Book Awards & Nominations:
HRC's Welcoming Schools Booklist
2017 Rainbow Project Book List Middle Grade Fiction Selection
2018 Nominee North Carolina Young Adult Book Award
2017 Buckeye Children’s and Teen Book Award
2018 RI Middle School Book Award Nominee
2019 Virginia Reader’s Choice Award Nominee
2019 North Carolina School Library Media Association Middle School Book Award
"it's refreshing to read a story with a young trans character already living life as his true gender and never questioning his identity."
School Library Journal
"...a warm, realistic book that offers a sensitive take on a topic that’s very much in the air."
Publishers Weekly
"An honest, encouraging addition to the growing ranks of transgender lit for the middle grades."
Booklist
"With equal doses of hopefulness and realism, THE OTHER BOY portrays the ups and downs of a transgender boy's life as he navigates the delicate interplay of public openness and private self-awareness. M. G. Hennessey has gifted us with an emotionally complex and achingly real read about a lovable boy's journey as he carves his path in a sometimes cruel, sometimes beautiful world."
Ami Polonsky
author of Gracefully Grayson
"This book is a must for public library collections."
American Library Association GLBT Reviews
"I loved this book. I started it before cooking dinner, I read it while cooking dinner, I took a bit of a break to eat dinner and be social with the family, and then I finished it after dinner. And I’m tempted to start reading it again right now rather than start a new book."
YA Books Central
This is the story with a triumphant-but-realistic ending that trans kids haven’t had enough of. It’s challenging but not tragic, and it ends with bright, beautiful hope.
Kirkus Reviews