Alex Gino, author of Melissa, shared via their blog, opens a new window in Summer 2021 that they made a mistake by originally naming their book George, when the story is all about Melissa—George was the name given to her at birth that she no longer uses. Alex invited everyone to update the cover of their copy.
In response to the author's original invitation to the public to change their own covers from George to Melissa, the Library changed the title of its hard copies and any editable records, to Melissa’s Story and added a note detailing why inside each copy.
In Fall 2021, publisher, Scholastic decided to issue a new edition, titled Melissa in April 2022. You can read the author’s announcement in a Scholastic blog post here.
Publisher’s Weekly also reported on it here. The article notes, “rather than Melissa’s Story as Gino had suggested, Scholastic opted for Melissa, a straightforward replacement that preserves the simple elegance of the original cover while reflecting the current thinking around addressing trans people by their chosen names.”
New copies arriving Spring 2022
The Library has purchased hard copies of the to-be released (English) title, Melissa, which will arrive in our collection after the April 2022 release date. Previous copies of George will be discarded once all holds are honoured.
Melissa (formerly published as George)
Melissa will be available from OverDrive in April 2022, and will be added to Halifax Public Libraries' digital book collection. The digital copies with the old name will continue to be available on OverDrive until their license runs out or, in the case of the audiobook, until the name has been changed or a new edition supersedes it.
CD sets and French copies do not yet have replacements available for order. When available, the Library will order replacement copies and discard the previous copies.
