I really enjoyed ‘The Passing Playbook’. Spencer is a very likeable character, and I loved following his story and seeing him get a happy ending, even there are still larger issues. It’s written in third-person, which personally I enjoy a lot more than first, but it’s not as widely used it YA romances. So it was a lovely change!

‘The Passing Playbook’ follows a trans teen, Spencer, starting a new school after some painful and dangerous events at his last school. Here, he can be himself, but because he’s passing, he has a choice or whether to reveal himself as trans and deal with consequences, or not admit the truth. The situation gets more complicated when Spencer joins the football team, starts falling for his teammate as well as has to navigate being a supportive friend to Riley, a kid who’s trying to figure things for themselves.

I enjoyed the dynamic of ‘The Passing Playbook’ both at school and in a home environment. Spencer’s family was supportive for the most part, and it was great to see. There have been some heavy topics handled by the book – such as transphobia and religious hate – and while ‘The Passing Playbook’ hasn’t shied away from those topics, it also created a cute romance and (mostly) supportive environment for the main character.

This is a sweet middle grade about navigating a new school whilst being a stealth trans boy. Some of the plot points seemed over simplified to me. However that could just be due to the age of the reader that this book is aimed at.

4.5 stars. This book gave me so many butterflies, there were happy moments, sad moments, loving moments and more. This story was beautifully told about Spencer who had been treated horribly in his last school due to the fact he is transgender. The story starts as Spencer is going to a new school, throughout this book you follow a journey of acceptance, fighting for rights, relationships and so much more. Spencer’s story was truly amazing to read about, I got to understand what it’s like for a person who is transgender and how it feels for a transgender person when things that should be available without any questions aren’t. I really enjoyed the writing style in this book as it flowed so quickly that I ended up reading it in a day. The relationships in this book were truly wonderful and there was such a diverse group of characters who were accepting of each other’s emotions and struggles. Spencer was an amazing character to follow and I loved seeing his friendships blossom. This is definitely a must read in my books and it made my heart so happy. I can’t wait to read more from this author.

Spencer has just started at a new school. He’s a talented soccer player. He’s also transgender, and, after a horrible experience at his previous school (of which we never really learn the specifics) is keen to keep that particular information under the radar if possible. Of course, it’s not going to be quite that simple.

It feels like, and is, a very “YA” kind of book - a simple story told in a very straightforward way and no less enjoyable for that. I liked the characters- the football coach was great - and that there was a relative lack of angst - although Spencer certainly has some challenges over the course of the story, the most awful things that happen to him have already happened before the story starts. And there’s the kind of satisfying ending that you want from a story with a big sports component.

The part I found really interesting was around Spencer’s involvement with a boy from a very conservative religious family. This obviously set up interesting stresses and conflicts, and I felt for both boys in a very difficult situation.

(But is a “hell house” really a thing? That’s super disturbing, if so!)

A very readable, diverse and ultimately uplifting story - I enjoyed it a lot.

After a horrible experience at his old high school Spencer Harris is ready to turn a new leaf. He's Black, fifteen, a bit of a nerd, and good at soccer. He's also trans.
His new private school offers him the chance to start over, and, despite his initial desire to 'lay low', he finds himself joying the school's soccer team. No one at Oakley knows he's trans, and while Spencer is not ashamed of who he is, he doesn't want to re-experience the bullying and harassment he was subjected to at his old school.
While Spencer becomes friends with the other boys on the team, his budding crush on a fellow team member and the fact that he joined the team after his parents explicitly forbid him to...well, these make his life a bit more complicated.
Things take a downward turn when Spencer is benched due to a discriminatory law.

Isaac Fitzsimons' prose is the classic YA coming-of-age kind of fare, simple and readable, only occasionally coming across as a wee bit green (some lines of dialogue here and there, maybe a description or two). I appreciated how inclusive this book was. In addition to Spencer being trans, we have queer, gay, autistic, and non-binary characters.
Spencer comes across as a realistic teenager, sometimes prone to angsting over this or that, being a bit self-involved, or giving his parents a hard time,. We can also see how hard it is for him, how anxious he is about people accepting him for who he is. He was a really sweet kid and I really admired that he speaks up about the gender-neutral bathrooms and for being so supportive towards his younger brother.
I also liked how uplifting the story was. It made me smile more than once and I am so happy that Fitzsimons didn't let his story follow the path of many other lgbtq+ YA book (usually a character is outed) and that he actually made his mc's parents into more than one-dimensional characters. The authors keeps a good balance between Spencer's character arc and the romance subplot.

This was a really wholesome book. We have a cute romance, as well as good family and friendship dynamics, and the author includes realistic and current issues in his storyline. There may be the odd cheesy moment but I could have not cared less (if I wanted 100% realistic stories I would not be reading anything ever).
This is clearly a novel with a big heart. The author treats his characters and their struggles with empathy and understanding. If you are a fan of Kacen Callender or Julian Winters you should definitely consider giving The Passing Playbook a chance.

The Passing Playbook is a young adult sports romcom about a soccer-loving trans teenager who has to fight for his right to play on his school team. When Spencer moves schools to Oakley, the most liberal school in Ohio, after trouble at his previous school, he wants to focus on football and finding his feet, and not telling people he's trans. It's going great—new teammates, a guy who might be something more—until an Ohio law about birth certificates and a rule from the league sees him benched for every game, and Spencer has to decide whether to publicly fight for his rights or not.

This book is such a breath of fresh air in how it treats Spencer: he has a supportive if sometimes too overprotective or not quite 'getting it' family, a trans best friend from summer camp to talk to, and within the narrative, he gets to come out to people by telling them himself, which is often not the case in YA novels set in schools. The story is centred around him fighting for what he wants, but with a wider underlying plot around the importance of fighting for rights for others too, like supporting a classmate who is arguing they should push for gender neutral bathrooms.

The romance has arguably the heavier plotline, with Spencer's love interest Justice being a gay kid from a not-well-off conservative Christian family for whom a soccer scholarship is his means of escape, but it's still sweet too. Everything comes together in a feel-good way (there's actually a comment about whether Spencer and Justice like musical comedies and feel-good made for TV movies respectively, which is kinda what this book is a combination of) which makes it good for readers looking for a book that isn't focused on the trauma or flaws of the protagonist, but on him still growing as a person by realising he wants to fight for his and other people's rights.

Having high school sports trans narratives is crucial at a time like this, when restrictions on trans teens' right to take part in sports are happening and are in the news, and the fact the sport is soccer rather than American football (being British I have to make that distinction) possibly gives this book a more international appeal. The book has a powerful message, but more importantly, it's fun and shows a regular teenager living his life, albeit in a romcom universe where things work out a little more smoothly. It's good to have complex narratives in YA, but it's also good to have books like this that provide a feel-good yet gripping experience.

4.5 stars - I loved this book so much! I read most of it in a day as I couldn't put it down!

Spencer was such a great character and isn't afraid to be who he is, and I really rooted for him throughout the book. I also really liked the other characters too, and the romance was so cute!

This book covered many issues that trans people have to face and, as a cis-female, it really opened my eyes to some things that I hadn't previously thought about, so I really liked that I was able to take that away from this book.

I really liked the message of the book of making sure that you are not only physically safe, but also emotionally and psychologically safe, and seeing Spencer work through all of his conflicting feelings about coming out was interesting.

Overall, I really enjoyed this book! It has a cute romance, great characters, and also taught me a lot about the issues that trans people face.

A real joy to read. The characters and situations were written with love, the story will resonate with so many people.

We hope that we can feature this title - Fitzsimons has done a fantastic job with this novel.