Whats New Category: Nonfiction

Check out some of the great nonfiction and fiction reads if you want to learn more, or read about characters who are transgender.

Nonfiction

Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin
YA 306.768 KUK
Author and photographer Susan Kuklin met and interviewed six transgender or gender-neutral young adults and used her considerable skills to represent them thoughtfully and respectfully before, during, and after their personal acknowledgment of gender preference. Portraits, family photographs, and candid images grace the pages, augmenting the emotional and physical journey each youth has taken. Each honest discussion and disclosure, whether joyful or heartbreaking, is completely different from the other because of family dynamics, living situations, gender, and the transition these teens make in recognition of their true selves.

Transgender Lives: Complex Stories, Complex Voices by Kirstin Cronn-Mills
YA 306.768 CRO
Meet Katie, Hayden, Dean, Brooke, David, Julia, and Natasha. Each is transgender, and in this book, they share their personal stories. Through their narratives, you’ll get to know and love each person for their humor, intelligence, perseverance, and passion. You’ll learn how they each came to better understand, accept, and express their gender identities, and you’ll follow them through the sorrows and successes of their personal journeys.

Some Assembly Required: the Not-So-Secret Life of a Transgender Teen by Arin Andrews
YA 306.768 AND
Seventeen-year-old Arin Andrews shares all the hilarious, painful, and poignant details of undergoing gender reassignment as a high school student in this winning teen memoir.

Rethinking Normal: a Memoir in Transition by Katie Rain Hill
YA 306.768 HIL
In this young adult memoir, a transgender girl shares her personal journey of growing up as a boy and then undergoing gender reassignment during her teens.

This Book is Gay by James Dawson
YA 306.766 DAW
Lesbian. Bisexual. Queer. Transgender. Straight. Curious. This book is for everyone, regardless of gender or sexual preference. This book is for anyone who’s ever dared to wonder.

Fiction

Beautiful Music for Ugly Children by Kirstin Cronn-Mills
YA CRONN-MILLS, K.
Gabe has always identified as a boy, but he was born with a girl’s body. With his new public access radio show gaining in popularity, Gabe struggles with romance, friendships, and parents–all while trying to come out as transgender. An audition for a station in Minneapolis looks like his ticket to a better life in the big city. But his entire future is threatened when several violent guys find out Gabe, the popular DJ, is also Elizabeth from school.

Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher
YA KATCHER, B.
With his mother working long hours and in pain from a romantic break-up, eighteen-year-old Logan feels alone and unloved until a zany new student arrives at his small-town Missouri high school, keeping a big secret.

Crossing Lines by Paul Volponi
YA VOLPONI, P.
High school senior Adonis struggles to do the right thing when his fellow football players escalate their bullying of a new classmate, Alan, who is transgender.

Freakboy by Kristin Elizabeth Clark
YA CLARK, K.
Told from three viewpoints, seventeen-year-old Brendan, a wrestler, struggles to come to terms with his place on the transgender spectrum while Vanessa, the girl he loves, and Angel, a transgender acquaintance, try to help.

Jumpstart the World by Catherine Ryan Hyde
YA HYDE, C.
Sixteen-year-old Elle falls in love with Frank, the neighbor who helps her adjust to being on her own in a big city, but learning that he is transgender turns her world upside-down.

Happy Families by Tanita S. Davis
YA DAVIS, T.
In alternating chapters, sixteen-year-old twins Ysabel and Justin share their conflicted feelings as they struggle to come to terms with their father’s decision to dress as a woman.