f2m:the boy within

by Hazel Edwards, Ryan S. Kennedy

School-leaver Skye plays guitar in an all-female Chronic Cramps band. Joining the punk/indie scene is easier than FTM (female to male) transitioning: from Skye to Finn, from girl to transman. 'f2m;the boy within' was the first YA novel about transitioning co-written by an ftm. It has also inspired a comic graphic novel 'The Boy Within' which is currently being created by two transmen Ryan Kennedy & Sam Orchard. 'F2m;the boy within' will be included in the Australian National Library exhibition on significant YA novels in September 2019.

Genres: Queer, Young Adult, LGBT, Transgender, Gender, Fiction, Realistic Fiction

330 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 2009

About the author

Hazel is a readaholic, author and Reading Ambassador.

She’s best known for the children’s classic ‘There’s a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake’ which inspired ' Hippo! Hippo! the, Musical'' produced by Garry Ginivan which toured nationally.

Dec 2025 , The Guardian newspaper listed 'There's a Hippopotamus on Our Roof Eating Cake' in the top 50 Australian picture books. In January 2026 voting in the Guardian poll will close for the top picture book.
2026 will celebrate the 46th year of this picture book.

Her unconventional memoir 'Not Just a Piece of Cake-Being an Author' (AUDIBLE and from www.ligatu _re as part of UnTapped project of historical Australian literature. ).
'Wasted?' a YA/adult cross over #Clific novel is her latest, set around the Garbage Patches, mid ocean where Asylum Seekers trade bio fuel to form a new State and gain visas. In dsylexi font from ReadHowYouWant and being adapted for screen.
Adult murder mystery 'Celebrant Sleuth: I do...or die' with asexual sleuth Quinn is currently on AUDIBLE ,read by the author from print & e versions. 'Wed,Then Dead on The Ghan' is a mini-sequel , commissioned by ABC audio and currently being adapted as a screenplay.
Hazel mentors her 'Hazelnuts' and helps people craft their ancestry in her popular workshops ‘Writing a Non- Boring Family History’, and 'Complete Your Book in a Year'.
'Fake I.D.' a family history mystery YA novel was translated into Tamil by Cre-A in Chennai.

Hazel’s 2001 Antarctic expedition inspired the young adult eco-thriller 'Antarctica's Frozen Chosen', picture book ‘Antarctic Dad’ (reprinted by Kipas) and the memoir, ‘Antarctic Writer on Ice’. Reading about Antarctica is a hobby.
Recently AmbaPress.com.au re-issued updated script collections of Hazel's class plays including 'Grief and Loss in Schools' , 'Issues' and 'Workplays' as well as 'Kaleidoscope of Ideas for Gifted students'. Authorpreneurship' and 'Writing for Young People' have been popular.

Hazel writes a new story for each of her four grandsons each birthday. 'Go Go Gecko' is latest and is being translated.

Reviews

[Ashley · Rating 2 out of 5]

Oy, it took me such a long time to write a review for this book. It was a pretty painful read because it was so dull, and I didn't want to pick it up again to write my review. Still, I'm glad a transitioning story exists at my public library, and I think a lot of the trials Finn faces in the book are accurate.

A lot of stuff in the book isn't realistic, though, particularly the amount of time Finn takes to go through all of the steps of transitioning. In the beginning, he's like, "I'm a dude. I'm not going to get into why I am completely 100% sure about being a dude and taking hormones and getting surgery done, but even though I am zero engaged with any trans issues and know absolutely nothing about transitioning I think I'll undergo irreversible body changes by the end of next month." He goes through the process as quickly as a 7-year-old goes through a connect-the-dots page in an activity book, and transforms from closeted life as a girl to public life as a flat-chested, deep-voiced guy in a matter of months, an unattainable feat for trans people in the real world due to psychiatric requirements the book fails to mention. Also, how lucky that Finn has magically saved money he never knew about! Good thing his older brother also seems to have never known about his own share of magically saved money and is super invested in Finn getting a mastectomy. Easy peasy, trans folks! I don't know why you campaign so hard to get this stuff covered by your healthcare providers! :(

