49 pages • 1 hour read
Ami PolonskyGracefully Grayson
Fiction | Novel | Middle Grade | Published in 2014A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Background
Authorial Context: Ami Polonsky
Ami Polonsky is a children’s book author. Her first novel is Gracefully Grayson (2014). Since then, she has written and published Threads (2016), Spin With Me (2021), and World Made of Glass (2023). Polonsky worked as a sixth-grade language arts teacher at Onahan Elementary School in Chicago from 2001 to 2006 and credits her experience with inspiring her to write for children. She states:
Teaching middle-school English has 100% helped me become a better writer. Reading and discussing and dissecting novels with students is what helped me to intuit other writer’s processes and decisions. [...] Seeing firsthand how the students respond to different novels helped me understand what’s on their minds, what’s relevant for them, what they’re ready to take on emotionally, which is always a lot more than adults generally might think. I saw what they can grasp easily and what’s overwhelming. And [middle graders] want to be understood, to be seen and accepted; they want to feel capable. And I think they’re often looking for a scaffolding to help them grow and develop, and the novels help them do that (Schulman, Martha. “Q & A with Ami Polonsky.” www.publishersweekly.com).
Thematically, Polonsky’s books often revolve around LGBTQ+, and particularly transgender, characters. Spin With Me, for example, features a nonbinary protagonist named Ollie, while in World Made of Glass, young narrator Iris Cohen’s father is gay. In terms of her own identity, Polonsky states that she is a cisgender woman whose pronouns are she/her (Schulman, Martha. “Q & A with Ami Polonsky.” Publishersweekly.com). She aims to convey messages about empathy and acceptance through her writing. She was originally inspired to write Gracefully Grayson in the summer of 2011 while watching her young children play with “boys’” and “girls’” toys indiscriminately. Polonsky then wondered “just how much of a child’s gender identity was prescribed by the media and adults’ preconceived notions” and decided that she “couldn’t bear the thought of a young child whose true self was being squelched as their world tried to mold them into someone they weren’t” (Weber Hurwitz, Michele. “Gracefully Grayson by Ami Polonsky.” Fromthemixedupfiles.com).
Historical Context: Gender-Bending in Theatre
Many cultures across the world have a history of “gender-bending” in theatrical productions, gender-bending being the challenging of conventional ideas of gender, such as with clothing or behavior. In ancient Greece, religious beliefs dictated that women should remain in the domestic sphere. Therefore, men played both male and female roles on stage. This continued into the 15th and 16th centuries when, in England, women were forbidden from appearing on stage. Shakespearean plays were originally performed by all-male casts. In some cases, this led to double cross-dressing, cross-dressing being where one wears clothes affiliated with another gender—male actors played women who disguised themselves as men, such as in Twelfth Night, As You Like It, or The Merry Wives of Windsor.
In Western theater, new possibilities emerged around the 16th century when women started appearing on stage. They took on both female and male roles, especially those of rakes and young boys. The most famous example of a young boy played by women is Peter Pan; this character has traditionally been played on stage by women since his creation in 1904 by Scottish writer J. M. Barrie.
After women were able to play female roles, the tradition of male actors playing women shifted toward comedic performances. Men played elderly or working-class women, generally in an attempt to enhance their perceived lack of femininity. Today, theater is still a fertile ground for gender-bending, including gender-swapping, where a character’s gender is changed from what it has been traditionally, such as in literature, and cross-dressing. In addition, such performances are heavily informed by cultural discourse around LGBTQ+ identities, sex, and gender.
Gracefully Grayson explores this tradition of gender-bending in theater. The novels highlight the concept of gender itself being a performative construct, or Gender as a Societal Construct. By using the story of Persephone as the school’s play, the narrative alludes to the ancient Greek origins of gender-bending in theater.
Although Grayson initially appears to the audience as a boy playing a girl, she is soon revealed to be a girl finally embodying a character of her own gender. As a result, Gracefully Grayson offers a play on the gender-bending tradition of theater, using it to reinforce the protagonist’s actual identity as a girl.
