Within these pages, you’ll find short stories and comic strips for every letter of the acronym that you might be proudly calling yourself a part of. While I’m not going to spoil any story for you, let me just give you a taste of what you’re in for: there’s a story in here in which a young witch turns herself into a puppy to win over her new neighbour and secret crush. Did someone mention perfect premise? Because that surely is one. There’s also a story about a boyband fandom being the reason for someone coming out and hoo boy, if that didn’t hit home, I don’t know what will. Another chronicles two online friends helping each other come out to their parents while another follows someone trying to find a new inclusive sport after quitting gymnastics because of the assumptions people make about their gender. Beyond stories set in the contemporary world—albeit with magical elements—there are also stories of pirates and other fantastical elements that will make young readers be drawn in from the very first paragraph. Beyond being obviously queer, these stories are also incredibly inclusive and feature topics such as body diversity, bullying, identity struggles, friends standing up for each other, encouraging and uplifting support groups, and a sense of camaraderie not only between the characters themselves but with society at large.

It seems like a truth universally acknowledged that there are no perfect anthologies out there—rarely does a human ever like every single story in an anthology and that’s okay. With that being said, though, I have to admit that I wholeheartedly loved every story in this. Whether you come to this anthology because of an author you already love or because you want to try out someone’s work for the first time, you won’t be disappointed. Even the ones that perhaps weren’t my cup of genre or trope, I was still filled with so much warmth and excitement whenever I thought of what that story might evoke in younger readers’ hands. It’s an anthology that is based on hope, inclusivity, and camaraderie—and it is a must-read, no matter how old you are. Here’s to the future and to many more LGBTQIAP+ based anthologies!

Sure to become a staple in children’s literature, This Is Our Rainbow offers an uplifting and gripping collection of short stories for young readers. Whether you’re part of the LGBTQIAP+ community or an ally, you will devour this must-read anthology that is filled with magic and above all, immense love.

This Is Our Rainbow: 16 Stories of Her, Him, Them, and Us is available from Amazon, Book Depository, and other good book retailers, like your local bookstore, as of October 19th 2021.

Will you be picking up This Is Our Rainbow: 16 Stories of Her, Him, Them, and Us? Tell us in the comments below!

Synopsis | Goodreads

The first LGBTQIA+ anthology for middle-graders featuring stories for every letter of the acronym, including realistic, fantasy, and sci-fi stories by authors like Justina Ireland, Marieke Nijkamp, Alex Gino, and more!

A boyband fandom becomes a conduit to coming out. A former bully becomes a first-kiss prospect. One nonbinary kid searches for an inclusive athletic community after quitting gymnastics. Another nonbinary kid, who happens to be a pirate, makes a wish that comes true–but not how they thought it would. A tween girl navigates a crush on her friend’s mom. A young witch turns herself into a puppy to win over a new neighbor. A trans girl empowers her online bestie to come out.

From wind-breathing dragons to first crushes, This Is Our Rainbow features story after story of joyful, proud LGBTQIA+ representation. You will fall in love with this insightful, poignant anthology of queer fantasy, historical, and contemporary stories from authors including: Eric Bell, Lisa Jenn Bigelow, Ashley Herring Blake, Lisa Bunker, Alex Gino, Justina Ireland, Shing Yin Khor, Katherine Locke, Mariama J. Lockington, Nicole Melleby, Marieke Nijkamp, Claribel A. Ortega, Mark Oshiro, Molly Knox Ostertag, Aisa Salazar, and AJ Sass.

The post #ReadWithPride: ‘This Is Our Rainbow: 16 Stories of Her, Him, Them, and Us’ appeared first on The Nerd Daily.

There are so many beautiful and valid trans identities and we wish that we could make a recommendation post for every single one of them. We would also love to be able to offer you a separate post for books dealing with Intersexuality. But alas, we have found an alarming lack of good (by trans reviewer standard) books… We want MORE!

We are very happy about the development that more and more books that incorporate trans, non-binary, genderqueer, and intersex characters are reaching us in 2020, but our wish for 2021 is: WE WANT EVEN MORE DIVERSE CHARACTERS!

We cannot wait to see what’s coming for us in the next year, but for now we hope you can forgive us for making one post with characters who are not cisgendered, and we hope you enjoy.

Adult

Mr. March Names The Stars by Rivka Aarons-Hughes

Wes loves his life traveling the Pagan festival circuit, but he loved it more when he wasn’t harangued by women a little too fond of his picture in a popular charity calendar—a calendar that mucked up his bio by stating that he’s single, but leaving out that he’s not straight.

