Luna

Peters, J. A. (2004). Luna. New York: Little, Brown and Company. ISBN-10: 0-316-01127-4

Why read this book

You’ve probably heard the word “transgender.” Do you know what it means? Can you imagine what life is like in our mostly heterosexual world if you are a transgender student in high school? Luna will expand your horizons.

Plot summary

Liam is a senior in high school, and he’s doing very well by many traditional benchmarks. He gets good grades and he drives a nice sports car that he bought with money he earns writing computer software and selling computer hardware to other students at school. But he’s torn between this world and his internal life, where he has always known he is female rather than male. He sees himself as a girl – whom he names Luna – who is trapped in a boy’s body, and it’s getting harder and harder to deal with the contradictions.

One of the bright spots in Liam’s life is his sister Regan, who is two years younger. They have bedrooms and a rec room in the basement of their parents’ suburban home, and that’s the only place where Liam can be Luna, dressing as she chooses and talking about the things that really matter to her. Liam’s best friend since they were kids, other than Regan, is Alyson, and that presents a problem. Regan thinks Alyson wants Liam to become her boyfriend, making it all the harder for Luna to be honest with Alyson.

But Luna has no choice. She has to come out to Alyson, and to her parents, and to the world, if she is to find happiness. How much pain will this cost, both to Luna and to Regan, whose life revolves around supporting Liam and Luna?

Critical evaluation

By creating this intimate portrait of transgender reality, Julie Anne Peters does a great service to transgender people as well as those of us whose understanding and acceptance is essential for their well being in this world. Positioning Liam as a successful young man diminishes the push factors in his need to become Luna (he’s not running away from anything) and focuses his transformation on the pull factor, the desire to achieve Luna’s potential as a person rather than to bury it. Telling the story through Regan’s first-person narration adds an important dimension, the role of allies in the journey to actualization. Regan is important not only for the support she gives Liam and Luna, but also because her acceptance of her role and her awareness of the price she pays for it give non-transgender readers a lot to think about. We see clearly that Luna’s liberation turns out to be liberating for Regan as well.

About the author

Julie Anne Peters was born in New York in 1952 and grew up in Colorado. She still lives there, now with her partner Sheri, whom she met in college, “and we’ve been together ever since” (Peters, n.d.). She worked as a teacher and then as a computer software person before turning to writing in the late 1980s. She has published 15 books for tweens and young adults, many of them with LGBTQ themes, including her most recent novel, Rage: A Love Story. To be published in January 2010 is By the Time You Read This, I’ll Be Dead, which explores teen suicide. Peters maintains a Web site and a blog.

Genre: LGBTQ, Life is hard

Curriculum ties

Because Liam’s identity issues are so dramatic, the novel would be good material for any lesson or unit that helps students explore their identities. Obviously it would be most useful to transgender youth, but many others could find a provocative model in Liam’s struggle. Regan’s identity as an ally also provides a lot of food for thought.

Book-talking ideas

• Chapter 1 is short, conveys the nature of the story quickly, and ends dramatically. Reading it during a book talk should be effective.

• Reading the early scene of Liam and Alyson playing computer games in Liam and Regan’s basement rec room (p. 34-5) would show potential readers that the book is not about someone exotic but about someone they could know.

Reading level/interest age

Although I think the novel was written with older teens in mind, many middle school students would find the reading level accessible. Three middle school libraries in the San Francisco Unified School District own copies of Luna, along with seven high schools.

Challenge issues

Although the book does not include sexual scenes, many people mistakenly associate transgender issues with taboo sex topics. I imagine Luna would provoke challenges in many school and even public libraries.

Responses

• Remind the challenger of the policy (in the case of the San Francisco Public Library) to present “all points of view on current and historical issues. Materials should not be proscribed or removed because of partisan or doctrinal disapproval.”

• Remind the challenger how important it is for all readers to find materials in the library that tell their own stories.

• Remind the challenger that Luna is about gender, not about sex. Assure the reader that it is unlikely any young person would choose a life as difficult as being transgender simply because he or she read a book about someone else being transgender.

• Inform the reader that Luna was a 2004 National Book Award Finalist, a high honor in the world of young adult literature, and won many other awards.

Why I chose to read this book

The book was required reading for my library science course, but I hope that I would have found it even if it hadn’t been.

References

Peters, J. A. (n.d.) Young Adult and Children’s Author Julie Anne Peters. Retrieved November 27, 2009, from http://julieannepeters.com/