Changers Book One: Drew

By T. Cooper and Allison Glock-Cooper

Winner of the 2015 Westchester Fiction Award

Changers Book One: Drew is a New York Public Library summer reading pick!

"Changers should appeal to a broad demographic. Teenagers, after all, are the world’s leading experts on trying on, and then promptly discarding, new identities."
--New York Times Book Review

"'Selfie' backlash has begun: The Unselfie project wants to help people quit clogging social media with pictures of themselves and start capturing the intriguing world around them."
--O, The Oprah Magazine, on the We Are Changers Unselfie project

"A gender-fluid, John Hughes-style fantasy plus all the feels."
--Salon

"This is more than just a "message" book about how we all need to be more understanding of each other. The imaginative premise is wrapped around a moving story about gender, identity, friendship, bravery, rebellion vs. conformity, and thinking outside the box."
--School Library Journal

"A thought-provoking exploration of identity, gender, and sexuality…an excellent read for any teens questioning their sense of self."
--Publishers Weekly (starred review)

Changers Book One: Drew opens on the eve of Ethan Miller's freshman year of high school in a brand-new town. He's finally sporting a haircut he doesn’t hate, has grown two inches since middle school, and can't wait to try out for the soccer team. At last, everything is looking up in life.

Until the next morning. When Ethan awakens as a girl.

Ethan is a Changer, a little-known, ancient race of humans who live out each of their four years of high school as a different person. After graduation, Changers choose which version of themselves they will be forever--and no, they cannot go back to who they were before the changes began.

Ethan must now live as Drew Bohner--a petite blonde with an unfortunate last name--and navigate the treacherous waters of freshman year while also following the rules: Never tell anyone what you are. Never disobey the Changers Council. And never, ever fall in love with another Changer. Oh, and Drew also has to battle a creepy underground syndicate called Abiders” (as well as the sadistic school queen bee, Chloe). And she can't even confide in her best friend Audrey, who can never know the real her, without risking both of their lives.

Fans of the books of John Green, the Joss Whedonverse--and empathy between humans--will find much to love in this first of a four-part series that tracks the journey of an average suburban boy who becomes an incredible young woman...who becomes a reluctant hero...who becomes the person she was meant to be.

Because, while changing the world can kinda suck, it sure beats never knowing who you really are.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Black Sheep
• Release date: Jan 13, 2014
• ISBN: 9781617752070

Reviews for Changers Book One

[lms8esmith · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

The premise of Changers Book One:Drew was promising, and I wanted to like this book more than what I did. Ethan, the main character, wakes up on his first day of freshman year of high school only to realize he is now a girl named Drew. His parents inform him that he is part of the Changers movement and that his/her life will be used for good in the world. Drew, who is still inhabited by Ethan's mind, has to become a new person and take on completely different roles for her freshman year. There are numerous rules to follow, including not falling in love with another Changer, so a love interest that can never be awakens when Drew meets Charlie. As the year progressed, I wanted to see Drew offer more hope for people. I wanted her to take more action to stand up to the cruelties in her world. I just wanted the entire story to take a different direction, but sadly, it did not. I may give book two a try, but my to be read list is quite lengthy already. Nice try at a different story line, but it just didn't play out well for me.

[kalky_1 · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

CHANGERS is the first in a YA series that looks at gender, the high school years, and identity. It has a great premise: there is a race of humans called Changers who wake up on the first day of each new year of high school in a new body. The teen doesn't know what identity they'll adopt, and they may even be a different gender than they were just the day before. Changers believe that they are the only hope for humans to reverse the moral breakdown of mankind, and there is another group, the Abiders, who are attempting to destroy the Changers.In CHANGERS BOOK ONE: DREW, Ethan Miller falls asleep the night before his freshman year of high school, and he's nervous about starting at a new school after his parents have moved him from New York to Tennessee. His nerves are further frayed when he wakes up one the first day of school as a girl named Drew Bohner, and discovers that he/she is a Changer who will be navigating a new identity as well as a new school.What follows is a sometimes-interesting but often predictable look at high school, and an attempt to make its readers look at the world through kinder eyes. Sadly, the stereotypes wearied me, the teen dialogue was forced, and I found it difficult to care about any of the characters. I was also frustrated with with way the narration was handled--the reader was often expected to have knowledge that wasn't shared at any point in the book--and there were plot inconsistencies that left me shaking my head.Because I like the idea behind the book, I may read the rest of the books in the series. I'll hold off recommending the books until I see how the rest of the books develop, and if the problems with it persist.Thank you to LibraryThing and the publisher for an ARC of the book in exchange for my honest review.