Also, while not all transitioning stories have to get into politics and personal reasons for transitioning, I was kind of scared for Finn because he didn't seem to have done any research or even taken his counseling seriously lest it get in the way of him achieving maleness. I thought that when he met a trans guy who wasn't into changing his body he would at least elaborate on why that option wasn't for him, but instead he just villified the other trans guy and wrote him off as a know-it-all! Also, even if you're not going to get into the gender politics of transitioning, it's still problematic when Finn's brother tells him he would feel more comfortable with Finn once he had chest surgery because then they could be bros instead of Finn being some girl he couldn’t talk to because boobs and stuff. WTF?

Read my more librarianish review at http://respectablecollection.wordpress.com/2012/04/14/f2m/.

[Ace Taylor · Rating 5 out of 5]

I picked up this book a few weeks ago to read as she's attending a festival I'm helping run and doing a talk on this book and I'm glad I did. It's a simple and easy read but completely fascinating. It did go quickly BUT it is aimed for young readers so that is understandable in many ways. Despite that it hits the important issues that are relative to this topic.

[Steph · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a fantastic, groundbreaking novel - I think the fact that one of the writers is trans himself adds to the authenticity of the novel and the issue of gender transitioning was dealt with honestly. Hopefully this is a novel that will both entertain and educate teenaged readers.

The elements of Skye/Finn's life in the novel outside of his gender transition - the punk music, zines, blogs - all added greatly to the novel. His situation in the novel - having finished school but not yet employed or studying further - is not one often seen in YA novels, but one that reflects the lives of a lot of older teenagers. It's an in-between life stage, which also reflects Skye/Finn's in-between gender issues.

I think teenagers will be able to relate to Skye/Finn in that everyone feels to some degree unhappy with their appearance and different on the inside to the way they appear physically. Skye/Finn's dilemma is just a bit more extreme than being unhappy with your weight or hair colour.

I felt that we didn't get a strong enough sense of the other characters in Skye/Finn's life. I think because we were so much in his head, we never really got to know the other characters enough. I would have liked to find out more about Skye/Finn's friends, as well as finding out more about the really big events in Skye/Finn's transition - it would have been great for those elements to be developed slightly further.

I strongly recommend this book to people who love GLBT fiction, and teenaged (and older) readers looking for an enlightening, funny, fast and original read.

[Heidi]

OMG, Hazel Edwards is the author of "There's a Hippopotamus on my roof eating cake"? That's an absolute classic!

[Paul Collins · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eighteen-year-old Skye is a member of an all-girl punk rock band. Skye has never felt like a girl. Inside, (s) he is Finn, a boy. Making the decision to let Finn be outside as well as in involves a lot of work. How do you tell your family and friends and the members of your feminist rock band that you’re going to undergo female-to-male treatment and surgery? Fortunately, there’s a family precedent: great-uncle Albert … or is that great-aunt Alberta?

Skye/Finn could easily be a victim, but refuses. It isn’t going to be easy for anyone, but (s)he decides, finally, that family, friends and rock band will just have to live with it. And they do.

The book goes into enormous detail about the procedures involved in what is known as FTM. It’s a lot less common than the other way around – male to female – although it has been in the news in the last couple of years, when a man who had kept his female “equipment” had a baby because his wife couldn’t. I knew a female-to-male myself. Unlike Skye, "Jan" became “David” in her/his forties. Nobody, but nobody dared to call Jan a woman, even when she was! And David’s family and friends accepted it as Finn’s family do in the novel. At his funeral, the nephews and nieces referred to "Uncle David", even when he was no longer there to get upset.

The novel also explores the punk rock sub-culture, which is interesting in its own right.

Ford Street Publishing has become known for taking on controversial subjects. It probably needs an author as well-known and respected as Hazel Edwards to get away with this one. Ryan Kennedy, her co-author, is himself an FTM, so knows what he is talking about.

Perhaps an afterword with a URL or organization, if any, within Australia might have helped, so that those to whom the book applies don’t have to do all the web searches that Skye/Finn did in the course of the novel.

