Rating: 
Summary: wow!
Review: "Yeah, I loved her. I couldn't help it. She was my brother!"
Here is a wonderful book for teens (targeted for 15 and older) who need a healthy introduction to transgender. It is fiction. It is also educational. The story blends a broad spectrum of general problems of teens with the stresses of coming out transgender. Hidden in the story is a pretty complete Transgender 101.
The story is written from the perspective of Regan, a female high school sophomore. Her brother Liam, a brilliant senior, can't stand the person he is during the day. His true self, Luna, reveals herself only at night. For years, Liam has transformed himself into the beautiful girl he longs to be with help from his sister's clothes and makeup in the secrecy of their basement bedrooms. Now everything is about to change. Luna is preparing to emerge from her cocoon.
Their father is stereotypically macho. He insists Liam play sports, including going out for the school baseball team - which Liam hates. Meanwhile, Mother just goes along. When Liam asked for Barbie dolls and a bra for his ninth birthday, Dad freaked out, while Mom passed it off as a joke.
Regan knew better. Liam/Luna has been playing with her Barbies and dressing in her clothes for several years. As they matured into their teens, Regan helped Luna in selecting clothes and applying makeup. Finally, Luna convinces Regan to go shopping with her at a nearby mall.
Liam/Luna's history is told through a series of flashbacks, including attempts at self-castration and suicide - both unsuccessful. Regan's story encompasses more than her relationship with her brother, who she claims always felt like her sister. She has a number of girl friends, one of whom really likes Liam.
She also has a developing interest in Chris, a student from her chemistry class. Regan is afraid that Chris will not associate with her if he finds out about Luna, which leads to several humorous incidents - and Regan's normal teenage angst.
Rating:
Summary: Not just for teens!!
Review: I just finished reading Luna and thoroughly enjoyed this book. It let me fall right in to the lives of "Luna" and her sister Regan, mother (a bit) and father (more, but not likeable). I saw this book at a book store and the title and cover caught me eye. After reading the jacket cover I was intrigued. It being a young adult book meant nothing to me. I am 59+ years and it was for us all. This is a subject (transgender in teens) that you don't see covered many places, either for kids or adults. Parents could learn a lot from this book. What to watch out for, and more importantly, what support and help they could give a child going through this. The scene where the two little girls get to . . . well, I won't go into detail and wreck this part, but it was very telling and you could picture exactly this going on and how important it would be right there on the spot for the mother (the father wasn't present at the moment, thank God) to react correctly to the situation and help a child crying out for help with his (her) truth. Great book and will hold it for when my granddaughter and grandson get older and should be learning about this part of human nature, and I do believe it is human nature and not some horrible freak. These things would happen to animals is they could process to this level just as homosexuality and lesbianism (is that the correct word?) do happen in the natural world, even though there are some who would deny this and say it is an abomination against God. Not so my dear reader. Thank you Julie Anne Peters for a great book and I will probably go on to read your others, with such a great introduction to your excellent writing and handling of this type of subject matter. These kids need all the help they can get in this world of ours.
Rating:
Summary: Couldn't put it down!
Review: I picked up this book from the library, and then couldn't stop reading it. I finished this book in one day, then re-read it with my girlfriend. The writing is spectacular, the prose perfect, and the subject really needed to be put out there for young people to read about. The every-day language combined with wonderful imagery left me wanting to read everything from this author that I could get my hands on.
Before reading this book I had seen movies about transgendered people (like the movie "Boys Don't Cry", which anyone who read this book and enjoyed it really must go see), but this let me look deeper at what it feels like. Through a combination of flash backs, observations, and direct statements from Luna I started to realize exactly what it means to be transexual and how much courage and strength it takes every day. This book stretched my mind and heart to the plight of people like Luna who don't ask to be the way they are and struggle constantly to be what they know they are inside.
Rating: 
Summary: Very slow
Review: I read through Luna, it took me about a month when a very good book can take me a few hours to read. The storyline was good, but everything in the book moved so slow and there was barely any action to it.
Rating:
Summary: This book makes you think
Review: I really enjoyed the way this book is written. Its informative and pulls you right into the lives of the main characters Regan,and Liam.
I would recommened this book to any young person who is questioning their sexuality, or just to anyone who needs to learn to feel empathy for their fellow human-kind.
Rating:
Summary: A wonderful and timely book
Review: I think this is Julie Anne Peters' best book to date. A good
insight is provided into what it means to be trans, without
bogging down in details. Telling the story from Regan's point
of view makes it easier to explore the major problem with
transition, the reactions of everyone around you, and also
provides many subtle ways to look at the social construction
of gender without becoming pedantic. This is a must read for
anyone dealing with trans issues. Don't miss Peters' other
YA books, either!
