Melissa, previously published as George until April 2022, is a children's novel about a young transgender girl written by American author Alex Gino.

The novel has received positive feedback from sources such as The New York Times and the National Public Radio for its inclusion of transgender experiences.

[10] Gino started their work on the book, then titled Girl George, in 2003 and made frequent draft revisions before publication to adjust to the changing social environment toward trans people.

However, as the classes' efforts to prepare for the upcoming production increased, Melissa finds a way to become the "Charlotte" of the stage crew by playing a supportive role for her friend.

One afternoon, as the stage crew is working on the set, Jeff, the class bully, says that if he met a talking spider he would step on it.

On the other hand, when Melissa tells her brother Scott that she is a girl, he thinks her feelings match her behavior, and he offers his help and understanding to her.

When Kelly invites her to spend the day with her uncle at the zoo, Melissa takes this opportunity to show herself as she chooses because she will be surrounded by people who do not already know her as George.

[19] Translated copies can be found in English, Spanish, French, Catalan, Chinese Complex, Danish, Dutch, German, Italian, Japanese, Portuguese, Swedish and Vietnamese.

[25] The School Library Journal, in a starred review, wrote that Melissa is "a required purchase" for readers interested in middle-grade literature.

[31] The book has been challenged for various reasons, including its portrayal of a transgender child; sexual themes that were "not appropriate at elementary levels," such as mentions of "dirty magazines" and pornography and descriptions of male anatomy; conflicts with religious viewpoints and "traditional family structure"; and supposedly encouraging children to "clear browser history and change their bodies using hormones".

In response, Gino organized a Twitter fundraising campaign to buy enough copies of Melissa for each of the district's 57 elementary and K-8 school libraries.

[34][35] In April 2018, the Tigard-Tualatin School District in King City, Oregon considered requiring parents to sign a permission slip before letting elementary students check out Melissa.

Officials from two Oregon school districts withdrew their students from the competition as a result, believing the book was "developmentally inappropriate" due to references to pornography and other content.

[39] Gino said in an interview at an Ann Arbor bookstore that they wrote Melissa to guide family, friends, teachers and students alike in better sympathizing with the experiences of transgender children.

[40] In their 2019 article in the Journal of Children's Literature, Jill M. Hermann-Wilmarth and Caitlin L. Ryan contended that the novel instructs readers on how to be better allies for their transgender friends and peers through its focus on Melissa's interactions with other characters and the impact they have on her.

[40] A book on the inclusion of queer adolescent literature in English Language Arts classes suggests the use of Melissa in middle-level ELA classrooms as a means of promoting both allyship and critical discussion about how to remedy difference among their students.

[40] Hermann-Wilmarth and Ryan wrote that many of Melissa's interactions with both her peers and superiors exemplify the struggle of transgender children to challenge the gender binary.

[41] The dichotomy between who Melissa believes herself to be and who others take her as is representative of the identity struggle many transgender kids face that often goes unrecognized in children's literature.

[41] Cierazek suggested that by informing parents and kids about what it means to be transgender, Melissa can help eliminate discrimination of LGBTQ children that often stems from fear and ignorance.

Morrow writes, the problems that transgender children face both privately and publicly are addressed head-on by Alex Gino in George.