Winner of the 2015 Westchester Fiction Award Changers Book One: Drew is a
New York Public Library summer reading pick
Changers should appeal to a broad demographic. Teenagers, after all, are the world's leading experts on trying on, and then promptly discarding, new identities.
--
New York Times Book Review 'Selfie' backlash has begun: The Unselfie project wants to help people quit clogging social media with pictures of themselves and start capturing the intriguing world around them.
--
O, The Oprah Magazine, on the We Are Changers Unselfie project
This is more than just a message book about how we all need to be more understanding of each other. The imaginative premise is wrapped around a moving story about gender, identity, friendship, bravery, rebellion vs. conformity, and thinking outside the box.
--
School Library Journal A thought-provoking exploration of identity, gender, and sexuality...an excellent read for any teens questioning their sense of self.
--
Publishers Weekly (starred review)
Changers Book One: Drew opens on the eve of Ethan Miller's freshman year of high school in a brand-new town. He's finally sporting a haircut he doesn't hate, has grown two inches since middle school, and can't wait to try out for the soccer team. At last, everything is looking up in life.
Until the next morning. When Ethan awakens as a girl.
Ethan is a Changer, a little-known, ancient race of humans who live out each of their four years of high school as a different person. After graduation, Changers choose which version of themselves they will be forever--and no, they cannot go back to who they were
before the changes began.
Ethan must now live as Drew Bohner--a petite blonde with an unfortunate last name--and navigate the treacherous waters of freshman year while also following the rules: Never tell anyone what you are. Never disobey the Changers Council. And never, ever fall in love with another Changer. Oh, and Drew also has to battle a creepy underground syndicate called "Abiders" (as well as the sadistic school queen bee, Chloe). And she can't even confide in her best friend Audrey, who can never know the real her, without risking both of their lives.
Fans of the books of John Green, the Joss Whedonverse--and empathy between humans--will find much to love in this first of a four-part series that tracks the journey of an average suburban boy who becomes an incredible young woman...who becomes a reluctant hero...who becomes the person she was meant to be.
Because, while changing the world can kinda suck, it sure beats never knowing who you really are.
Author: T. Cooper, Allison Glock-Cooper
Publisher: Black Sheep
Published: 02/04/2014
Pages: 288
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.60lbs
Size: 7.90h x 5.20w x 0.90d
ISBN: 9781617751950
Audience: Young Adult
Review Citation(s): Publishers Weekly 12/09/2013
New York Times Book Review 03/16/2014 pg. 22
School Library Journal 04/01/2014 pg. 160
Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 06/01/2014 pg. 508
PW Children's Starred Reviews 12/01/2014 pg. 100
About the AuthorT Cooper's most recent book is
Real Man Adventures (McSweeney's), which
Vanity Fair called brave and hilarious. He is also the author of three novels including the best-selling
Lipshitz Six, Or Two Angry Blondes (Dutton) and
The Beaufort Diaries (Melville House). The latter, Cooper produced and adapted into an animated short of the same name, starring David Duchovny and appearing at a variety of international film festivals (Tribeca, SXSW and many others). Cooper's work has also appeared in the
New Yorker, the
New York Times, the
Believer, O, The Oprah Magazine, One Story, Poets & Writers, and elsewhere.
Allison Glock-Cooper is the author of the
New York Times notable book
Beauty Before Comfort, which
Kirkus called, A memoir as elemental as its subject: pulsing, fetching, leaving a strong afterglow, and for which she received a Whiting Award in 2004. Glock has been a journalist for 22 years, and her work has been published in the
New York Times, GQ, Rolling Stone, Esquire, the
New York Times Magazine, the
New Yorker, O, The Oprah Magazine, Elle, Marie Claire, and many others. She is currently a senior staff writer for ESPN and a contributing editor for the magazine
Garden & Gun. She has won a GLAAD award and a FOLIO EDDIE and a min award for journalism. Her first poem was recently published in the
New Yorker.