When Max starts school, the teacher hesitates to call out the name on the attendance sheet. Something doesn’t seem to fit. Max lets her know the name he wants to be called by ― a boy’s name. This begins Max’s journey as he makes new friends and reveals his feelings about his identity to his parents. Written with warmth and sensitivity by trans writer Kyle Lukoff, this book is a sweet and age-appropriate introduction to what it means to be transgender. This is the first book in the Max and Friends series.
Call Me Max
Meet the Fletchers. Their year will be filled with new schools, old friends, a grouchy neighbor, hungry skunks, leaking ice rinks, school plays, wet cats, and scary tales told in the dark! This is a funny and compassionate middle-grade family story featuring gay parents and interracial families that is never about either issue. See the second book in the series, The Family Fletcher Takes Rock Island (opens in a new window).
The Misadventures of the Family Fletcher
A kingdom is in search of a princess for its prince. A warrior maiden who fights alongside and is friends with the prince reluctantly attends the matchmaker ball with encouragement from her mother that she may find her perfect match, “the one,” among the guests. She does indeed find the love of her life, not in the prince but in his sister, the princess. A multicultural, modern fairytale that gently affirms all kinds of love.
Maiden & Princess
Stella’s class is having a Mother’s Day celebration, but what’s a girl with two daddies to do? It’s not that she doesn’t have someone who helps her with her homework, or tucks her in at night. Stella has her Papa and Daddy who take care of her, and a whole gaggle of other loved ones who make her feel special and supported every day. She just doesn’t have a mom to invite to the party. Fortunately, Stella finds a unique solution to her party problem in this sweet story about love, acceptance, and the true meaning of family.
Stella Brings the Family
Young Julián lives with his abuela and is obsessed with mermaids. He imagines taking off his clothes, growing a tail, and swimming freely through the blue-tinted water with swirls of fish and stingrays. After spying some women on a train dressed as mermaids, Julián later tells his abuela, “I am also a mermaid,” then proceeds to wrap a curtain around his waist as a “tail.” Ferns in his hair complete the fantastical look, and when his grandmother catches him — is he in trouble? Not at all! In fact, she takes Julián to a festival where people are dressed as fantastically as Julián.
Julián Is a Mermaid
Ayesha is excited to attend her cousin Ritu’s wedding. She can’t wait to dance at the baraat ceremony! But not everyone is happy that Ritu is marrying her girlfriend Chandni. Some have even vowed to stop the celebrations. Will Ayesha be able to save her cousin’s big day? Centering Ayesha’s love for her cousin as much as it showcases Ritu and Chandni’s love for each other, this story celebrates the power of young voices to stand up against prejudice and bigotry.
Ritu Weds Chandni
When a boy confides in his friend about bullies saying he doesn’t have a real family, he discovers that his friend’s parents ― a mom and a dad ― and his two dads are actually very much alike. This book is a great way to gently discuss discrimination with kids. This sweet and straightforward story shows that gay families and straight families and everything in between are all different kinds of normal. What makes a family real is the love that is shared.
Love Is Love
A young girl in a penguin costume sets off to pick out some birthday hats and gets a little carried away. Harriet lives in the big city with her two dads. On the day of her birthday party, Harriet puts on her special errand-running Penguin costume, and she and her dads head to the store to pick up party supplies. But when she encounters a group of real penguins Harriet gets a little carried away, and before she realizes her mistake she’s on a hot air balloon heading to Antarctica.
Harriet Gets Carried Away
A positive and realistic story about familiy, community, and dealing with a disability, that features an elderly, interracial gay male couple. Lou spends every Saturday with Grandad and Pops. They walk to the library hand in hand, like a chain of paper dolls. But everything changes one Saturday when Pops has a fall and learns that he will need to use a wheelchair, not just for now, but for always. Lou comes up with a loving plan to help Pops cope with his new life.
A Plan for Pops
Indian American middle schooler Reha navigates growth and loss in this 1980s coming-of-age novel in verse. Thirteen-year-old Reha deals with ordinary concerns; she tries to stay true to her Indian culture while growing up with in the United States, and she grapples with a crush on a classmate. When her mother suddenly gets sick with leukemia, Reha’s ordinary everyday concerns fade away and are replaced with the belief that if she is as virtuous as possible, she will save her mother’s life.
Red, White, and Whole
The loving story of a boy’s life on the U.S.-Mexico border, visiting his favorite places on The Other Side / El Otro Lado with his father, spending time with family and friends, and sharing in the responsibility of community care. Also see the book in Spanish: Mis dos pueblos fronterizos (opens in a new window).
