There have been so many queer-inclusive picture books out this year that I’ve gotten a little behind on the middle grade ones! Let’s remedy that with a look at five new ones worth a read!
An updated and expanded edition of a Stonewall Honor-winning book for middle-graders on Pride and the LGBTQ-rights movement is just the thing for anyone wanting to bring some queerness into their COVID-19 homeschooling—but it’s also bound to be a much-read volume for years to come.
Snap’s town has a witch. “She fed her eye to the devil. She eats roadkill and casts spells with the bones,” or so the rumor goes. But when Snap is forced to seek her help, she discovers there’s more to the witch, Jacks, than first appears, in a new queer-inclusive middle-grade graphic novel from one of the creators of the lauded Lumberjanes comics.
OK, it’s not quite spring—but the new crop of LGBTQ-inclusive middle grade books that are coming out in the next few weeks are putting me in a spring-like mood. There’s humor, mystery, poignancy, adventure, romance, and a surfeit of surfing—plus a hint at what could be yet another queer-inclusive animated feature film!
Megan Rapinoe and three of her 2019 U.S. Women’s National Soccer teammates are the subjects of an inspirational new middle-grade book that follows them from their starts in the sport through their rise to global fame—and which also discusses Rapinoe’s coming out and its positive impact on her life.
In a sparkling new middle-grade graphic novel, two twins must hide with a group of magical women after a coup threatens their noble house. For one, dressing as a woman to blend in with the group is a disguise; for the other, it is the first step towards living as her real gender.
Erica Perl’s middle-grade novel All Three Stooges has just won the National Jewish Book Award for Children’s Literature—and its star, Noah, happens to have two moms. I reviewed it last April, but I’m reposting the review here in honor of the award.
Dana Alison Levy is back with her fourth middle-grade book set in the universe of The Misadventures of the Family Fletcher, her 2014 novel about a two-dad family. Her latest book, It Wasn’t Me, centers around one of the Fletchers’ classmates, whose photography project was vandalized with threats and gay slurs, and it asks readers to reflect on the assumptions we make about others.
A new middle grade book gives us a queer romance set in the U.S. South in 1977, long before gay-straight alliance clubs, marriage equality, or any kind of LGBTQ-inclusive books for children and youth. It will likely still resonate with young people today, however (and maybe some of their parents).
I know we’ve made progress towards increasing the number of LGBTQ-inclusive middle grade books when three come out within weeks of each other that are not just new books, but sequels or sophomore efforts. The authors are also all queer themselves!