Rating:
Summary: A story that needs to be told
Review: Luna is the first young adult novel written about a transsexual teen. Luna/Liam is a girl that was born in a boy's body. The only one who knows the truth is Regan, Luna/Liam's younger sister. Regan has spent so much of her life protecting and worrying about Liam that she really hasn't developed and identity seperate from that role. She has no friends, and she is a loner and an outcast at her school. And she is frightened and freaked out when Luna begins to go public with her secret. Luna is well-written. The anguish and fear of the characters is palpable and real.
This book is so important because it is the first of its kind. I never really knew that much about transgender people before, and although I am a huge supporter of GLBT people, I did not understand transgenders, and I was uncomfortable about the subject. This book showed me that Liam/Luna was just as normal as any other person...they had just been born in the wrong body, and there is nothing freakish or weird about it. On the contrary, it was agonizing to read how desperate and hopeless Liam felt trapped in a body that was so horribly wrong for him. This book is groundbreaking, and needs to be read not just by young adults, but everyone who feels weird about the idea of a transsexual. They do not ask for this pain, they do not want to scare people. They just want what is in their hearts and minds to match their bodies.
Much thanks to Julie Ann Peters for tackling a very hard subject and presenting it with heart, dignity, and hope.
~Anna M. Nelson, Young Adult Librarian, Seabrook, NH
Rating:
Summary: LUNA TAKES YOU TO THE STARS
Review: Think Joan of Arcadia, only God dresses up like a girl after dark. Okay, so Luna's not exactly God, but there is much wisdom to be gained from this encounter. Luna is Liam, Regan's older brother, and, well, sister. Or as Regan says, "half brother, half sister," which is hilarious when she says it. Because the thing about Luna the novel is that Peters tells the story of Regan and her transgender (TG) brother, Luna with wry, engaging humor that immediately puts the reader at ease with this unusual situation.
Luna/Liam's story is told through the eyes of Regan. Luna is about to come out of her cocoon. Because Regan has lived with and loved her brother all her life, she's grown accustomed to his girlish ways. Through flashbacks she realizes that she's always known that even as a kid, Liam was never comfortable in the role of boy. Her sorrow is that she's losing her brother, Liam. Even though she's the younger sister, Regan's life has revolved around keeping his secret. For that reason she also feels a sense of dread about Luna's emerging strength. Her fear for Luna is that she'll be ridiculed or humiliated. As much as Regan wishes for a life of her own, without Luna, she's never done anything to make that happen, revealing her own dependence on her brother as Luna grows stronger. In this way, their lives are remarkably intertwined and the notion of their inevitable separation is heartbreaking, yet compelling.
Regan's humorous outbursts and observations -- especially of their parents -- betray her genuine perplexity with the whole situation, while lending a sense of normalcy to the raw emotions swirling through their lives. Understanding Luna -- and therefore any TG - through Regan's eyes becomes an oddly spiritual journey, challenging readers to think beyond outward appearances and stereotypes, to look deep into the soul of another individual and love the person inside enough to let her go.
Copyright (c) 2004 by Peggy Tibbetts
Rating:
Summary: amazing
Review: This book is an amazing step forward in YA literature. Other reviewers have given you the premise of the plot, I just wanted to add that I thought it was BRILLIANT that it was told from the sister's point of view. Within the largely conservative area I live in, not a lot of people would be interested in this book had it been told from Liam/Luna's point of view. But as it comes from the sister, it's a safe vantage. It's the perfect vehicle for introducing a LOT of people to an issue they might not have understood, nor something they would have wanted to understand. I do think, looking at it analytically, that this book is more useful as an advocacy tool than one of the fictional self-help sorts. At any rate, it's a giant step forward in YA lit for transgender issues. And it's a well told, well written story to boot.
Rating: 
Summary: Probably my favourite Julie Anne Peters book yet...
Review: This is a story dealing with a topic not often dealt with in YA fiction - transgender teenagers. Regan is fifteen and her life is dominated by her older brother, Liam (Lia Marie, and later Luna, at night). She has drifted apart from friends her own age because of him, and in order to try and help him she has offered to let him use her room at night, to try on girls' clothes. The only thing she has that's *hers* is her babysitting job for a family she sees as perfect and normal, in sharp contrast to her own, with her drugged-up mother and domineering father. Regan is a sympathetic character, a girl who tries so hard to be there for her brother when he needs her, but also someone who resents how she has to be everything for him, his sole confidant, and who alternates between feeling sorry for him and for wishing that he could just be normal. She also has her own dilemma, involving an infatuation with a boy at school. "Luna" is Regan's story as much as it is Liam's. Liam/Luna's story is dealt with effectively as well, with flashbacks of their childhood showing early signs that he really did want to be in a girl's body. The separation of gender and sexuality is also made quite clear, and the idea of constructed gender roles is also dealt with (though not as much as I'd like to have seen it discussed - but the perfect amount for a YA novel). It is by no means a definite transgendered-teen story but it shouldn't have to be, either - it's merely the story of one girl in a boy's body, trying to break free. A worthwhile read that will hopefully challenge readers' ideas towards gender and sex while telling a compelling story.
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