as one could get. Not once in this story does George "give in" or try to be a "boy". She insists and never gives up on being a girl which reflects the theme which is blazed upon the back cover of the book, "Be who you are." The same is true of other characters in the book. The older brother, the mother, the best friend, the principal, the bully, the disapproving teacher, they all stay true to who they are. They aren't changed by George, they just accept her, agree to learn to accept her, or continue to reject her. George is a new way to look at Havighurst's appropriate sex roles task. The book forces people to consider the plight of transgenders fitting into society.
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