George? That’s not her name, but her mum tells her it will be when they reach New Zealand.

“…you’ll be a boy in New Zealand, just for a couple of weeks.”

Nearly 13 year old Marnya has travelled from her home in Cape Town, South Africa with her mother and little sister. She doesn’t understand why they’ve come so far. Is it really to visit her mum’s brother in his new home of NZ, or is it something to do with her father still at home?

Marnya’s confusion escalates as her mother cuts off her hair and dresses her in boy’s clothes. Soon they are in NZ travelling in an overnight train on their way to her Uncle Ryl. Her mother has told her she’ll be much safer as a boy. Girls aren’t safe.

Tired and unsure, and angry at her name being taken from her, George is suddenly thrown around the train carriage….

“The floor was a wall, the window the ceiling. I smacked into a man in front of me  …and then my feet were on the wall, my head on the floor.”

Climbing from the river where she lands, and dressed as a boy, she sticks to the story her mother told her. She assumes the identity of a boy called George Shepherd.

George is now alone. Her mother and sister never survived the Christmas Eve train crash, and she is made a ward of the state. She is sent to live with a matron of a rural boarding school. Despite the matron insisting she wear the girl’s school uniform, she insists on her new name. Her mother had a reason for it, and she is beginning to understand why.

But fitting in is hard with her Afrikaan’s accent and short haircut. Not to mention the strange ways of New Zealand. There were no fences to keep the lions out, and everyone wore sandals or went barefoot. What about snakes?

There are no other girls in her year, and the boys won’t let her hang out with them. Except for a boy named Percy who can appreciate her differences. He isn’t included either because of his need for a wheelchair. George struggles constantly with her mixed truth of who she really is, but eventually shares her secret with her new friend as they become close. Percy’s view of life helps George with her feelings of confusion and anger, and George helps Percy achieve a dream.

The school has a few horses, and George spends every moment she can with them, as they too bring her purpose and happiness. Her patience and skills learnt in South Africa help her train the horses and mold her next couple of years – all as she makes friends with some of the boys and her matron caregiver rules with an iron hand.

Still, even as living, acting and pretending to be a boy with everyone she can, George knows that underneath, she’s still the girl called Marnya, from Cape Town. As she grows, she wonders how long she will be able to hide it. There is one boy in particular who she has become best friends with. Will saved her from bullies early on, and helped her fit in. They enter an A & P Show horse competition together, bringing them even closer, which brings even more troubled feelings.

But viewing the woman and girls around her community and how they are treated by the men, George truly understands her mother’s past and reason for fleeing their home.

Soon she must announce who she really is, but is now resolute that George is a huge part of her.

Set in 1953, and with a beginning that intrigued, shocked and then shocked me again, Before George had me hooked early. The cover depicts a middle-grade novel with a lovely trek through a rural area, but Before George is anything but.

Definitely 12+ with topics of rape, control and fear within marriage, main character George struggles with the identity forced upon her by her mother in order to keep her ‘safe’. Losing her mother in a terrible rain tragedy (NZ’s own Tangiwai Disaster of 24/12/1953), George never gets the chance to reclaim her true identity. This novel shows her first accepting her new name, then life as a boy as her mother wanted, then her own identity.

This story isn’t about gender though – it’s about figuring out who you are, even as your entire world and future are shaken up (literally) and reformed. The people around George help her discover who she really wants to be, and her decision is authentic.

Will look forward to recommending this to 12+ readers.

Author – Deborah Robertson

Age – 12+

(Huia Publishers, 2023, Animals, Horses, Aotearoa New Zealand, Family, Secret, Courage, Friendship, Growing up, School, Historical, 1953, Identity, Learning the Truth, Ward of the State, Pony Club, Being a Boy, Being a Girl, Understanding who you are, Changing Names, Pretending to be a boy)