My Life as a Diamond

by Jenny Manzer

Overview

A heartwarming, funny, fast-paced story about the bravery it takes to live as your true self, no matter the cost.

Ten-year-old Caspar "Caz" Cadman loves baseball and has a great arm. He loves the sounds, the smells, the stats. When his family moves from Toronto to a suburb of Seattle, the first thing he does is try out for the local summer team, the Redburn Ravens. Even though Caz is thrilled when he makes the team, he worries because he has a big secret.

No one in this city knows that before Caz told his parents he was a boy, he lived a very different life. It's nobody's business. Caz will tell his new friends when he's ready. But when a player on a rival team starts snooping around, Caz's past is revealed, and Caz worries it will be Toronto all over again.

Will Caz's teammates rally behind their star pitcher? Or will Caz be betrayed once more?

The epub edition of this title is fully accessible.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781459818316
Publisher:	Orca Book Publishers
Publication date:	09/25/2018
Pages:	176
Product dimensions:	5.00(w) x 7.50(h) x 0.44(d)
Age Range:	9 - 12 Years

About the Author

Jenny Manzer is the author of Save Me, Kurt Cobain and My Life as a Diamond, which was shortlisted for numerous awards, including the Diamond Willow Award, Chocolate Lily Award, Victoria Children's Book Prize and the Silver Birch Award. She has a degree in creative writing and was a finalist for the 2013 CBC Creative Nonfiction Prize, one of Canada's most prestigious literary competitions. She lives with her family in Victoria, British Columbia.

Editorial Reviews

Deals with heavy subject matter around identity and agency, but the fast pace of the book and the warmth and humour author Jenny Manzer imbues it with make this an accessible middle-grade read.

Vancouver Writers Fest Books & Ideas

"The plot and characters strike an ideal balance that will have wide appeal, introducing readers to themes of gender identity that avoids didacticism and sensationalism. My Life as a Diamond will appeal to readers interested in baseball, team-sports, and realistic fiction. Highly Recommended."

CM: Canadian Review of Materials

"A great novel for elementary grades to learn more about gender, identity, and transgender issues…Filled with lots of baseball lingo and references, this is the perfect book for a die-hard baseball fan."

Resource Links

"An engaging sports story."

Kirkus Reviews

"[Caz's] teammates lend authenticity and humor to the book. Family dynamics are portrayed honestly…Competition between teams is fierce, as is camaraderie within the team."

Booklist

"Baseball fans will enjoy the play-by-play, but more than that, readers will like the character of Caz. Acceptance of others is a good message for everyone."

School Library Connection

"Provides young readers with an opportunity to see a community that is accepting of Caz and who he is—not who they think he should be."

Quill & Quire

"The author put a lot of research into this…and was successful in having an elementary and middle grade appropriate transgender story. The inclusion of lots of baseball is a big plus, and will encourage readers to pick up the book."

Ms. Yingling Reads blog

"[Caz's] teammates lend authenticity and humor to the book. Family dynamics are portrayed honestly…Competition between teams is fierce, as is camaraderie within the team."

Booklist

"The plot and characters strike an ideal balance that will have wide appeal, introducing readers to themes of gender identity that avoids didacticism and sensationalism. My Life as a Diamond will appeal to readers interested in baseball, team-sports, and realistic fiction. Highly Recommended."

CM Magazine

2018-06-25
A transgender boy steps up to the plate to help his baseball team beat their rivals in the summer playoffs.Caz Cadman, baseball ace, moves from Toronto to Redburn, Washington, with his family for a fresh start as a boy. He knows who he is, and now, with the support of his parents, he can be himself in a place where no one knows his history. Summer baseball tryouts place him on the Ravens, a team with a fierce rivalry with the Rockets. At first, Caz worries his teammates won't take the game as seriously as he does, but they quickly band together and learn to play as a smart, fast, and tricky unit (just as ravens do). While the baseball story succeeds, the trans representation struggles. Amid conflict with the bullies on the Rockets, Caz holds onto concerns about what his new friends will think if they find out the truth about his past. While Caz's parents accept him, his entire baseball team back in Toronto had turned against him, and during the climax, Caz is publicly outed before he's ready. In seeking answers about himself, Caz turns to the internet, and the articles he finds fall back on the tired born-in-the-wrong-body narrative. Overall, the story lacks pride in identity and reinforces trope-y associations of secrecy and shame with trans people. It assumes a white default.An engaging sports story but not a home run for transgender representation. (Fiction. 8-12)

Kirkus Reviews