This Is How It Always Is by Laurie Frankel

This is Claude. He’s five years old, the youngest of five brothers, and loves peanut butter sandwiches. He also loves wearing a dress, and dreams of being a princess. When he grows up, Claude says, he wants to be a girl.

Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides

 To understand why Calliope is not like other girls, she has to uncover a guilty family secret, and the astonishing genetic history that turns Callie into Cal, one of the most audacious and wondrous narrators in contemporary fiction.

The Thirty Names of Night by Zeyn Joukhadar

Five years after a suspicious fire killed his ornithologist mother, a closeted Syrian American trans boy sheds his birth name and searches for a new one. He has been unable to paint since his mother’s ghost has begun to visit him each evening.

Vanishing Monuments by John Elizabeth Stintzi

Alani Baum, a non-binary photographer and teacher, hasn’t seen their mother since they ran away with their girlfriend when they were seventeen – almost thirty years ago. But when Alani gets a call from a doctor at the assisted living facility where their mother has been for the last five years, they learn that their mother’s dementia has worsened and appears to have taken away her ability to speak. As a result, Alani suddenly find themselves running away again – only this time, they’re running back to their mother.

Young Adult

Coffee Boy by Austin Chant

After graduation, Kieran expected to go straight into a career of flipping burgers—only to be offered the internship of his dreams at a political campaign. But the pressure of being an out trans man in the workplace quickly sucks the joy out of things, as does Seth, the humorless campaign strategist who watches his every move.

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender

Felix Love has never been in love—and, yes, he’s painfully aware of the irony. He desperately wants to know what it’s like and why it seems so easy for everyone but him to find someone. What’s worse is that, even though he is proud of his identity, Felix also secretly fears that he’s one marginalization too many—Black, queer, and transgender—to ever get his own happily-ever-after.

The Truth Is by NoNieqa Ramos

Fifteen-year-old Verdad doesn’t think she has time for love. She’s still struggling to process the recent death of her best friend, Blanca; dealing with the high expectations of her hardworking Puerto Rican mother and the absence of her remarried father; and keeping everyone at a distance. But when she meets Danny, a new guy at school–who happens to be trans–all bets are off.

None of the Above by I.W. Gregorio

A groundbreaking story about a teenage girl who discovers she was born intersex… and what happens when her secret is revealed to the entire school. Incredibly compelling and sensitively told, None of the Above is a thought-provoking novel that explores what it means to be a boy, a girl, or something in between.

Fantasy & Sci-Fi

Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas

When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself, and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free.

Dark and Deepest Red by Anna-Marie McLemore

Summer, 1518. A strange sickness sweeps through Strasbourg: women dance in the streets, some until they fall down dead. As rumors of witchcraft spread, suspicion turns toward Lavinia and her family, and Lavinia may have to do the unimaginable to save herself and everyone she loves.

The Mermaid, the Witch and the Sea by Maggie Tokuda-Hall

A desperate orphan turned pirate and a rebellious imperial daughter find a connection on the high seas in a world divided by colonialism and threaded with magic.

Dreadnought by April Daniels

Danny Tozer has a problem: she just inherited the powers of Dreadnought, the world’s greatest superhero. Until Dreadnought fell out of the sky and died right in front of her, Danny was trying to keep people from finding out she’s transgender. But before he expired, Dreadnought passed his mantle to her, and those secondhand superpowers transformed Danny’s body into what she’s always thought it should be. Now there’s no hiding that she’s a girl.

Middle-Grade Fiction

George by Alex Gino

BE WHO YOU ARE. When people look at George, they think they see a boy. But she knows she’s not a boy. She knows she’s a girl.

Lily and Dunkin by Donna Gephart

Lily Jo McGrother, born Timothy McGrother, is a girl. But being a girl is not so easy when you look like a boy. Especially when you’re in the eighth grade.

Zenobia July by Lisa Bunker

Zenobia July is starting a new life. She used to live in Arizona with her father; now she’s in Maine with her aunts. She used to spend most of her time behind a computer screen, improving her impressive coding and hacking skills; now she’s coming out of her shell and discovering a community of friends at Monarch Middle School. People used to tell her she was a boy; now she’s able to live openly as the girl she always knew she was.

Gracefully Grayson by Ami Polonsky

Alone at home, twelve-year-old Grayson Sender glows, immersed in beautiful thoughts and dreams. But at school, Grayson grasps at shadows, determined to fly under the radar. Because Grayson has been holding onto a secret for what seems like forever: “he” is a girl on the inside, stuck in the wrong gender’s body.

Do you have any other recommendations? Tell us in the comments below!

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