This cartoonlike black-and-white graphic novel is funny, sharp, and poignant as Liz Prince recalls growing up with complete disregard for both stereotypical and traditional girl-like things, from the color pink and My Little Pony to wearing girls’ clothes. She had no doubt she was a girl but felt a deep disconnect between what she knew herself to be and her peers’ — and society’s — perceptions of how she should appear and behave. She was the only girl in Little League, and the “only girl-who-wanted-to-be-a-boy” in Girl Scouts (she endured humiliation at camp when it was discovered the boys’ clothes she always wore included underwear). A succession of individual friends seemed to understand her but she often found this understanding didn’t extend as far as she thought. Puberty brought the agony of both her developing body and crushes on boys. (When isn’t a crush agony?) In high school, however, she finally found a community among quirky, creative kids following their individual passions. She also discovered feminist zines, which opened her eyes to the realization that she’d been letting society dictate what she thought a girl could and should be rather than embracing girlhood on her own terms and defining it for herself. (Age 13 and older)

Growing up, Liz Prince wasn't a girly girl, dressing in pink tutus or playing Pretty Pretty princess like the other girls in her neighborhood. But she wasn't exactly one of the guys either, as she quickly learned when her Little League baseball coach exiled her to the outfield instead of letting her take the pitcher's mound. Liz was somewhere in the middle, and Tomboy is the story of her struggle to find the place where she belonged.  Tomboy is a graphic novel about refusing gender boundaries, yet unwittingly embracing gender stereotypes at the same time, and realizing later in life that you can be just as much of a girl in jeans and a T-shirt as you can in a pink tutu. A memoir told anecdotally, Tomboy follows author and zine artist Liz Prince through her early childhood into adulthood and explores her ever-evolving struggles and wishes regarding what it means to "be a girl."  From staunchly refuting anything she perceived as being "girly" to the point of misogyny, to discovering through the punk community that your identity is whatever you make of it, regardless of your gender, Tomboy is as much humorous and honest as it is at points uncomfortable and heartbreaking.