Words On Paper: Like That? Read This

Recently I got it into my mind that I wanted to read a novel where the girl had to hide herself as a boy. I love this type of story as much as Freaky-Friday ones, which is to say A LOT. I have no idea why, except that maybe it has to do with growing up with only a sister and always being a bit removed from how boys think.

Anyhow, I beta read a fantastic novel where the girl had to pretend to be a boy (wink wink, Liz Parker), and then gave in to my She’s the Man craving. This had absolutely nothing to do with Channing Tatum and his abs.

I had already read Alanna: The First Adventure by Tamora Pierce—which is probably one of the most well-recognized books in which a girl goes undercover as a guy—as well as others, like this, this, this, and this. (What can I say? I like gender benders.)

My desire for a girl-disguised-as-boy book led me to two things:

The YA historical fiction The Education of Bet, which is very good, by the way.
It’s helpful to have some comparison novels for when you love one and crave more of the same.

That’s where this blog post comes in. I’ve read all of these, so I know the comparison books are very similar. (Though I can’t promise I loved them all. Because I don’t like to badmouth books on this blog, I won’t say which of the compared books I liked best—sorry!—but that if you like one and want something very similar, you might like the other.)

Click the images to hop to a book’s Goodreads page.