[pencilstubs-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Note: I received an advance reading copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.I read this book in one afternoon because the labyrinth of challenges Ethan/Drew navigates kept me utterly engrossed. On top of typical teen problems, he is cut off from his old life, transforms into a girl, finds out he’ll transform three more times, has a run in with an anti-Changer member, loses a friend to a radical group, and must abide by the restrictive and harsh rules of the Changers Council. Ethan/Drew narrates with charming and engaging snark and humor. He’s a realistic teen portrayal with worries, embarrassment and conflicting emotions.Transforming a narrator into four different identities/bodies throughout their high school years to show the various issues that each identity/body must face is a creative and effective way of inspiring and fostering empathy. Book One gives boys an insightful look at a few tribulations teen girls are likely to encounter. On the flipside, it demonstrates that boys aren’t necessarily insensitive jerks when they’re not receptive or sympathetic to girl-specific problems—they’re just clueless and don’t understand because they don’t deal with them (maybe they should read books like this!). The way Ethan/Drew is both a boy and a girl simultaneously, and also falls for a male and female character, blurs gender boundaries and adds another thought provoking layer.I look forward to reading the rest of the series and seeing what body/identity Ethan ultimately chooses to live in forever. I’m also intrigued by the photo with the inscription from his grandmother and by the "Kyle" character at the end--I think they're both going to be involved in big twists later on.I only have two gripes with Book One. First, there’s a well thought-out set up for how being a Changer works, but then their existence is justified with the simple fact that they’re an “ancient human race,” which seems like a copout. Second, the “gift” (a special ability) that Changers have adds some suspense to the last chapter, but the gift seems totally random, like it was included just because it’d be interesting. I’m hoping the other books in the series cover the gift and origins/background of the Changers in more detail.

[llevine2934 · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I read this book in one sitting. It was honestly not what I expected at all. From the cover it looked like it was going to be some cheesy book that didn't really have any meaning but what I got was a deeply profound book that made me question the way we look at gender. This book follows ethan/drew as he navigates the in's and out's of what it is to be a girl and what it is to be a changer. I loved the way that ethan slowly evolved it drew instead of him out right ignoring that he was a girl or completely excepting this. I thought the story was quite realistic in many ways and that made it have an even bigger impact. I cannot wait for the second book to see who he changes to next and how that impacts his life. I highly recommend this book.

[shabacus · Rating: 3 out of 5 stars]

This book was stronger in premise than execution. The concept, that the first person narrator becomes a different person once a year during high school, not only parallels the way that high school sometimes feels, but raises a wide range of possibilities that can only emerge in a speculative fiction context.On the other hand, the writing style was not able to live up to the promise of the premise. All too often, the attempts to replicate the slang of a young person rang rather false, and only distracted from what was going on. The writing was best when the authors forgot to try to sound like a thirteen-year-old.The plot itself was more set-up for later on. We are introduced to a wide range of characters, each of which seems to embody one of the in-universe social groups. The various organizations, all secret from the public, tended to strain my credulity, but luckily the passages that delved into the politics between the different groups were few and far between.The book could have been improved by, if anything, giving the narrator greater time to comment upon what was different after the change, and what the same. I felt like quite a few gender stereotypes were perpetuated because the narrator believed they were true, never challenging that belief within the book. Also, I would have expected the narrator to question his/her sexuality more, whereas in the book such questions were somewhat glossed over. I'll reserve judgment until the series is finished, however.