It’s well-written and answers a lot of questions. There are some likable characters in it and some nice touches of humour. There’s even the whimsical presentation of a couple who are a female-to-male and a male-to-female. Who are, incidentally, managing just fine. Finn doesn’t like the FTM, Rodney, but hey, he doesn’t have to.

It will certainly appeal to those teenagers who are asking themselves questions about their own gender identities.

Whether or not it will have appeal for ordinary teenagers I am not sure. I suspect they will be uncomfortable with it, though this doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be out there. Will kids who say, “That is so gay!” about anything negative get enthused about characters who are not actually gay but have gender issues? I won’t know until I have put this in my library and seen how the students react. Watch this space.

SUE BURSZTYNSKI

[Stuart Bramhall · Rating 5 out of 5]

f2m: The Boy Within is a sensitive, compelling fictional account of an 18 year old female-to-male transgender teenager and the emotional, social and physical challenges he faces in confronting transition. The writing style, which is extremely engaging, makes you inclined to keep reading once you start. I was especially impressed by the way it balances both the inner dialogue and lingo of turbulent late adolescence.

What I liked best about the novel was the authors’ skill in portraying the subject as a multifaceted human being – a talented poet, composer and musician with clear political ideals and a distinct identity that is totally separate from social expectations that he identify with a specific gender role. In fact, it’s almost as if he’s caught in a time warp: he feels the normal drive of a late adolescent to pursue creative and career goals – yet owing to social stigma, he is unable to fully engage in either until he can physically conform to his self-identified gender. The main character is also quite unique in the closeness he feels towards his family and his extreme conscientiousness regarding family responsibilities.

I can see how this could be a very comforting guide for both teenagers and adults confronting a variety of gender identity issues – as well as their families. The authors’ cover all the bases involved in early transition – working through both positive and negative reactions of friends, family and employers; dealing with stigma and bullying; finding on-line and real-life support from other FTMs; making appropriate use of counselling; the medical and psychiatric assessments required to start hormone replacement and to get a surgery referral; and the physical and emotional side effects of starting hormones.

Most important of all, however, is the emphasis that there isn’t just one acceptable way to transition from female to male. That the process involves a number of choice points, which is one reason why counseling is so helpful. Some FTMs opt not to take hormones. Some opt for breast removal surgery only and forgo genital reconstruction.

I sense the realistic, multifaceted characters – as well as the dramatic tension leading to the subject’s decision to come out to various family members and their individual struggles to accept his decision – will also be quite appealing to mainstream readers. As a well-told story exploring one particular dimension of the human condition.

[Narrelle · Rating 5 out of 5]

Ford Street Publishing is certainly not tying itself down to just one genre for its YA readers. There's been Foz Meadows' "Solace and Grief" (vampires), George Ivanoff's "Gamer's Quest" (fantasy/SF/gaming) and now "f2m - The Boy Within" - a transgender coming of age story.

f2m is the first-person story of Finn - born Skye - who decides, on his 18th birthday, to finally take steps to becoming the male he knows he is, inside the female form he was born with. It's not going to be easy, though. What will his family think? And what about the punk band for which he plays lead guitar, the Chronic Cramps? Will his oldest friends see this as a betrayal of their feminist principles from their female friend Skye, or will they learn to embrace Finn in their formerly 'all girl' band?

There's a lot to learn in this book: about being transgendered, the choices that can be made, and the challenges transgendered people and their families can be faced with. It would be a great book for anyone going through those changes, or their family and friends, because it offers so much insight.

However, it would be a dull book if it was only some treatise in educating the public about transgender issues. Instead, it's is about being true to who you really are, even when that's really hard (and even if you're not entirely sure who that is yet). It's also about friendship, family secrets, unconditional love, courage and compassion. Those are themes that any person can relate to regardless of age, gender, sexuality or preferred brand of music. It's a great, easy read too - I gobbled it up in less than two days!

While the book is not autobiographical, co-author Hazel Edwards has known Ryan Kennedy for over 20 years - since Ryan was an 11 year old girl.

Find out more about f2m, including how to buy it at Hazel Edwards' website. http://www.hazeledwards.com/books/yaf...

