Bumpy Oak Books

**I was provided an electronic ARC from the publisher through NetGalley in exchange for honest review.**

4 stars

Lilah Sturges returns with her newest work, Girl Haven. Ash’s mother wrote about a fantasy world called Koretris where only female creatures live and only female travelers can pass through. When Ash and his friends (Eleanor, Junebug, and Chloe) are transported to Koretris, it brings into light a lot of questions about how Ash considers himself and whether he really identifies with his birth gender at all.

This is decidedly a story about gender identity and the importance of the journey to discovering oneself and writing one’s own story. In addition to Ash providing transbinary representation, Junebug communicates (without a label) genderfluidity and changes pronoun use between she and they as they figure out what they feel is best for them in terms of identity. Eleanor also states that she “likes girls”. There is a fantasy plot as well, but that was absolutely secondary compared to the journey of self-discovery for Ash.

This graphic novel presents concepts of gender in a way that is accessible to a middle grade or young adult audience and I absolutely wish I had books like this when I was growing up.