[rivkat_2 · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

Free LibraryThing Early Reviewer book. I really wanted to like this YA about a boy who wakes up as a girl, and is informed by his parents that this will happen three more times before he chooses his final identity, because he comes from a long line of Changers who live among ordinary “Statics.” But a premise like this walks a fine line: choose to explain, and you risk not making sense at all. Here, Changers always change on the night before the first day of class each year of high school (Wait, why and how? What happened before high school was common/when mobility was extremely limited so that it was difficult to move to a new place four times in four years? What do people do in parts of the world where school is year-round? Etc.). There’s not only an elaborate Changer culture with a Bible and a messianic mission that involves Changers continually mating with Statics so as eventually to make the whole world into Changers (um, how did they have fake IDs/histories prepared for the new person with pictures?), there’s also a Changer resistance that wants to go public and a Static opposition that somehow knows about Changers and … opposes them somehow, supposedly locking them up in basements (why would that help v. killing them?). The creepy would-be rapist older brother of the girl that Ethan, now Drew, likes turns out to be one of these Static fanatics, because of course he is. Oh, and did I mention that when Changers kiss Statics, the Changers get glimpses of the future? Drew’s reaction to the change and the massive infodump is to get briefly mad at her parents, immediately accept her new identity, and head off to the first day of school, grumbling. Yay for gender fluidity and Drew’s interest in both Chase the hot Changer boy and Audrey the cool Static girl, but I can’t say this is done well.

[meliarose · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

This is an enjoyable book! The main character, Ethan, wakes up on his first day of high school as Drew, a girl. His parents tell him he is part of a secret society called the Changers who change their appearances and personalities every year of high school. It is a really interesting concept. One of my favorite things about the novel was the interesting way the main character is able to give both a female and male point of view. Brownie points to the author for that!

[mantra_1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Imagine you're a guy, pretty happy with your life and on the first day of high school, you wake up as a girl! Well, this is what happens to Ethan. He finds out he's a Changer, a secretive group of people who live each year of high school as a different person, before deciding who they want to remain. Ethan becomes Drew and the adventures and misadventures begin. There are strict rules for Changers and some of these are hard to live with for Drew. Imagine how the world might be different if each of us got to basically "walk in someone else's shoes" - 4 times! There would undoubtedly be a lot more understanding in the world. I really enjoyed this book and I think it has a lot to offer for it's intended audience, young adults. I will admit I initially wanted to read this because of the "boy becomes girl" aspect but I really enjoyed it and especially liked Drew and will definitely read the rest of the series!

