Just Shy of Ordinary,

written by A. J. Sass. 
Published by Little, Brown and Company, 2024

Thirteen-year-old nonbinary homeschooler Shai is an expert problem-solver.  They’ve always been good at researching solutions and figuring things out on their own.  But this past year has included many changes, including their mom losing her job, the two needing to move in with family friends, and Shai realizing that they are genderfluid.  With all this stress and change, in March, Shai developed a nervous habit of picking at the hair on their arms.  They have kept it a secret and are confident they can stop before anyone notices.   For the moment, Shai wears decorative arm sleeves every day, no matter the weather, to cover the unsightly pink patches and scabs.  The arm sleeves, created by their best friend Mille, come across as Shai’s personal fashion statement, rather than cover-ups for this nervous picking habit.

Shai is confident that they can overcome this habit as they have found a perfect solution on the internet.  The blog post states that creating a “new normal” can fix almost any problem.  Shai has a “new normal” plan, organized by season:

1. Spring: Come out as nonbinary (genderfluid).
2. Summer: Get a haircut that expresses who I am.
3. Fall: Attend public school instead of being homeschooled.

       a. Make friends
       b. Excel in classes

4. Winter (or sooner): No more arm sleeves – or picking!

Shai’s foolproof plan to completely revise their life comes with wonderful new changes that make them feel happy and empowered.  Their Spring Plan to come out to their mom, their grandparents, and the family friends that Shai and her mom live with (Mille, his older brother Thomas, and their dad Thierry) is a complete success.  Shai’s Summer Plan to get a new haircut from Thierry, who owns a hair salon also turns out great.  This new haircut includes a top layer of hair that falls just to their shoulders, with the sides and back underneath shaved short.  Shai loves the way the top layer swishes over the pricklier hidden layer. 

The Fall plans start off well too, with Shai making new friends Nia and Edie at public school, and the unexpected surprise of being skipped ahead a grade, because of Shai’s academic giftedness.  It’s still a bit stressful that Nia and Edie assume they are a girl, but Shai hopes to have the confidence to come out to them soon.   Shai’s ninth-grade Honor’s English project titled Visions in Pride (VIP) presents unexpected challenges and stresses too.  Each student’s VIP must encompass a series of essays that bring pride and have a personal connection.  Shai’s VIP project will be researching their family history and Jewish heritage.  Shai will do this from a secular perspective, as their mother Hannah is no longer religious.  With the support of loving grandparents, Shai begins their VIP project by attending a Rosh Hashanah Shabbat service at Grandpa and Nan’s Reform synagogue, which is welcoming and inclusive.  Shai is delighted to learn the Rosh Hashanah holiday welcomes the New Year, with people greeting each other with “Shanah Tovah,” shanah means ‘year’ and tovah means ‘good.’  Additionally, the root letters in the word shanah can mean ‘change.’  Shai loves the idea that people are wishing each other a good new year and for good changes in the year to come.  For Shai, this fits perfectly with their wanting to create a “new normal” with a year full of good changes so that they don’t have to hide any part of themself.  But there are so many perplexing questions.  Why won’t Shai’s mom talk about her Jewish heritage or attend services with Shai, at the congregation where she was actively involved as a child?  Shai’s mom won’t talk about it, and Shai’s grandparents won’t talk about it either.  With each new change, there are more questions and surprises, and also more stress.  Shai begins to realize that no plan is perfect – and that sometimes the best way forward is with the help of family and friends.  Otherwise, they may not be able to stop picking at the hair on their arms.

A.J. Sass (he/they) is the author of the American Library Association Rainbow Book List Top Ten titles Ellen Outside the Lines, Ana on the Edge, as well as Camp QUILT-BAG (cowritten with Nicole Melleby). 

In the Author’s Note at the back of Just Shy of Ordinary, A.J. writes:

Every book I’ve written holds a special place in my soul.  Each also lets me explore, via a fictional lens, aspects of my childhood.  In Ana on the Edge, I took my experiences as a closeted athlete – one who didn’t even know the term nonbinary existed or applied to me yet – and imagined what the coming-out-process might have looked like in the rigidly gendered world of figure skating.  In Ellen Outside the Lines,  I explored the ebbs and flows of middle school friendships through the eyes of an autistic teen.  Now, Just Shy of Ordinary has given me the opportunity to shine a light on anxiety and explore the pressure many kids feel to excel in academics…

As an adult, I look back on that period of my life and wish I could hug my younger self.  I wish I’d allowed myself to share I was struggling and recognized my problems weren’t something I had to fix all by myself.  I hope Shai’s story lets readers know it’s okay to ask for help if you need it.  I hope it allows them to see that being successful in one part of your life doesn’t negate your struggles elsewhere, either.  

A.J. Grew up in the Midwest and South and spent many summers with his family enjoying the beautiful Northwoods lakes and scenery in Wisconsin and the Upper Peninsula of Michigan.  He now lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his husband and two cats who act like dogs.  They invite you to visit them online at sassinsf.com.

This book review was submitted by Stand with Trans advocate Barb Shumer, who is a past board member and retired public librarian.

Here is an excerpt from the book, in case you want to use it at the beginning … as an introduction when presenting this review for Real News.

Thirteen-year-old nonbinary Shai writes in Chapter Two:

I studied myself in a standing mirror.  With my hair down, I couldn’t see my undercut.  It felt like a hidden treasure.  I pulled my top layer back with one hand, then imagined my appearance after I got dressed.  The shirt Mille had brought me was dark.  Good for hiding curves.  I knew clothes and hairstyles didn’t say anything about what gender you were; you could be a girl with a shaved head or a boy wearing a skirt.  I knew that, but not everyone did, so sometimes I had to help them along, making myself look traditionally masculine when I wanted people to see a boy or traditionally feminine to be seen as a girl. 

But today, I felt like neither.  This morning would be a good experiment before school started,  I decided.   Maybe people would look at me, wondering if I was a boy, a girl, or some other gender.  Then if they asked, I could tell them I was nonbinary – genderfluid – that sometimes I felt like a boy, others more like a girl.  And some days, I liked when people couldn’t tell because I couldn’t always tell, either. 

This book review was submitted by Stand with Trans
advocate Barb Shumer, who is a past board member and
retired public librarian.