[Luna · Rating 4 out of 5]

Wow, I loved this book. It's so fantastic to see a book dealing with transgender issues, and, to a certain extent, gay/lesbian issues. This is what Luna by Julie Anne Peters could have been like, except for two obvious differences: f2m: The Boy Within is set in Australia, and Finn(/Skye) is FTM.

Now, some things come a bit easily for Finn. There appears to be a genetic issue, although I'm somewhat uncomfortable with it. His Great Uncle Albert was born Alberta, and was an intersex child. Albert(a) always felt uncomfortable as a a girl, and transitioned later in life. However, Finn doesn't appear to be intersex. Although I understand what the authors were attempting to do, it just didn't sit right with me. It felt like they were implying that transsexuals are intersex.

I also felt things were a bit too easy for Finn. The surgery and testosterone injections seemed to come about very fast. I can't help but think that given Finn had only been living as a man for a few weeks (or a couple of months at most), they wouldn't go straight for chest surgery. Testosterone, yeah, okay, maybe, but chopping off his breasts? Hmm, kind of touches me as being a bit fast.

But I loved the tone of the book. It was warm, a touch funny, and Finn was very agreeable. The characters were somewhat one-sided, but it didn't draw away from the book. I'm glad there's a book that deals with transsexual issues on the market for teens.

[Mersini · Rating 3 out of 5]

Oh dear.

On the one hand, I appreciated the subject matter of this novel; trans youth are often ignored in the face of other queer issues, and the stories most heard are of those who began to transition later in life. So I was glad this existed.

On the other hand, it's quite poorly written. There's enough there to keep you going, which is why this novel is getting three stars and not two, but the style is appalling. It begins an idea only to drop it or segue badly into something else. And it doesn't hit close enough to reality, with the strong emotional, mental and physical struggles a trans person faces, to be considered an accurate portrait of a trans person. Of course, that is my opinion. Others may feel differently about that. But I can say that the mystery of great uncle Al was not played out well, going from mystery to vague explanation without enough of a connection of the main character, Finn, to him.

Finn also seems to leap over hurdles without a hitch. I would have liked to see more conflict. Even the disapproval of his mother seemed distant and vague. I think the issue in this book is the lack of confrontation. The conflicts are present, but never resolved through some kind of confrontation or important conversation; they seem to just work themselves out.

I'm glad this book exists, because it sets a precedent, but I hope the ones that follow are better.

[Nicole Field · Rating 4 out of 5]

f2m turned out to be fantastic follow up reading for Delusions of Gender.

Written in first person, this book seems more like a memoir or autobiography than anything else. Although it was off to a bit of a rough start, with patchy chapters and scenes that both started and finished a little bit too abruptly, the story found its voice and went really smoothly from there. I really got to like the character of Skye, who became Finn. The story within the story of Finn’s great uncle Al was incredibly interesting, especially given that it gave us insight into the reactions of a family towards an intersex young man from two generations ago, but it was also incredibly relevant to the present story.

The parents’ struggles were real and authentic, without either one of them coming across as a ‘bad guy’ or antagonist. This was just another way in which the story read as an autobiography instead of a structured narrative.

The most interesting part of the book, for me, was that it was set after the age of eighteen for the main character. Finn isn’t at school, though he does live with his parents. He has a part time job as a dish hand in a Chinese restaurant. As the genre is littered with teens going through transitions and various other LGBT issues, this really stood out.

[Nicky · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was stunned to realise that the author I adored as a child, the author of the 'Hippopotamus' picture books, was also the author of a YA book about a trans teen transitioning to a male body. I sort of expect authors to be stuck back writing for the age you discovered them at, I think: I didn't expect Hazel Edwards to have any kind of a subtle grasp on gender and sexuality, to have any of the issues I've become familiar with as an adult close to her heart too.

Well, her grasp of gender and transitioning isn't that subtle -- I think this book is tremendously naive about the problems teens face with their families and friends, and about the long medical process of transition -- but I'm immensely glad this book is out there. Maybe it doesn't hurt for an optimistic, naive story to be out there for trans teens to get hold of, although I wish it came with a warning that the medical procedures could not legally or even morally (on the part of the doctors) be carried out this fast.