My Two Border Towns
Jez and Jay have always been fascinated by the African American folk magic that has been the legacy of their family for generations — especially the curious potions and powders Doc and Gran would make for the people on their island. But Jez soon finds out that her family’s true power goes far beyond small charms and elixirs. The bookblends mystical elements with historical ones for a novel that explores Gullah culture as well as the social upheavals of the 1960s.
Root Magic
What do you do when an octopus captures Grandma? Put on your superhero cape and rescue her! This clever picture book tells two stories in one.
Octopus Stew
When a deadly plague reaches the small fish camp where he lives, an orphan named Leif is forced to take to the water in a cedar canoe. He flees northward, following a wild, fjord-riven shore, navigating from one danger to the next, unsure of his destination. Yet the deeper into his journey he paddles, the closer he comes to his truest self as he connects to “the heartbeat of the ocean … the pulse of the sea.”
Northwind
When 13-year-old Tai Pham inherits his grandmother’s jade ring, he soon finds out it’s more than it appears. Suddenly he’s being inducted into a group of space cops known as the Green Lanterns, his neighborhood is being overrun by some racist bullies, and every time he puts pen to paper, he’s forced to confront that he might not be creative enough or strong enough to uphold his ba’s legacy.
Green Lantern: Legacy
The sheer bliss of settling into a good book without being interrupted by spoilers! A boy is so excited and filled with anticipation to read a good book, yet each time he begins a new one, lively animals share their favorite parts and ruin the story for him. From birds to bears to giraffes, everyone has an opinion they want to share with him about the book he is reading.
Let Me Finish!
Iris loves to push the elevator buttons in her apartment building, except when it’s time to share the fun with her baby brother. That is, until the sudden appearance of a mysterious new button that opens up imaginary places where she can escape and explore on her own.
Lift
A young Black boy wrestles with conflicting notions of revolution and family loyalty as he becomes involved with the Black Panthers in 1968 Chicago. Thirteen-year-old Sam Childs finds himself caught between his father (a well-known civil rights leader) and his older brother, Stick, who joins the Black Panther Party. When escalating racial tensions throw Sam’s community into turmoil, he faces a difficult decision. Will Sam choose to follow his father, or his brother? His mind, or his heart? The rock, or the river? (For middle grade readers and older.)
The Rock and the River
When 16-year-old Tariq Johnson dies from two gunshot wounds, his community is thrown into an uproar. Tariq was black. The shooter, Jack Franklin, is white. In the aftermath of Tariq’s death, everyone has something to say, but no two accounts of the events line up. By the day, new twists and turns further obscure the truth. Tariq’s friends family and community struggle to make sense of the tragedy, and of the hole left behind when a life is cut short. In their own words, they grapple for a way to say with certainty: This is how it went down.
How It Went Down
Set in the modern-day suburbs of Las Vegas, biracial sixth-grader Ella Cartwright finds herself caught between two worlds. She is drawn to the popular new boy, Bailey — the only other black student in the school — but also loyal to her best friend, Z, a geeky boy whose social status, like hers, is bottom-rung, and with whom she has shared an incomparable friendship. A relationship with Bailey means a chance at popularity for Ella, but Z is far too weird to ever be accepted by his classmates. When push comes to shove, where will Ella turn for real friendship?
Camo Girl
The night her parents disappear, 12-year-old Robyn Loxley must learn to fend for herself. Her home, Nott City, has been taken over by a harsh governor, Ignomus Crown. After fleeing for her life, Robyn has no choice but to join a band of strangers — misfit kids, each with their own special talent for mischief. Setting out to right the wrongs of Crown’s merciless government, they take their outlaw status in stride. But Robyn can’t rest until she finds her parents. This is the first book in the Robyn Hoodlum Adventure series (see Rebellion of Thieves (opens in a new window) and Reign of Outlaws (opens in a new window)).
Shadows of Sherwood
Caleb Franklin and his big brother Bobby Gene are excited to have adventures in the woods behind their house. But Caleb dreams of venturing beyond their ordinary small town. Then Caleb and Bobby Gene meet new neighbor Styx Malone. Styx is sixteen and oozes cool — and he leads the brothers on a one-thing-leads-to-another adventure in which friendships are forged and loyalties are tested.
The Season of Styx Malone
A young boy on a crowded bus (dala dala) discovers that, after some wiggles and giggles, there’s room for everyone in this lighthearted rhyming picture book set in Zanzibar.
Room for Everyone
When the cops show up at Jesse’s house and arrest her dad, she figures out in a hurry that he’s the #1 suspect in the missing library fund money case. But when a tornado strikes her small town, Jesse must use all of her skills to save her and those around her. This mystery will have you rooting for Jesse and her trusty Pomeranian, Sam-Sam.