While Rosie, a doctor, agonizes over the challenges Claude will face when his body enters puberty, Penn, a novelist, takes the seemingly more optimistic approach of imagining alternatives for Claude’s future through fantasy. Both of them struggle to come to terms with the implications of this in their own ways throughout the rest of the book. Tongo, Rosie and Penn begin to realize that not only Claude’s gender, but also gender itself, is less rooted in binary divisions of male and female bodies and behaviors than commonly made out to be. Tongo, who diagnoses Claude with gender dysphoria and applauds his parents’ tolerance.Īs a result of their work with Mr. Concerned for his well-being, Rosie and Penn consult a therapist named Mr. Claude persists, receiving scorn from the parents of other children at the public pool and resistance from his teacher on the first day of kindergarten. However, they discourage Claude from wearing girl’s clothes in public or to school. He states his wish to become a girl when he grows up, and begins to insist on wearing dresses.Īssuming that this is a phase, Rosie and her husband Penn react with kindness and acceptance. Once Claude learns to speak, however, it becomes apparent that his gender is more complicated than it first appeared. When Claude is born, it seems that her hopes are dashed. After having four sons, Rosie desperately wants a daughter. Flashbacks convey the history of Rosie and Penn's relationship and the events leading up to the birth of their fifth child, Claude. At the opening of the novel, the narrator describes the family of Rosie and her husband, Penn. The novel is told through the third-person omniscient perspective with a general focus on Rosie Walsh-Adams, a doctor and mother of five.

The following version of this book was used to create this guide: Frankel, Laurie.

This is how it always is