Celebrating LGBTQIA+ Pride – Middle Grade Book Picks

Chris does not want to be spending the summer with her grandparents and her little sister. Her grandparents aren’t bad — they just don’t let Chris do what she wants to do, which is sit around and read all day. And her sister, Becca, is the opposite, never sitting still and never being quiet. The good part is that Chris’s grandparents are always telling her to go outside and “get some air” — so she can escape into the woods with a book and get some alone time. Or at least it’s alone time until Mia comes along.

Clementine has always felt like the villain of his story. Most of the time, he’s a socially anxious kid who knows it’s not ‘normal’ for a boy to wear pink shoes to school. While he’s there, his teachers won’t call him by the right name (even though Clementine is a boy’s name, if a boy has it), his classmates tease him about his obsessive love for spiders (even though they’re beautiful), and he’s the only one who can see the floating faces that haunt the surrounding woods.

Avery, Milo, and Mac know this is going to be their last summer together. But Lina can’t accept that–and if she can make this the best summer ever, maybe she’ll convince them that there will be a Family Week next year. Good things might not last in the real world, but they do in P-town… Right?

Lately, Rex has been feeling lost, but as he explores his interests, hangs with new neighbors, strays from old friends and makes new ones, he is forced to confront the underlying issues that have been plaguing him since he was young.

After being bullied for wearing a dress to school, twelve-year-old Jackson Bright enters a local pageant in drag, and with help from his best friend, uncle, and some rhinestones, he discovers the importance of being true to himself.

Shai, a thirteen-year-old nonbinary homeschooler, attempts to find a “new normal” post-pandemic as they start public school, meet new friends, and learn about their Jewish identity.

The only thing worse than having ghost hunters for parents is having fake ghost hunters for parents. Luna Catalano would know. Her moms are haunted house flippers who use their home reno skills and pretend psychic powers to turn spooky old houses into ghost-free modern homes. Not only does their job require the family to move all the time–meaning Luna is completely friendless–but the only thing haunting any of those houses is bad decor.

Shy fourth grader Jess Jezowski turns the tables on her mom when she’s given yet another girly baby doll for Christmas. This time, instead of ignoring or destroying it, she transforms it into the boy she’s always wanted to be–a brave, funny little guy named Mickey. Making him talk, Jess finally lets the boy in her express himself. But Mickey proves to be her little Frankenstein…

A middle schooler navigates the challenges of feeling invisible–literally and figuratively–as she comes to terms with her asexual identity in this poignant speculative novel perfect for fans of Ellie Engel Saves Herself and Jennifer Chan Is Not Alone.

Eighth-grader Jasper feels abandoned when his brother Callan leaves for college, so he starts their promised fossil dig alone–only to hear the voice of a saber-toothed tiger calling to him as he unleashes a monster he cannot control.

A kingdom’s fate is often decided by coincidence and happenstance. Small decisions and chance meetings. A princess named Ash crossing paths with a squire named Splinter, for example. If they’d never met, their kingdom would have remained unchanged. That was not what happened.

After reinventing herself at a new middle school, eighth-grader Lacey navigates friendship, first crushes, a bat mitzvah, and an onstage kiss that forces her to confront her feelings and her true self when her longtime best friend reenters her life.