Wandering Son: Volumes One & Two

Middle School. The threshold to puberty, and the beginning of the end of childhood innocence. Shuichi Nitori and his new friend Yoshino Takatsuki have happy homes, loving families, and are well liked by their classmates. But they share a secret that further complicates a time of life that is awkward for anyone: Shuichi is a boy who wants to be a girl, and Yoshino is a girl who wants to be a boy.

Celebrated manga artist Shimura Takako (Even Though We're Adults) portrays Shuishi and Yoshino's journey with affection, sensitivity, and gentle humor as they figure out their gender identity and take tentative, age-appropriate steps toward transitioning.

This new paperback edition collects the first two volumes of Wandering Son. In Volume One, Shuichi and Yoshino covertly experiment with cross-dressing and new hairstyles, and get to express their identities when the class puts on a gender-bent play. In Volume Two, our protagonists make supportive new friends with the grown-up Yuki-san, a trans woman who they look up to as a mentor, and their classmate Saori, who becomes a queer ally to Shuichi.

A poignant coming-of-age story, Wandering Son is a sophisticated work of literary manga and was adapted into a popular anime series in 2011.