Taking tremendous pride in the fact that students are learning classics AND remixes from me. Pitched this book to students before I started listening to it, continued to update students on small changes once I did, and as I finish, two trans students are reading by choice. As a teacher, I can appreciate Fitzgerald’s “beautiful, simple, intricately patterned” language and plot, but McLemore rivals those things skillfully here. I hated Gatsby when I read it in high school and again in college, and I think on some level it was because I didn’t see any part of myself reflected there. More and more, Gatsby the book has become not just challenging to teach because of the language, but because diverse high school students do not want the window into the white, straight elite world. Just finished reading The Great Gatsby with my juniors again, and wish we had spent time reading this, or Passing (just watched the movie).

Historical Realism meets Contemporary Consciousness the Homo Sapiens AgendaĪ Macmillan Audio production from Feiwel & Friends. An all-time favorite-I was completely transported.' -Becky Albertalli, New York Times-bestselling author of Simon vs. 'Anna-Marie McLemore cracks the Gatsby story wide open, breathing fresh life into these familiar characters with wisdom, honesty, and real tenderness.

But Nick's feelings grow more complicated when he finds himself falling hard for Jay's openness, idealism, and unfounded faith in the American Dream. And he learns something else: Jay is also transgender.Īs Nick is pulled deeper into the glittery culture of decadence, he spends more time with Jay, aiming to help his new friend reconnect with his lost love. At one of these parties, Nick learns that the spectacle is all for the benefit of impressing a girl from Jay’s past-Daisy. Nick’s neighbor in West Egg is a mysterious young man named Jay Gatsby, whose castle-like mansion is the stage for parties so extravagant that they both dazzle and terrify Nick. Nick rents a small house in West Egg from his 18-year-old cousin, Daisy Fabrega, who lives in fashionable East Egg near her wealthy fiancé, Tom-and Nick is shocked to find that his cousin now goes by Daisy Fay, has erased all signs of her Latina heritage, and now passes seamlessly as white. Going to New York is all about establishing himself as a young professional, which could set up his future-and his life as a man-and benefit his family. Nicolás Caraveo, a 17-year-old transgender boy from Wisconsin, has no interest in the city’s glamor. Stonewall Honor recipient and two-time National Book Award Longlist selectee Anna-Marie McLemore weaves an intoxicating tale of glamor and heartache in Self-Made Boys: A Great Gatsby Remix, part of the Remixed Classics series.

Self-Made Boys by Anna-Marie McLemore