Co-written by two of the best authors of queer, middle-grade books on the planet, Nicole Melleby and A. J. Sass, this book is an absolute joy that deserves a prominent place in any collection of books for youth.
Twelve-year-old Abigail is looking forward to her summer at Camp QUILTBAG, which is exclusively for queer youth. Coming out in her hometown didn’t go very well, and her former friends at Catholic school now shun her both for being a lesbian and for having a crush on a friend’s mom. Her parents are struggling to understand her, but were willing to let her give the camp a try. At the same time, Abigail isn’t very self-confident and doubts her ability to make friends.
Thirteen-year-old Kai, on the other hand, would rather be home with eir parkour team than at camp. But after an incident with school bullies that left eir arm in a sling, eir parents decided that a camp for LGBTQ youth would be the perfect, safe place for em to be.
At the camp, Kai and Abigail meet each other as well as campers with a variety of queer identities. Competitive Kai is eager to help eir cabin win the all-camp competition, even though eir injured arm is a hindrance. Abigail, in a different cabin, wants the self-confident Kai’s help in making friends, so they make a pact. Abigail will help Kai’s cabin win if e helps her make friends.
Naturally, things go awry. I’m not going to spoil the details of the plot, though, except to say that it offers plenty of intrigue and interpersonal ups and downs (plus a nonbinary, possibly magical, squirrel!), and is just the bucket of fun you want from a summer camp novel. Instead, I want to stress just how wonderful it is to have a whole book of not just one or two, but eight named, fleshed-out queer youth characters, plus numerous adult queer mentors, in an unapologetically queer setting. Many other LGBTQ-inclusive middle-grade books, especially ones published several years ago or more, focus on a lone queer character; at best, we get a second as a crush/love interest. A few, such as Different Kinds of Fruit, The House that Whispers, Alice Austen Lived Here, and The Civil War of Amos Abernathy, among others, offer a sense of broader queer community and history, or, like Sir Callie and the Champions of Helston, center a group of youth representing a variety of queer identities. But a big and exclusively queer cast (barring a few brief interactions with cishet friends and family back home), in an entirely queer space? That’s new, and it’s what I never knew I needed. For the target audience of today’s middle graders, it will likely be even more empowering.
The main cast of youth in the book, in addition to Abigail and Kai, offers representation across the LGBTQ spectrum. While both Abigail and Kai are White, four of the six other primary youth characters are people of color. The camp counselors also represent a range of queer and racial identities. Additionally, Sass and Melleby recognize the range of experiences, attitudes, and information among queer youth, even about queer topics. Abigail, for example, is still getting comfortable about voicing her identity and still learning about what other LGBTQ characters’ identities mean for them.
Some readers may recognize Kai and Abigail from This Is Our Rainbow: 16 Stories of Her, Him, Them, and Us, a highly recommended anthology edited by Katherine Locke and Nicole Melleby. Melleby’s story of Abigail and Sass’s story of Kai are among the many stories in that book, both taking place before the events of Camp QUILTBAG. While Melleby and Sass had wanted to co-write a book for a few years, it was their stories for the anthology that gave them the spark they needed, as they write in an Author’s Note. Camp QUILTBAG is a fully standalone book, but those familiar with This Is Our Rainbow will delight in sharing time with two of its characters again.
The storylines of awkward tween/early teen social dynamics and first crushes that are common to so many middle-grade novels find a place here, but they are seen through the lens (or more accurately, lenses) of queer youth in a fully queer environment. That is new and needed. Queer youth are just like any others in many ways, the book implies—navigating relationships, finding their place, learning from their mistakes—even as it also shows that queer youth have their own particular needs, concerns, role models, and community. Most of all, though, they have their own joys, which this book both celebrates and adds to.
I have only one quibble with this otherwise excellent book. One character, Oren, is said to be a Modern Orthodox Jew. In observing Shabbat on Friday night at camp, however, he watches a livestream of services. A counselor sets up the livestream, so that Oren doesn’t violate the prohibition of using electronics on Shabbat—but really, even watching a livestream on Shabbat is prohibited under Modern Orthodox practice. Also, Oren dons a tallit (prayer shawl) for the service—when no Jew of any denomination, including Modern Orthodox, would wear one during Friday night services. (The exceptions are on Yom Kippur, which this isn’t, or if one is a rabbi or prayer leader, acting in that capacity, which Oren isn’t.) These errors (which I’ve checked with my own rabbi) don’t mar the larger story—but Judaism does contribute a thread to the tale, as Kai, who comes from an interfaith family (eir mom is a Reform Jew and eir dad is Lutheran) and knows much less about Jewish practice, becomes friends with the more observant Oren. It’s a wonderful bit of interdenominational Jewish interaction—I just wish the Jewish details had been right.
Don’t let that stop you from reading and sharing this book, however, for it deserves a wide readership. And while the ending feels like an ending, there are also hints of a possible sequel, which would be delightful indeed.
