Middle School. The threshold to puberty, and the beginning of the end of childhood innocence. Shuichi Nitori and his new friend Yoshino Takatsuki have happy homes, loving families, and are well-liked by their classmates. But they share a secret that further complicates a time of life that is awkward for anyone: Shuichi is a boy who wants to be a girl, and Yoshino is a girl who wants to be a boy. Written and drawn by one of today’s most critically acclaimed creators of manga, Shimura Takako (Even Though We’re Adults), Wandering Son portrays Shuishi and Yoshino’s journey with affection, sensitivity, and gentle humor as they are figuring out their respective genders and take tentative, age-appropriate steps toward transitioning. This new paperback edition collects the first two volumes of Wandering Son (which has been adapted into an anime of the same name available on Crunchyroll). Volume One introduces our two protagonists and the friends and family whose lives intersect with their own. Yoshino is rudely reminded of her sex by immature boys whose budding interest in girls takes clumsily cruel forms. Shuichi’s secret is discovered by Saori, a perceptive and eccentric classmate. In Volume Two, Shuichi and Yoshino have entered the sixth grade and the kids go on a class trip that is a rite of passage Shuichi would rather pass up. A superb coming-of-age story, Wandering Son is a sophisticated work of literary manga translated with rare skill and sensitivity by veteran translator and comics scholar Rachel Thorn.

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