Jess, Chunk, and the Road Trip to Infinity

by Kristin Elizabeth Clark

Overview

The last time Jess saw her father, she was a boy. Now she’s a high school graduate, soon to be on her way to art school. But first she has some unfinished business with her dad. So she’s driving halfway across the country to his wedding. He happens to be marrying her mom’s ex-best friend. It’s not like Jess wasn’t invited; she was. She just never told anyone she was coming. Surprise!

Luckily, Jess isn’t making this trip alone. Her best friend, Christophe—nicknamed Chunk—is joining her.

Along the way, Jess and Chunk learn a few things about themselves—and each other—which call their feelings about their relationship into question.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780374380069
Publisher:	Farrar, Straus and Giroux
Publication date:	11/08/2016
Pages:	272
Product dimensions:	5.70(w) x 8.40(h) x 1.00(d)
Lexile:	800L (what's this?)
Age Range:	12 - 17 Years

About the Author

Kristin Elizabeth Clark always knew she wanted to be a writer. She began dabbling in haiku in the third grade – this “experimentation” turned out to be a gateway to the harder stuff: book-length verse. She lives and writes in Northern California where she has worked as a child advocate within the juvenile justice system, and as a children’s theatre producer. She is a proud volunteer at Project Outlet in Mountain View, CA.  Freakboy is her young adult debut.

Editorial Reviews

"Clark (Freakboy, 2013) has written a thoughtful, engaging examination of a transition that is fraught with misunderstandings...Readers will be anxious to find out in this compelling novel that deserves a place at the forefront of the growing body of literature about transgender teens." —Michael Cart, Booklist, starred review

"Clark makes an important contribution to LGBTQIA+ literature for young adults by writing a story that demonstrates the often-uneasy process of self-discovery, as well as the universality of the human experience. Teens who like road-trip stories will enjoy the fun details about the cross-country excursion, and teens who like trans* stories will enjoy the fact that this one is not about a trans* teen figuring out she is, in fact, trans*—Jess has already done that work and is moving on." —VOYA

From the Publisher

2016-07-26
A trans girl artist goes on a road trip with her fat best friend and publicly dresses as her true self for the first time.Jess (Jeremy to Jess' dad) and Christophe (Chunk to Jess) are on their way to the wedding of Jess' estranged dad. Thanks to her father’s transphobia, Jess has been on hormones for only the seven months since she turned 18, and she's worried about passing. As they drive from liberal San Jose through places about which Jess has only fearful stereotypes, she seesaws from euphoria at the freedom of living openly to utter terror. Does she have visible stubble? Will she be murdered in a gas-station toilet? Jess realizes slowly that there are trans and trans-friendly people all over the U.S. She realizes even more slowly that—regardless of her own gender—she can behave in some pretty rotten ways to her loved ones. Jess' personal growth comes slowly, and she treats her overwhelmingly considerate best friend in fatphobic ways he clearly loathes. At the moment of truth an out-of-the-blue epiphany provides a happy ending. Written by the mother of a trans woman, the narrative appears at times to be more a vehicle for communicating the essential humanity of trans people than a fully developed story; both Jess and Christophe appear to be white by default. Well-meaning and timely but not as strong as Meredith Russo’s If I Was Your Girl and Brie Spangler’s Beast (both 2016). (Fiction. 12-16)

Kirkus Review