Summer is here, so delight the tweens in your life with some of these LGBTQ-inclusive middle grade novels that feature summer camps and a diverse assortment of campers!
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Pina and best friend Jo (who is nonbinary) are excited about summer camp—but the camp’s mysterious clearing, which lets them share dreams, soon starts to leak nightmares into the waking world.
A spooky mystery of magical realism, friendships, and a first crush, set at a summer camp in the New Jersey Pine Barrens.
A nonbinary protagonist navigates self-confidence and finding one’s place in this summer camp-themed graphic novel.
A fun graphic novel set at a summer theater camp, with a nonbinary protagonist and a sweet queer romance.
In this graphic novel, Ty is unsure about rejoining the swim team at camp after an injury and gaining weight. Friendships are shifting, and he’s getting a crush on another boy. Can he find his confidence again amidst all the change?
Four tweens who meet at summer camp are convinced a pink boa has magic powers, and pass it along to help each other with their life challenges in the year between camp sessions, in this twist on Sisterhood of the Traveling Pants.
Set at a summer camp exclusively for queer youth, this story offers plenty of intrigue and interpersonal ups and downs (plus a nonbinary, possibly magical, squirrel!). It’s full of all the queer joy you could want from a summer camp novel.
A story of two Black girls at an elite music camp, told in alternating prose sections of each girl’s voice, with interstitial verses from the perspective of the camp itself. A lyrical and moving story of transformation and identity.
At a theater camp in the Berkshires, 12-year-old Maren stumbles upon a mystery involving the camp’s namesake, a rising director in 1940s Hollywood. There’s queerness aplenty here, along with creatively drawn characters, lots of action, and a twist I didn’t see coming.
A bisexual girl at band camp navigates shifting friendships, a crush on another girl, and her future as a drummer.
Two girls (one with two moms, the other who is queer herself) have the chance to patch up their fractured friendship at a summer theater camp.
The third volume of this early middle grade series is set at roller derby camp and centers Tomoko, who experiences microaggressions but learns to speak up for herself and become a leader. While Tomoko isn’t said to be queer, two teammates are (although there’s more about them in the first volume).
A fun caper about two girls sent to the same summer camp by their single gay dads, who are dating each other and want the girls to get know each other. They resist at first—but while family is eventually found, it’s not in the way most readers might initially guess.
A queer, Black 13-year-old goes to an all-White Christian youth backpacking camp and finds friendship with a transgender camper in this thoughtful but gently funny graphic novel.
Two boys, one transgender and the other cisgender but with two moms (one cis and one trans) learn to define masculinity in their own ways in this sweet and earnest novel set at a baseball camp.
A girl with two dads and a love of astronomy must use her STEM skills to figure out the mystery of her summer camp in this quirky and fun graphic novel.
Offbeat fun with a nonbinary vampire kid in the graphic novel sequel to The Accursed Vampire.
The hilarious, award-winning comic series about five girls tackling supernatural mysteries at a summer camp for “Hardcore Lady-Types.” One of the girls is trans, and two are dating each other.