It's simply written, too, a quick read, suitable for young teens.

[Banditnator · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the first book I have read that has dealt with the subject matter. After reading the first few pages I was excited as the protagonist and I shared a lot in common. But the excitement stopped there. The writing was mediocre, as was the 'fill in' story that seemed awkward misplaced. On the up side, I loved the portions that dealt with the actual transitioning process, it felt real and very accurate. One of the down sides is how unlikable the characters are, and how blatantly stupid Finn is in some portions. Overall I did not connect emotionally at all with Finn, despite the similarity of what he is going through to my life. The punk theme was also a bit stereotypical and much, and annoyed me a fair bit. In the end I am glad I have read this, it did help me considerably in terms of thinking about going through transitioning myself. I was just a bit disappointed.

[Hazele · Rating 5 out of 5]

Internationally, this is the first YA novel co-written by an author who has transitioned gender.If you Google the full title, there are lots of online guest blogs and reviews. Further details, reviews and a book trailer on the co-authors sites www.hazeledwards.com and www.ryanscottkennedy.com The publishers site www.fordstreetpublishing.com

[Jools Xavier · Rating 5 out of 5]

A good book about a f2m journey from womanhood to man hood. I know the book is fiction, but it made me think about my journey in this world. I loved it and own it.

[Casey · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read in two days. Hazel is a great author, really captivates the audience and goes into depth about aspects most books would skim over. great read and informational at the same time

[Jane Connory · Rating 5 out of 5]

Interesting, insightful and tugs on the heart strings. Ignorance is no longer an excuse ...

[June Alexander · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thanks, Hazel, for another great book, on an issue that has been 'hidden under the carpet' for far too long.

[Swankivy · Rating 3 out of 5]

I wanted to like this book more because I want there to be more FTM literature around for people who need to see themselves represented. And there's nothing incorrect or inauthentic about the book--it seems like a fine representation of how one person's transition can go. But the writing itself felt a little soulless, I guess--there wasn't much to the book besides the facts of what Finn was doing, and just honestly not much feeling. Everything is just sort of going through the motions, and most of the characters we see sort of pop in to present one of the typical reactions FAAB people often get when they transition. Someone exists to say transphobic things. Someone exists to wail about losing their "daughter." Someone exists to resist his transition because being known as a group of girls is disrupted by his transition. There were a few aspects of his life that weren't specifically about his relatively typical journey through partial medical transition, which was good (a few things about his band, a few things about his grandmother), but those were pretty divorced from emotion as well. It's like people are saying and doing the things that I know should matter and should be emotional, but I just had no connection to anything that was happening.

I didn't learn anything new about the experience of being FTM (though that's subjective; if this was your first book on the topic, I imagine some of it would be eye-opening), and there was very little that felt unique (though I'd never seen a story with an intersex great-uncle in it--a character who partially inspired some family members to accept Finn's new gender presentation because they'd known how frustrating and disappointing it had been for Albert to have been raised as Alberta). So much of it was just very . . . declarative. Instead of watching Finn experience dysphoria, it was more like "Finn mentions not liking having breasts. Finn experiments with binding. Finn isn't satisfied with how it looks but does it anyway. Finn points out that he feels dysphoria from that. Next." We're frequently told Finn was anxious, Finn felt bad, Finn was preoccupied, Finn was angry. Most of it you just have to take his word for it. You can't really feel it in the story. There's a scene where he decides to call himself Finn instead of using his birth name (Skye), and it's basically like "I said my name was Finn, that was a name I always liked." Nothing else to it. And that's then his name forever. (More thought was put into the middle name, but the eventual decision felt a little cheesy.)

I WAS a little more caught up in it by the end of the story, so I do think it got better as Finn went further on his journey, but for the most part it was just "then Finn had to get a counselor, and then he went to the counselor, and then they talked about this, and then he had to do this, and then he had this problem, and then he met some other FTMs and some were cool and some were not, and then he had to come out to his family and Dad acted like this while Mom acted like this, and then. . . . " More like a roadmap to a life without much actual life JUICE in it.

