You might read this book on the strength of Alex Gino’s reputation alone, and you’d be justified in doing so. Gino once again shows why they’re a leading light among writers of LGBTQ-inclusive middle-grade novels with this tale of community, found family, and history. Seventh-grader Sam lives on Staten Island, “a place known for ways to leave it.” Both Sam, who is White, and their best friend, TJ, who is biracial (Black and White), are nonbinary—and while it is happily now more common to see multiple queer youth in a book, this just might be the first time we’ve seen two nonbinary best friends. As Sam explains, though, they’re not best friends because they’re nonbinary; it’s just one of many things they have in common. (The two also have very different sartorial styles, a nice reminder of the variety even within a shared identity.)
When their history class is asked to write about a famous Staten Islander, the teacher says the students should see themselves in their subject in some way. Sam and TJ, paired for the assignment, refuse to choose a straight, cisgender, White man. But are there any queer Staten Islanders of note? And could their essay take top marks and be entered, as the teacher promises, into the borough-wide contest to decide a new statue for Borough Hall?
Sam solicits help from their downstairs neighbors, Val (who is nonbinary) and Jess (who is femme), who are in their 20s and have a baby Sam sometimes helps watch. While Sam’s single, straight, cisgender mom has been supportive of their nonbinary identity since they first expressed it at four years old, Jess is the one who talks about queer culture with Sam, and about being “fat and fabulous.” And it is Val who suggests they look into Alice Austen, a 19th/early 20th-century local photographer and a lesbian.
TJ makes the additional discovery that Austen once lived in the very apartment where Sam now resides, which feels perhaps somewhat too serendipitous but adds a delightful extra resonance for Sam. It also leads them to learn of another queer person in the building, an older woman Sam had not even known was queer, and who provides a living connection to Alice and her partner Gertrude.
Austen already has a museum in her honor and a ferry named after her. She certainly fits the definition of someone with significance. But when Sam and TJ’s project misses getting entered into the contest because of what they suspect is bias on the part of their teacher, they don’t want to give up on her. Alice’s life is more than just an essay topic to them. It’s representation and validation. With the help of their queer chosen family, might they and Alice have a second chance?
Along the way, Gino slips in information about queer history more broadly, the changing language around LGBTQ identities, and intersectional identities and oppression. Most importantly, though, they show the importance of historical queer role models, contemporary queer mentors, and queer community to queer youth today, all through engaging characters and a dynamic storyline. Notably, too, Sam finds value in queer chosen family even though their mother is supportive; it’s not an either-or choice, and each offers Sam something different.
An Afterward by Gino explains more of Alice’s history as well as Gino’s own connection to it—Gino, like Sam, grew up in the same apartment building that Alice and Gertrude once occupied, in the apartment fictionally occupied by Jess and Val. Several of Austen’s photos are also included.
While Gino doesn’t shy away from discussing the struggles queer and other marginalized people have faced, they nevertheless weave a positive story with a vision of joy, community, and hope. (And if you think things haven’t changed for many of today’s queer youth, consider that TJ at one point exclaims, after listening to a queer elder’s story, “I can’t imagine not knowing I was queer until college.”)
This is an absolutely uplifting book that balances queer history with a celebration of intergenerational queer connections. The last paragraph (which I won’t spoil) is as moving and inspirational as anything I’ve read lately. Add this one to your reading list now, or get it for the young people you know.
Sam is White; TJ is of Black and Italian heritage. Jess is White and Val is Latinx.
