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54 of 2141 products
54 of 2141 products
By: Emma Hunsinger (Author, Illustrator), 2024, Paperback
“Hilarious, inventive, smart, and silly.” —Alice Oseman, bestselling author of Heartstopper
“Emma Hunsinger’s sharp wit and eclectic humor shines in this fantastic story about making new friends and surviving school.” —Dan Santat, National Book Award winner for A First Time for Everything
A funny, vulnerable, and disarming debut graphic novel from Emma Hunsinger, the creator of the popular “How to Draw a Horse.” How It All Ends is a book about being overwhelmed by who you are and who you might be—and all the possibilities in between. For fans of Snapdragon, The Magic Fish, Heartstopper, and New Kid.
Thirteen-year-old Tara lives inside the nonstop adventure of her imagination. It’s far more entertaining than dull, everyday life. But when she’s bumped from seventh grade directly to high school, back-to-school season gives her a dramatic jolt to reality.
Tara isn't ready to watch the racy shows the high school kids like, or to listen to the angsty music, or to stop playing make-believe with her younger brother. She’s not ready to change for PE in front of everyone, or for the chaos of the hallways, or for the anarchy of an English class that’s overrun with fourteen-year-old boys.
But then there’s Libby.
Tara doesn’t know whether she’s ready for Libby. She can’t even explain who Libby is to her because she doesn’t know yet. She just knows that everything’s more fun when she and her new classmate are together. But what will happen next? How will it all end?
Emma Hunsinger's clever, candid debut graphic novel brilliantly captures the humor and the horror of self-discovery and the first blushes of having a crush. How It All Ends deftly explores how unbearable—but exciting!—it is to grow up.
“Imaginative and hysterical, and with the sort of rare, clear-seeing honesty that will make any reader feel less alone in the world. I loved it.” —Eliot Schrefer, two-time National Book Award finalist and New York Times bestselling author
“Emma Hunsinger is a master at revealing human emotion through comedy and absurdism. How It All Ends is a hilarious, surreal, and deeply sincere story about finding yourself in a situation that you don't feel ready to face and making your way through it anyway.” —Sarah Sax, author of Picture Day
“How It All Ends felt like Emma Hunsinger's inner child asking my own inner child, 'Hey, you want to sit together?' I've never felt so healed by a book. I can't wait to give it to everyone I know.” —Adib Khorram, award-winning author of Darius the Great Is Not Okay
By: L. D. Lapinski (Author), 2024, Paperback
There's a place for everyone, you've just got to find it. Jamie is a beautiful and uplifting story about how to make your own place in a world that doesn't think you fit.
"Excels at being educational without sacrificing charm, humor, or excitement." Kirkus Reviews, STARRED REVIEW
"Essential addition to the growing cannon of queer literature for young people. For readers who enjoy Alex Gino, Kyle Lukoff, or A. J. Sass." Booklist
Jamie Rambeau is a happy 11-year-old, nonbinary kid who loves hanging out with their two best friends, Daisy and Ash. But when the trio find out that their local middle schools separate into a school for boys and a school for girls, their friendship suddenly seems at risk. And when Jamie realizes no one has thought about where they are going to go, they decide to take matters into their own hands.
As the friends' efforts to raise awareness eventually become a rooftop protest against the binary rules for the local schools, Jamie realizes that if they don't figure out a way forward, they could lose both their friends forever.
Published in partnership with media advocacy organization GLAAD, this empowering book positively represents LGBTQ families.
By: Ronnie Riley (Author), 2023, Hardcover
Perfect for fans of Alex Gino, A. J. Sass, and Kyle Lukoff this is the joyful and heartwarming story of Jude, a nonbinary kid who knows exactly who they are and decides to create a safe space in their community from Indies Introduce and Indie Next List pick author, Ronnie Riley.
Twelve-year-old Jude struggles with some things: focusing at school, feeling like everything rests on their shoulders, not being able to come out as nonbinary to their old-fashioned grandparents. But Jude doesn't struggle with Dallas, their best friend in the whole world. Their person.
Jude and Dallas's world changes when they learn Stevie, a girl in their class, has been ousted from the popular clique at school. Worried it had something to do with Stevie's rumored crush on another girl, Jude reaches out to see if Stevie is okay. Stevie quickly becomes an important friend to Jude and Dallas, whose unwavering acceptance of her is a stark contrast to the tests and dysfunction she experienced with her former friend group.
As their friendship deepens and the three open up to each other, Stevie's unconditional and open acceptance when Jude comes out to her motivates them to create a queer safe space in their community. Jude has the courage and determination it takes to create the first Diversity Club in their community, but will they be able to find the support they need to make it happen?
