This is how it Always is

Location & Checkout Length	Call Number	Checkout Length	Item Status
Downtown 2nd Floor 4-week checkout	Fiction / Frankel, Laurie	4-week checkout	On Hold Shelf
Malletts Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Frankel, Laurie	4-week checkout	Due 04-14-2024
Westgate Adult Books 4-week checkout	Adult Book / Fiction / General / Frankel, Laurie	4-week checkout	Due 05-20-2024

"This is how a family keeps a secret...and how that secret ends up keeping them. This is how a family lives happily ever after...until happily ever after becomes complicated. This is how children change...and then change the world. When Rosie and Penn and their four boys welcome the newest member of their family, no one is surprised it's another baby boy. At least their large, loving, chaotic family knows what to expect. But Claude is not like his brothers. One day he puts on a dress and refuses to take it off. He wants to bring a purse to kindergarten. He wants hair long enough to sit on. When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl. Rosie and Penn aren't panicked at first. Kids go through phases, after all, and make-believe is fun. But soon the entire family is keeping Claude's secret. Until one day it explodes. This Is How It Always Is is a novel about revelations, transformations, fairy tales, and family. And it's about the ways this is how it always is: Change is always hard and miraculous and hard again; parenting is always a leap into the unknown with crossed fingers and full hearts; children grow but not always according to plan. And families with secrets don't get to keep them forever"-- Provided by publisher.

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COMMUNITY REVIEWS

Great LGBTQ+/equality novel submitted by Xris on November 15, 2020, 3:36pm I love how the family in this book is based on love and acceptance, how gender roles aren't a thing, and how in the end, they find the middle way. If only society was as accepting of people who don't fit the norms as this family's community in Seattle. I'm going to try and work towards that society. And I love the dad's bed-time story fairy tale, as a way to explain things. Great book!

Awesome novel for parents of trans kids submitted by legalmama on June 26, 2021, 9:32pm This book beautifully captures the breath holding that all parents feel when trying to keep their children safe from bullying or violence due to gender identity, and the complexity of every decision. I liked the nuanced understanding of how it takes an entire family of allies to support a transgender child. It is also warm and interesting. The parents are great role models

An Amazing Read submitted by JJM.Deucher on July 5, 2023, 7:06am Frankel is the type of writer who makes you want to read the book in one sitting. The book balances the love the family has for their youngest child with the real fears, anxieties, and challenges each member of the family faces in navigating life with a trans child/sibling.