Starred review from October 11, 2021
In this stellar middle grade anthology, editors and contributors Locke (What Are Your Words?) and Melleby (How to Become a Planet) assemble the works of 16 authors whose pieces present a wide range of LGBTQ experiences across genres and formats. In Justina Ireland’s “I Know the Way,” the story of a Black seventh grader’s contemporary queer crush intertwines with a narrative about two enslaved women seeking freedom in Civil War Maryland. Aida Salazar’s “Menudo Fan Club,” the volume’s sole poem, captures the melancholy of a speaker who is the only queer girl she knows. Some stories, such as “The Makeover,” a comic by Shing Yin Khor, center on self-discovery and community; others, including “Petra & Pearl,” Lisa Bunker’s tale of two online friends realizing that they’re trans, portray the pain of experiencing bigotry. In Katherine Locke’s “The Wish & the Wind Dragon,” the nonbinary pirate protagonist’s gender feels incidental to the narrative. Intersectionally inclusive casts include characters of various abilities and ethnicities as well as kids who both name their identities and seem content without labels. The result is a strong amalgam of confidently written portraits that consider the joys, pains, and complexities that can come with being young and queer. Ages 8–12. Agent: Jim McCarthy, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret.
December 1, 2021
Gr 3-8-In this collection of prose, poetry, and comics from 16 notable middle grade creators, technique and tone run the gamut, from playful explorations of the mundane to thrilling sci-fi adventures to heartwrenching coming-of-age tales. A character with they/them pronouns grapples with the loss of a pet and learns that new beginnings don't devalue old furry friends in Alex Gino's "Purr-cle of Life," while seventh-grader Marcus turns back time to avoid his disastrous accidental coming out, eventually stepping into the inevitable conclusion on his own terms in Eric Bell's vivid "Come Out, Come Out, Whenever You Are." Other highlights include Mariama J. Lockington's "Devoyn's Pod," the poignant tale of Brooklyn-born Dev who finds her longest friendships shifting along with her understanding of herself and her neighborhood, and Molly Knox Ostertag's comic, "The Golem and the Mapmaker," in which a golem bound to the Emperor's will falls for his stubborn bride-to-be, leading both to a life of reclaimed freedom. Stories vary in length and content (some skew older, such as Marieke Nijkamp's "Splinter & Ash," which features two masked characters befriending each other through an act of heroism that involves an assault); readers of all ages and interests will find something to love among them. VERDICT This outstanding collection of LGBTQIA+ fiction is a worthy purchase for all collections serving tweens and teens.-Ashleigh Williams, School Library Journal
Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.
Starred review from September 15, 2021
These 16 short stories by celebrated authors of literature for young people center the experiences of LGBTQ+ youth in pivotal moments of childhood and adolescence. As the title suggests, this collection delivers a spectrum of diversity in representation of both personal identities and genre. Whether the stories contain overt fantasy (like dragons, spells, the undead, and time loops), subtle glimmers of the supernatural (like ghosts and magical letters), or realistic grounding in the everyday (like a new kitten, sports, and school), they capture with honesty and vulnerability the feelings that accompany events like the grief of losing a friend or facing rejection from a crush, the nervous thrill of new feelings for someone special, and the freeing, but sometimes still scary, power of self-discovery. Although the majority of the selections are prose, the anthology includes two comics and one story in verse. Many of the protagonists feel a budding desire for close connection--a witch with a squish on her ordinary neighbor, an aspiring marine biologist with a changing friend group, a pirate who misses their sister--and they overcome self-doubt to reach for it. Not every crush works out, and sometimes feelings get hurt, but these outcomes lean toward recovery and personal growth while validating the sadness of loneliness. An essential read, this collection breaks free from the dichotomy of representing LGBTQ+ lives as total tragedy or one-true-love, happily-ever-after coming-out stories. Vital and liberating. (Anthology. 8-13)
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Starred review from September 15, 2021
Grades 5-8 *Starred Review* Arguably the first queer anthology for middle-schoolers, this generous collection of 16 stories covers the LGBTQIA+ waterfront, featuring tales with gay, lesbian, bi, trans, gender fluid, and nonbinary characters. The types of stories are also varied and include traditional prose narratives, two graphic stories, and one in verse. Characters are a happy exercise in diversity, too, featuring those who are Black, white, and brown, and just over half of the stories' protagonists identify as cis female--a welcome departure from the historic prevalence of male leading characters--with five nonbinary, one cis male, and one transgender lead filling out the bill. Happily, the stories are uniformly excellent but there are, as always, some standouts. Lisa Bunker's "Petra and Pearl," for example, features two kids who are fellow fan-fic writers and long-distance friends. Gradually, the two, who write under girls' names, come to terms with the realization that each of them is a transgender girl, despite their transphobic families. Marieke Nijkamp's "Splinter and Ash" stars a teen, assigned female at birth, who longs to be a knight. But how? Might it have something to do with falling in love with the princess? And Mark Oshiro's "Guess What's Coming to Dinner" is, not to put too fine a point on it, a hoot. A handful of gay adults rounds out this fine collection.
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July 1, 2021
Sixteen gay and gender-nonconforming authors contribute fictional stories to this anthology. The entries range from the realistic (two school-age fanfic writers realize that they're transgender like their online avatars) to the speculative (teen witch turns herself into a dog to get close to her crush); from narrative poetry to a graphic-novel-format story, in which a delightful trio of kids takes a self-effacing new nonbinary student to the thrift store to find their own homespun "cozy ghost" style. The creators capture the middle school age perfectly: the protagonists are still children, but the seeds of what they will become are beginning to sprout.
(Copyright 2021 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)