By: Jes and Cin Wibowo (Author, Illustrator), 2024, Paperback, Graphic Novel
For fans of The Witch Boy and Squished, Lunar Boy is a must-have heartwarming coming-of-age graphic novel about a young boy from the moon who discovers a home in the most unlikely places, from debut twin creators Jes and Cin Wibowo.
Indu, a boy from the moon, feels like he doesn’t belong. He hasn’t since he and his adoptive mom disembarked from their spaceship—their home—to live on Earth with their new blended family. The kids at school think he’s weird, he has a crush on his pen pal who might not like him back, and his stepfamily doesn’t seem to know what to do with him. Worst of all, Indu can’t even talk to his mom about how he’s feeling because she’s so busy.
In a moment of loneliness, Indu calls out to the moon, begging them to take him back. And against all odds, the moon hears him and agrees to bring him home on the first day of the New Year. But as the promised day draws nearer, Indu finds friendship in unlikely places and discovers that home is more than where you come from. And when the moon calls again, Indu must decide: Is he willing to give up what he’s just found?
BE WHO YOU ARE.
When people look at Melissa, they think they see a boy named George. But she knows she's not a boy. She knows she's a girl.
Melissa thinks she'll have to keep this a secret forever. Then her teacher announces that their class play is going to be Charlotte's Web. Melissa really, really, REALLY wants to play Charlotte. But the teacher says she can't even try out for the part... because she's a boy.
With the help of her best friend, Kelly, Melissa comes up with a plan. Not just so she can be Charlotte -- but so everyone can know who she is, once and for all.
By: Greg Howard, 2021, Hardback
In this new novel from Greg Howard, an enterprising boy starts his own junior talent agency and signs a thirteen-year-old aspiring drag queen as his first client. Now in paperback.
Twelve-year-old Mikey Pruitt is a budding entrepreneur. Inspired by his grandfather Pap Pruitt, who successfully ran all sorts of businesses, Mikey is still looking for his million-dollar idea. Unfortunately, most of his ideas--from a roadside general store to croquet lessons--haven't taken off. It isn't until kid drag queen Coco Caliente, Mistress of Madness and Mayhem (aka eighth grader Julian Vasquez) walks into his office (aka his family's storage/laundry room) looking for a talent agent that Mikey thinks he's finally found a business that will put him on the map, and the Anything Talent and Pizzazz Agency is born!
Soon, Mikey has a whole roster of kid clients looking to hit it big or at least win the middle school talent show's hundred-dollar prize. As newly out Mikey prepares Julian for the gig of a lifetime, he realizes there's no rulebook for being gay--and if Julian can be openly gay at school, maybe Mikey can, too, and tell his crush, the dreamy Colton Sanford, how he feels.
Full of laughs, sass, and hijinks, this hilarious, heartfelt story shows that with a little effort and a lot of love, anything is possible.
AN INDIE’S INTRODUCE PICK!
In this modern take on Are You There God? It’s Me, Margaret, debut writer Jess Callans delivers a tender, queer coming of age story about finding your voice and choosing to live authentically, even when it’s easier to blend in.
Puberty, AKA the ultimate biological predator, is driving a wedge between soon-to-be 13 year old Ollie Thompson and their lifelong friends. Too much of a girl for their neighborhood hockey team, but not girly enough for their boy-crazed BFF, Ollie doesn’t know where they fit. And their usual ability to camouflage? Woefully disrupted by all the changes around them.
When a school project asks them to write an essay on what it means to be a woman (if anyone’s got an answer, that’d be great), and one of their new friends is the target of bullying, Ollie is caught between the safety of fleeing from their own differences or confronting the risks of fighting to take their own path forward.
Praise for Ollie In Between:
“...An empathetic exploration of identity that will resonate with young readers carving out their own definition of self. Infused with equal amounts serious, topical conversation, and gently humorous observation, Ollie in Between is a middle grade classic in the making. ” ―A. J. Sass, award-winning author of Ellen Outside the Lines and Ana on the Edge
"Debut author Callans’ confiding tone leans into Ollie’s flummoxed first-person ruminations with rhetorical questions that probe moments of deep vulnerability and hope . . . . Clear echoes of Judy Blume couple with themes of social adaptation that rely a bit heavily on analogies to the animal kingdom, but a range of readers should relate to Ollie’s sense of otherness. As Ollie puts it, 'Being yourself can hurt,' but awkward and self-aware stories like Ollie’s can help more tweens 'just be.' "
-- Booklist, starred review
“As endearing as it is hilarious, Ollie in Between is Jess Callans’ laugh-out-loud debut about surviving the chaos of growing up and finding the courage to speak up for others, and, most importantly, yourself. This tender, queer coming-of-age tale shows how sometimes the only way to survive is to embrace your weird and choose your own path.”