Short overall assessment: I like that this book was written but I did not like how it was written. I can't really think of a memorable part or a part I liked. There were a few things I was glad not to see, like it was cool that they didn't include the trope where the trans person gets beat up or something. (That's more likely to happen to trans women, though.) I kind of want to give this book two stars because I just didn't have a good time reading it, but I'm giving it three because with a book like this it's so easy to go REALLY wrong, and my disappointment is mostly surrounding what it wasn't rather than what it was.

[Julie Decker · Rating 3 out of 5]

Finn is a trans guy, but for now, the world sees him as Skye--a teenage girl in an all-female punk band. Finn wants to transition and become the man he knows he is, but before his wishes can come true he must disclose these personal details to his friends, his bandmates, his medical professionals, and of course, most notably, his family. The medical transition he wants to pursue also comes with roadblocks: confusion over research, anxiety about counselor assessments, bad reactions to hormone replacement therapy, and the prohibitive costs of top surgery balanced against the physical strain and discomfort from binding. His journey through transition, his relationships with his family and bandmates, and a surprising connection with a dead relative are catalogued in this story of transformation into who he was all along.

I'm thrilled that more FTM stories are out there but I just don't like how this book was written. The writing's pretty bland and feels fake somehow, even though it is written by people who have personal experience with the subject matter. I don't doubt the authenticity at all; I just wasn't impressed with the craftsmanship.

[Fei · Rating 2 out of 5]

giving it 2 stars because i personally didn’t love it that much and wasn’t really invested in the characters, largely because it’s just... not my scene.
with that said i’ve nothing against f2m at all; it’s an accurate and honest portrayal of a trans character and his transition.

[Cyd · Rating 2 out of 5]

Decent story with a disappointingly abrupt ending.

[Dom · Rating 5 out of 5]

Eighteen-year-old Skye is a member of an all-girl punk rock band. Skye has never felt like a girl. Inside, (s) he is Finn, a boy. Making the decision to let Finn be outside as well as in involves a lot of work. How do you tell your family and friends and the members of your feminist rock band that you’re going to undergo female-to-male treatment and surgery? Fortunately, there’s a family precedent: great-uncle Albert … or is that great-aunt Alberta?

Skye/Finn could easily be a victim, but refuses. It isn’t going to be easy for anyone, but (s)he decides, finally, that family, friends and rock band will just have to live with it. And they do.

The book goes into enormous detail about the procedures involved in what is known as FTM. It’s a lot less common than the other way around – male to female – although it has been in the news in the last couple of years, when a man who had kept his female “equipment” had a baby because his wife couldn’t. I knew a female-to-male myself. Unlike Skye, "Jan" became “David” in her/his forties. Nobody, but nobody dared to call Jan a woman, even when she was! And David’s family and friends accepted it as Finn’s family do in the novel. At his funeral, the nephews and nieces referred to "Uncle David", even when he was no longer there to get upset.

The novel also explores the punk rock sub-culture, which is interesting in its own right.

Ford Street Publishing has become known for taking on controversial subjects. It probably needs an author as well-known and respected as Hazel Edwards to get away with this one. Ryan Kennedy, her co-author, is himself an FTM, so knows what he is talking about.

Perhaps an afterword with a URL or organization, if any, within Australia might have helped, so that those to whom the book applies don’t have to do all the web searches that Skye/Finn did in the course of the novel.

It’s well-written and answers a lot of questions. There are some likable characters in it and some nice touches of humour. There’s even the whimsical presentation of a couple who are a female-to-male and a male-to-female. Who are, incidentally, managing just fine. Finn doesn’t like the FTM, Rodney, but hey, he doesn’t have to.

It will certainly appeal to those teenagers who are asking themselves questions about their own gender identities.

Whether or not it will have appeal for ordinary teenagers I am not sure. I suspect they will be uncomfortable with it, though this doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be out there. Will kids who say, “That is so gay!” about anything negative get enthused about characters who are not actually gay but have gender issues? I won’t know until I have put this in my library and seen how the students react. Watch this space.

