LGBTQ+ in Middle Grade Fiction

Romance, specifically LGBTQ+, and identity stories are starting to infiltrate middle grade reads more and more. And for good reason. Middle grade can stretch between ages 8-12, which as any teacher, childcare worker, or parent can tell you is a wide developmental range. Some 12-year-olds at the junior high school I work at are already reading well above their typical reading level or age group and are intentionally seeking out more mature themes.

Since there is a demand and a place for these types of books, here is a compilation of a few middle grade reads that specifically deal with LGBTQ+ themes:

King and the Dragonflies

Kacen Callender

In a small but turbulent Louisiana town, one boy's grief takes him beyond the bayous of his backyard, to learn that there is no right way to be yourself. As King James deals with his brother's death and friendship troubles with a gay boy, he's forced to confront questions about his own identity and the reality of his brother's death.

Pet

Akwaeke Emezi

In a near-future society that claims to have gotten rid of all monstrous people, a creature emerges from a painting seventeen-year-old Jam's mother created, a hunter from another world seeking a real-life monster.

The House in the Cerulean Sea

TJ Klune

Linus Baker is a by-the-book case worker in the Department in Charge of Magical Youth. He's tasked with determining whether six dangerous magical children are likely to bring about the end of the world. Arthur Parnassus is the master of the orphanage. He would do anything to keep the children safe, even if it means the world will burn. And his secrets will come to light

Ivy Aberdeen's Letter to the World

Ashley Herring Blake

Twelve-year-old Ivy Aberdeen's house is destroyed in a tornado, and in the aftermath of the storm, she begins to develop feelings for another girl at school

The Only Black Girls in Town

Brandy Colbert

In a predominately white California beach town, the only two black seventh-graders, Alberta and Edie, find hidden journals that uncover family secrets and speak to race relations in the past.

Lily and Dunkin

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. Norbert Dorfman, nicknamed Dunkin Dorfman, is bipolar and has just moved from the New Jersey town he's called home for the past thirteen years. This would be hard enough, but the fact that he is also hiding from a painful secret makes it even worse. One summer morning, Lily Jo McGrother meets Dunkin Dorfman, and their lives forever change

The Henna Wars

Adiba Jaigirdar

Nishat doesn't want to lose her family, but she also doesn't want to hide who she is, and it only gets harder once a childhood friend walks back into her life. Flávia is beautiful and charismatic, and Nishat falls for her instantly

The List of Things That Will Not Change

Rebecca Stead

Despite her parents' divorce, her father's coming out as gay, and his plans to marry his boyfriend, ten-year-old Bea is reassured by her parents' unconditional love, excited about getting a stepsister, and haunted by something she did last summer at her father's lake house.

More reviews and recommendations from LGBTQ+ authors and creators:

1. I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the Hell Do I Read?

2. Rainbow Book List

3. Literary Lesbian on TikTok