--Aiden Thomas, New York Times-bestselling author of Cemetery Boys
By: Cynthia Letich Smith (Author), 2021, Paperback
In a voice that resonates with insight and humor, New York Times bestselling author Cynthia Leitich Smith tells the story of a teenage girl who must face down her grief and reclaim her place in the world with the help of her intertribal community.
It's been six months since Cassidy Rain Berghoff’s best friend, Galen, died, and up until now she has succeeded in shutting herself off from the world. But when controversy arises around Aunt Georgia’s Indian Camp in their mostly white midwestern community, Rain decides to face the outside world again, with a new job photographing the campers for her town’s newspaper.
Soon, Rain has to decide how involved she wants to become in Indian Camp. Does she want to keep a professional distance from her fellow Native teens? And, though she is still grieving, will she be able to embrace new friends and new beginnings?
In partnership with We Need Diverse Books
By: Caroline Huntoon (Author), 2024, Paperback
A heartwarming debut from author Caroline Huntoon about a young figure skater discovering who they are on and off the ice.
Life isn’t easy on twelve-year-old Mars. As if seventh grade isn’t hard enough, Mars is also grappling with the recent death of their father and a realization they never got to share with him: they’re nonbinary. But with their skates laced up and the ice under their feet, all of those struggles melt away. When Mars’ triple toe loop draws the attention of a high school hot shot, he dares them to skate as a boy so the two can compete head-to-head. Unable to back down from a challenge, Mars accepts. But as competition draws near, the struggles of life off the rink start to complicate their performance in the rink, and Mars begins to second guess if there’s a place for them on the ice at all.
Skating on Mars is a tender examination of grief and a hopeful middle grade tale of self-discovery.
"This timely, triumphant novel about figure skating, identity, loss, and love will move and entertain readers―and it might just inspire them to find their own ways to change the world. " ―Laurie Morrison, author of Up for Air and Coming Up Short
From acclaimed author Phil Stamper (The Gravity of Us and As Far as You’ll Take Me) comes a poignant coming-of-age, contemporary middle grade debut novel about finding your place, using your voice, and the true meaning of pride. Perfect for fans of Rick by Alex Gino and The Best at It by Maulik Pancholy.
Jake is just starting to enjoy life as his school’s first openly gay kid. While his family and friends are accepting and supportive, the same can’t be said about everyone in their small town of Barton Springs, Ohio.
When Jake’s dad hangs a comically large pride flag in their front yard in an overblown show of love, the mayor begins to receive complaints. A few people are even concerned the flag will lead to something truly outlandish: a pride parade.
Except Jake doesn’t think that’s a ridiculous idea. Why can’t they hold a pride festival in Barton Springs? The problem is, Jake knows he’ll have to get approval from the town council, and the mayor won’t be on his side. And as Jake and his friends try to find a way to bring Pride to Barton Springs, it seems suspicious that the mayor’s son, Brett, suddenly wants to spend time with Jake.
But someone that cute couldn’t possibly be in league with his mayoral mother, could he?
* An ALA Rainbow List Pick
* A 2022 Goodreads Choice Awards Finalist for Best Middle Grade and Children’s Book
* A School Library Journal Best Book of 2022
* A Maine Student Book Award 2023-2024 Reading List Nominee
By: Ami Polonsky (Author), 2022, Paperback
From the author of the critically acclaimed Gracefully Grayson comes a thoughtful and sensitive middle-grade novel about non-binary identity and first love, Ami Polonsky's Spin with Me .
In this elegant dual narrative, Essie is a thirteen-year-old girl feeling glum about starting a new school after her professor dad takes a temporary teaching position in a different town. She has 110 days here and can't wait for them to end. Then she meets Ollie: delicate, blue eyes, short hair, easy smile. At first, Essie thinks she has a typical crush on a beautiful boy. But as her crush blossoms, she soon realizes that Ollie is not a boy or a girl, but gender non-binary.
Meanwhile, Ollie is experiencing a crush of their own . . . on Essie. As Ollie struggles to balance their passion for queer advocacy with their other interests, they slowly find themselves falling for a girl whose stay is about to come to an end. Can the two unwind their merry-go-round of feelings before it's too late?