Summary

A conversation at school in which one boy tells Poppy she can’t be a baseball announcer because she is a girl leads her to ask her parents questions about gender inequality. When she learns that women are disadvantaged in their careers, she worries to Rosie that it is “expensive to be a girl” (201). Poppy also reveals that what she really wants to be is an ichthyologist who studies gender-switching fish, but fears being made fun of even more. Privately, Rosie worries to Penn about putting Poppy on hormone blockers if she still sees her gender as fluid, and also has concerns about their side effects. Penn remains very attached to the idea of hormone blockers, which he thinks are “like magic” (207). He adds that Poppy is a girl; she “can’t be both” (207). Rosie and Penn go to...