[bookcharms-1 · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

With a such a crazy concept, I knew it was going to be a fun ride, but I'd be lying if I said I wasn't hesitant at first. By the end, however, I was captivated by this moving insightful story, and Ethan/Drew really stole my heart. There were some tough and sensitive subjects, but T. Cooper and Allison Glock-Cooper handled them with tact and care, and most of my worries dissolved.At first, I was wary of how the authors would handle a teenage boy transforming into a girl. I mentally prepared myself for over exaggerated gender stereotypes and crude humor. I was ready to cringe if Drew looked down her shirt and was utterly amazed at her boobs or if she started crying about how it was the end of the world now that she was a girl. Imagine my surprise when none of that happened. There were a few gender stereotypes mentioned, but they weren't used as a punchline for a funny joke. Instead, Drew was able to empathize and grow as a person in these situations. In fact, Changers Book One really stole my heart by the end. Drew's experiences the perfect blend of humor and sincerity, and it left me feeling so much that I didn't want the story to end.It helps that Drew was a character I could easily root for. I have to admit, if I were in her situation, I probably wouldn't have handled it as easily as she did. Of course, she was surprised by the changed, but she easily adapted to them and open to new experiences. Even though the book as a science-fiction twist with the Changers and all, it felt like I was reading more of a contemporary book. Drew still had to navigate the high school setting and deal with friendships, relationships, crushes, overprotective parents, and the pursuit of one's own identity.I loved how they dealt with the romance in the book. Although there was a moment of "Hm, this is weird," it didn't really bother Drew that much that she was attracted to both a guy and a girl at the same time. But overall, what I enjoyed the most the friendships formed in this book, especially Audrey and Drew's. Sometimes, the "best friend" in a book is often treated as a minor sidekick or a second banana. This was not the case with Changers Book One. Between the shared secrets, the fights, the makeups, and the actual amount of time they spent together, Audrey and Drew is one of the most realistic high school friendships I've read about. In fact, I grew so attached to them that their last day of freshman year really tugged at my heartstrings.I have to admit the writing style was a bit off-putting at first. While the book is considered young adult, I sometimes felt that it fell more in the middle grade category, especially when slang like "geezus" and "grody" was used. (Or perhaps I'm just getting old). Then again, it's written from Drew's perspective as if it was a mental diary, so maybe the style and vocabulary will grow along with Drew. Even at the end of this first book, you can easily see how much Drew developed as a person.Still, there were a few plot holes left at the end, and I had a lot of questions about the Changers. For example, why didn't the parents prepare Ethan more? Who exactly decided on all these cultish Changers rules? How exactly will they change the world? What happens if a friend from your past or your three other identities try to hunt you down? Will they report you missing? It's only the first book in the series, so I didn't expect them to answer every question, we'll have to see if we get more answers in subsequent books.The entire thing is an emotional journey of self-discovery and I look forward to the rest of the series. I’m curious to see how Drew will handle her next identity, and hopefully it’ll manage to fix some of the problems and fill in the holes left over from the first book.

[kassilem · Rating: 2 out of 5 stars]

I have to be honest, I read thirty pages into this book and then scanned the rest. I couldn't make myself read through the rest word by word. It was too juvenile for me. Too predictable, to simple. I really just couldn't do it. Perhaps it's a mood because there are other juvenile books that I do like - usually high or epic fantasy. This was a fantasy and has a great plot story, and perhaps that’s where I went wrong. I had high expectations for this book because I was very interested in the plot and conflict. But it didn't meet my expectations. I don't understand all the raving I have heard about the book. It's too bad. I don't like when I get a book that I don't like to this extent, but unfortunately it happens.

[alicealmighty · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

I got an ARC of this book, which unfortunately didn't get to me until after the publishing date, but oh my goodness, this was amazing! I spent the entire morning reading it from cover to cover, and I couldn't stop reading! The universe created in this book, that borders so much on our own, is incredibly well crafted, and perfectly explained. As a highschool girl myself, I loved the witty and sarcastic way that Drew described the trials and tribulations of being a high school girl... although why she joined the cheerleading team I'll never know. I expected the book to be funny, a boy becomes a girl in high school! I mean, it's got to be funny, but it's been done in two or three movies, nothing new, right? Wrong. The book WAS funny, but it was also sad, and heartwarming, and true, and inspiring, and went so deep into the idea of being a person that the fish had little lights on their heads. And I loved it. Five stars, it's awesome. But maybe a little bit more in depth, now that I've stopped gushing? Taking the opinion of an AP English student (which I am), the biggest thing that this book has going for it is insight. Hasn't everybody wished sometimes that they could wake up and be someone different? Well, this is what it's like. The book also adds great depth to sexism, just what it's like to be a girl, from a much more boyish perspective- from things like boobs, which are completely normal to us, to things like social order, which I have never cared about, and in the end Drew learns how to deal with it too. I really enjoyed a book from an intelligent teenager. Not just your ordinary, jock-ish guy, but one who knows da Vinci's "Vitruvian Man", and what it's called, by first glance, one who can speak intelligently, who has thoughts about feminism and Buddhism, anarchist groups, and abuse, what you could do if you had freedom, and what you could do if you knew the future. It's a great read for any age, especially YA, and I really enjoyed the language and the story. I can't wait for more!

[lostbooks · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

My son and I both read this book and liked it. The idea of having to go through high school in a different body every year is very interesting, though the messages about society that the authors are trying to get across could have been more subtle. The book gets slightly preachy about society's ills. I did request the next book, and will also read it.