Based on a true transgender identity journey, the picture bookI'm Not a Girl is an empowering story from writers Maddox Lyons and Jessica Verdi about a boy who is determined to be himself, illustrated by Dana Simpson. Nobody seems to understand that Hannah is not a girl. His parents ask why he won't wear the cute outfits they pick out. His friend thinks he must be a tomboy. His teacher insists he should be proud to be a girl. But a birthday wish, a new word, and a stroke of courage might be just what Hannah needs to finally show the world who he really is. A 2021 Rainbow Book List Recommended Reading Selection

I'm Not a Girl: A Transgender Story

Verdi, Jessica

Lyons, Maddox

LGBTQ+ Books

Roaring Brook Press

QUEER WE GO AGAIN! Fans of Becky Albertelli, Adam Silvera and Nina LaCour will eat up this delicious anthology of romantic and adventurous contemporary and speculative stories featuring LGBTQ+ teens. A follow-up to the critically acclaimed All Out anthology, Out Now features seventeen new short stories from amazing queer YA authors. Vampires crash prom...aliens run from the government...a president's daughter comes into her own...a true romantic tries to soften the heart of a cynical social media influencer...a selkie and the sea call out to a lost soul. Teapots and barbershops...skateboards and VW vans...Street Fighter and Ares's sword: Out Now has a story for every reader and surprises with each turn of the page! This essential and beautifully written modern-day collection features an intersectional and inclusive slate of authors and stories. With original stories from: Fox Benwell Tanya Boteju Kate Hart Kosoko Jackson Will Kostakis CB Lee Katherine Locke Saundra Mitchell Hillary Monahan Candice Montgomery Mark Oshiro Caleb Roerig Meredith Russo Eliot Schrefer Jessica Verdi Julian Winters Read the entire set of companion anthologies featuring queer teens in the past, present, and future! All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages Out Now: Queer We Go Again! Out There: Into the Queer New Yonder&nbsp;(coming soon!)

Out Now: Queer We Go Again!

Literature & Fiction

Schrefer, Eliot

Mitchell, Saundra

Winters, Julian

Kostakis, Will

Benwell, Fox

Boteju, Tanya

Hart, Kate

Lee, C.B.

Locke, Katherine

Monahan, Hillary

Montgomery, Cam

Oshiro, Mark

Roehrig, Caleb

RUSSO, MEREDITH

Sim, Tara

Jackson, Kosoko

Short Stories & Anthologies

Inkyard Press

Dara's lived a sheltered life with her single mom, Mellie. Now, at eighteen, she's dreaming of more. When Dara digs up her never-before-seen birth certificate, her world implodes. Why are two strangers listed as her parents?Dara confronts her mother, and is stunned by what she learns: Mellie is transgender. The unfamiliar name listed under "father"? That's Mellie. She transitioned when Dara was a baby, after Dara's birth mother died. She changed her name, started over.But Dara still has more questions than answers. Reeling, she sets off on an impromptu road trip with her best guy friend, Sam, in tow. She is determined to find the extended family she's never even met. What she does discover -- and what her mother reveals, piece by piece, over emails -- will challenge and change Dara more than she can imagine.This is a gorgeous, timely, and essential novel about the importance of being our true selves. The back matter includes an author's note and resources for readers.

And She Was

Teen & Young Adult

Scholastic Press

For fans of Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera, this is a riveting and irresistible take on love, life, and identity -- both online and off. CeCe Ross is kind of a big deal. She and her girlfriend, Silvie, are social media influencers with zillions of fans and followers, known for their cute outfits and being #relationshipgoals. So when Silvie breaks up with her, CeCe is devastated. She's lost her first love, and now she can't help but wonder if she'll lose her followers as well. Things get even messier when CeCe meets Josh, a new boy in town who is very much Not Online. CeCe isn't surprised to be falling for a guy; she's always known she's bi. And Josh is sweet and smart and has excellent taste in donuts... but he has no idea that CeCe is internet-famous. And CeCe sort of wants to keep it that way. But when CeCe's secrets catch up to her, she finds herself in the middle of an online storm, where she'll have to confront the blurriness of public vs. private life, and figure out what it really means to speak her truth.

Follow Your Arrow

Fans of Glee and Rent will love this story of unflinching honesty and unfaltering compassion. The last thing Lucy ever expected was to end up as another teen statistic. Lucy had a plan: become a Broadway star, start a life with her leading man Ty, make her family proud. But in a matter of days, Lucy loses Ty, her starring role, and her parents drop a bomb she never saw coming. Suddenly, it's all too much―she wants out. Out of her house, out of her head, out of her life. She wants to be a new Lucy. So she does something the old Lucy would never dream of. And now her life will never be the same. What will she tell her friends? How will she face her family? Off script and without the comforts of her simple high school problems, Lucy must figure out how to live, and even embrace, her new life. Now...every moment is a gift. Because now she might not have many moments left. Readers' Group Discussion Guide and Resource List included.

My Life After Now

Sourcebooks Fire

Lexi would do anything to keep her broken family together. Even if it means denying who she really is. You are on the road to truth. Help is on the way. The road signs leading to New Horizons summer camp promise a new life for seventeen-year-old Lexi. Ever since her mom found out she was in love with a girl, her broken family has been pulled even further apart. But Lexi swears she can change. Denying her feelings is harder than she thinks. And when she falls heads over heels for one of her fellow campers, Lexi will have to risk her mother's approval for the one person who might love her no matter what.

The Summer I Wasn't Me

What You Left Behind

Jessica Verdi, the author of My Life After Now and The Summer I Wasn't Me, returns with a heartbreaking and poignant novel of grief and guilt that reads like Nicholas Sparks for teens. It's all Ryden's fault. If he hadn't gotten Meg pregnant, she would have never stopped her chemo treatments and would still be alive. Instead he's failing fatherhood one dirty diaper at a time. And it's not like he's had time to grieve while struggling to care for their infant daughter, start his senior year, and earn the soccer scholarship he needs to go to college. The one person who makes Ryden feel like his old self is Joni. She's fun and energetic-and doesn't know he has a baby. But the more time they spend together, the harder it becomes to keep his two worlds separate. Finding one of Meg's journals only stirs up old emotions. Ryden's convinced Meg left other notebooks for him to find, some message to help his new life make sense. But how is he going to have a future if he can't let go of the past?

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Books by Verdi, Jessica