Beyond Magenta, Susan Kuklin
Beyond Magenta, Susan Kuklin
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Beyond Magenta
Transgender Teens Speak Out

Author: Susan Kuklin

Narrator: Tanya Eby, Nick Podehl, Todd Haberkorn, Roxanne Hernandez, Janina Edwards, Nancy Wu, Marisol Ramirez

Unabridged: 4 hr 35 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 02/11/2014


Synopsis

A 2015 Stonewall Honor BookA groundbreaking work of LGBT literature takes an honest look at the life, love, and struggles of transgender teens.Author and photographer Susan Kuklin met and interviewed six transgender or gender-neutral young adults and used her considerable skills to represent them thoughtfully and respectfully before, during, and after their personal acknowledgment of gender preference. Each honest discussion and disclosure, whether joyful or heartbreaking, is completely different from the other because of family dynamics, living situations, gender, and the transition these teens make in recognition of their true selves.

About Susan Kuklin

Susan Kuklin is the award-winning author and photographer of more than thirty books for children and young adults that address social issues and culture, including No Choirboy: Murder, Violence, and Teenagers on Death Row and Dance with Bill T. Jones. Her photographs have appeared in documentary films and in major newspapers and magazines, including Time, Newsweek, and the New York Times. For Beyond Magenta, Kuklin interviewed, photographed, and then created individual profiles of teenagers in the transgender community. Susan Kuklin lives in New York City with her husband.


Reviews

Goodreads review by Rick on July 10, 2016

A timely and poignant exploration of the lives of transgender teens — each chapter a narrative constructed from interviews with those teens who have, with varying degrees of success, come to terms with their gender identity and overcome prejudice and misunderstanding at home, at school, and in the w......more

Goodreads review by Jae on November 05, 2015

I just...ugh. I was so disappointed by this. Yet another book about trans people but not for us. And I get that the whole point is teens telling their own stories but the way most of them talk about gender is so troubling, especially considering the clearly cis anticipated audience. Trans is not the......more

Goodreads review by Maja (The Nocturnal Library) on November 13, 2016

Beyond Magenta is the very first non-fiction book reviewed here in the five years of The Nocturnal Library’s existence, and I couldn’t have picked a better one for the honor. It consists of six stories about six transgender, genderqueer or gender nonconforming teens, accompanied by gorgeous, honest......more

Goodreads review by Paul on June 01, 2016

I reserved a library copy of Beyond Magenta after seeing it on the American Library Association's annual top ten list of frequently challenged books. Beyond Magenta has become a target of book-banners, according to the ALA, who say it's anti-family, filled with offensive language and references to h......more

Goodreads review by Cat on July 21, 2017

this was disappointing. it was very childish and shallow. and definitely not a book for trans teens. the gender roles and how most of the teens defined themselves based on that made even me, a cisgender person, really uncomfortable. the author's interventions were super weird, specially to listen to.......more


Quotes

“An ensemble of voices delivers this candid collection of interviews with gender-nonconforming teens who struggle to be accepted.… Tanya Eby voices author Susan Kuklin, narrating in a neutral yet respectful tone that allows the more emotional content conveyed by the other narrators to stand out. Most chapters feature a back-and-forth between the interviewer and a teen, and two stories feature family members, who add another narrator to the mix while still clearly distinguishing each perspective. Performed conversationally, each teen's narrative is imbued with authenticity that recounts honest, sometimes brutal, circumstances sincerely. These powerful, revelatory stories speak volumes.” AudioFile Magazine“[A] sorely needed resource for teens and, frankly, many adults... Downright revelatory. ... Kuklin captures these teenagers not as idealized exemplars of what it “means” to be transgender but as full, complex, and imperfect human beings. As Kuklin writes, ‘My subjects’ willingness to brave bullying and condemnation in order to reveal their individual selves makes it impossible to be nothing less than awestruck.’ She isn’t wrong.”Publishers Weekly (starred review)“Kuklin brings her intimate, compassionate and respectful lens to the stories of six transgender young people.... The collective portrait that emerges from these narratives…is diverse, complex and occasionally self-contradictory — as any true story should be. Informative, revealing, powerful and necessary.”Kirkus Reviews (starred review)