SUE BURSZTYNSKI

[Christopher Moss · Rating 5 out of 5]

Skye is the lead guitar in an all-girl punk band Chronic Cramps, but she knows her days with the band are numbered because, as she is learning to accept, she is a boy. Finn, as the trans-kid chooses to call himself, is now eighteen and finished with school, and he is ready to start presenting his true gender, whatever that takes. He will find opposition from many quarters, including his punk friends, but his persistence and self assuredness are inspiring.

Though I did not act on the same conviction as Finn does until I was 60 years old, I recognized his strategy every step of the way, making this one of the most authentic depictions of transition I have read. Since Finn is perfectly aware of who he is, this is not so much of a coming out story as many others are, but really the narrative of a trans-boy's journey through acting on what he needs to do. The Internet is the resource for him it really is for transgender people now, so he is well versed in what he needs and finds a peer group he can use as mentors to make the best use of what he learns about gender expression, hormones, surgeries, his name, and how to cope with opposition or doubt from others.

Particularly insightful is the portrayal of Finn's feminist friends who in spite of their punk assertion of the value of individuality regard his self-determination as being "duped by patriarchy" as an old friend of mine used to say. The story does not shy away from portraying the pain Finn's mother experiences having lost the little girl she always wanted but has been thwarted. Another realistic touch is that Finn discovers that no two transmen are alike, that there is not just one way of acting on one's gender identity, and that he might not even like every transman he meets. The thrust of Finn's journey is that he learns and absorbs and is not willing to detour from his path.

From one FTM to another, good on you, Finn. And thanks to authors Hazel Edwards and Ryan Kennedy for such an entertaining exploration of what a transgender young person finds and faces today.

That's All I Read, http://kitmossreviews.blogspot.com
GLBT Bookshelf, http://glbtbookshelf.com

[Gem Dean · Rating 5 out of 5]

Skye is an 18-year-old girl. She plays in an all-girl punk band. She has a loving family. She has friends. She also has a major problem: deep down inside, she knows that she’s actually a boy. f2m: the boy within is the story of how Skye becomes Finn — of how he deals with the transition; of how he tells his family and friends. It is a coming-of-age story about identity.

In many ways this book is a bit of an “Everything you wanted to know about gender transition but were afraid to ask” manual. It includes lots of details on the process, from counselling to hormone treatment to surgery. But it is so much more than this. The book is also a damn good story, with interesting characters, a fascinating look into the punk scene and nice touches of humour. My favourite character is Skye’s grandmother, and I enjoyed reading about her relationships with family, past and present. Her character is important to the story and skilfully woven into the narrative.

This is the sort of YA novel that is likely to make some people uncomfortable because it deals with a topic that is often considered taboo. But it doesn’t sensationalise. It humanises. Understanding is the key to tolerance — and this book opens the door to understanding. It is told from Skye/Finn’s point of view, and the reader gets to experience what is going through this teenager’s mind. This really is the sort of book that should be in every high school library. A highly recommended read!
- George Ivanoff

[Esther · Rating 4 out of 5]

Skye is a punk who plays in an all-girl band, the Chronic Cramps. She’s finished high school and she’s still working out what she wants to do with her life. But she knows one thing for sure: she doesn’t want to be a girl any more. She wants to be a guy, Finn. But that involves some big changes: breast-binding, hormones, surgery if possible. Not to mention telling everyone to use male pronouns and call him by his new name, Finn.

It’s a rocky adjustment for some. His best friend Marla has trouble understanding it, and how can the Chronic Cramps be an all-girl feminist punk band if there’s a guy in it? Finn’s parents are having difficulty coming to terms with their daughter becoming a son, and Finn hasn’t even told his brother yet. Surprisingly, Finn’s elderly Gran is taking it all in her stride, which is when Finn discovers that his long-departed great uncle Al was more similar to him than he originally thought.

f2m: the boy within follows Finn’s medical transition from female to male, which is perhaps improbably smooth and fast, given the medical and bureaucratic red tape transgender people often face. This process brings with it a set of new terminology – a language that Finn translates into song lyrics that help him express who he is. Some plot elements are a little too coincidental to be believable, however Finn is a well-rounded character and his journey is satisfying and ultimately hopeful.

