This is How it Always is by Laurie Frankel is a novel about one family’s journey raising their children and all the challenges and transformations they have to go through. Their youngest child Claude, born a boy, believes he is a girl. He begins wearing dresses and changes his name to Poppy. The parents, who are almost too good to be true, support him fully, move the family and keep their secret, until they no longer can.

Although filled with some cliches, run-on sentences, and impossible to believe situations, I still really loved this book. It gave a voice to gender dysphoria and trans kids that is not heard often enough in literature. I just wish the book had been written entirely from Poppy’s point of view rather than the parents. A timely and worthwhile read.