[Sarah Sammis · Rating 4 out of 5]

f2m by Hazel Edwards and Ryan Kennedy is a YA novel about 18 year old Skye deciding to go with her heart and transition to male. Will Finn be welcomed into the once all-girl band? What will her parents and brother think? Plus, there are family secrets!

The book is a pretty quick and tame read. For young adults who might feel the need to transition (especially those in Australia, as some of the steps are very specific to Australian health care), the book reads like a step by step process, wrapped up in a fictionalized package.

To fluff things up, there's Skye/Finn's paricipation a punk band, some stuff about getting a drivers' license and finally, the history of Great Uncle/Aunt Al, whose history is only revealed after Finn begins his transition.

Frankly, Al's story was more interesting than Finn's. From the small handful of transition stories I've now read, they all seem desperate to find a balance between making it seem normal for the character who is transitioning, while making it as dramatic / traumatic for everyone else in the book, while still making the book a "clean" read.

While I still recommended F2M for the logistics of transitioning, I think the best (meaning most believable characters) book I've read so far is Jumpstart the World by Catherine Ryan Hyde.

[Miranda · Rating 2 out of 5]

Had to read this for children's lit, for the week on sexuality (which, incidentally, contained only books about gay, lesbian or transgender sexuality - I felt IGNORED!) I skimmed through the bits about Skye/Finn's family life and punk band, which seemed a bit boring and half-hearted because (I suspect) they were only added to flesh this out and make it a novel rather than an account of someone's transition from female to male. But I found the transition stuff totally fascinating. It seemed really real and genuine which is probably because it was: Hazel Edwards (of There's a Hippopotamus on My Roof Eating Cake fame!) collaborated with a female-male transgender writer to write it. I thought it dealt with the issue in quite a positive, realistic way - Skye/Finn didn't encounter overwhelming prejudice and social segregation over her/his decision, but neither did he get a lovely positive response from all and sundry. Some people were completely normal about it, some people thought it was great, some people were really weird with it and gave him grief about it, some people didn't care at all. Which is, I think, exactly right. It's good that there's books like this out there so that people who ARE secretly wondering about this issue can get an idea of someone else's experience.

[Asher Rivera · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't want to give this book a bad rating. As a book, it's fairly dull and seems too in the mind of the main character without much consistency in actual description or plot, aside from the transition. But it is a story about his transition and aside from not really feeling the character or the story itself, it was pretty true.

Having a book, probably directed at someone younger than myself (mid-twenties), that covers everything from realization, coming out, and the different parts of transition is really valuable for people to read. It might have been better written as a biography, but again that would distance it from the audience a bit.

Final opinion: For those who are in the early realizations of gender variance, this could be really helpful and even make things click for them. For someone who knows the whole process, there's not a whole lot to offer. At least, it's not my cup of tea.

[Boy is the android · Rating 3 out of 5]

The prose starts out stilted, and the characters seem at first like cardboard cut-outs; both improve over the course of the book. There are also a number of punctuation and typographical errors which could have been avoided with a better proofing job. My initial impression was that it was an okay YA book -- not great, but not bad, either, and worth reading for anyone looking for a (YA) novel with an FTM protagonist. The further I got, the more I liked it, and by the end, I'd switched from feeling like I was probably wasting my time to enjoying the book for what it was: a feel-good story about a young trans* person's transition. The book's biggest fault is a weak beginning that spans almost the entire first half, but it's definitely worth sticking it out until the end.

[Jamila Bost · Rating 4 out of 5]

Considering this was my first book concerning transsexualism, I enjoyed it quite a bit. It seemed like a lot of fluff just to fill pages, but it was also a good read. The characters didn't seem to have very deep personalities, other than slight mentions of major topics, i.e, the girls and their punk scene, Vic and his car, the mum and anything "girly". Even Skye/Finn seemed fairly transparent, other than the gender issue. It would've been nice if Skye/Finn had more to themselves, something more to connect to and engage in. Other than that, I enjoyed the book and may possibly read it again in the future.
(will write a proper review when I'm on my computer :) )