Playing for Keeps

Playing for Keeps by Jennifer Dugan is a young adult lesbian romance between a baseball pitcher and an umpire.

June is the star pitcher of her elite club baseball team—with an ego to match—and she's a shoo-in to be recruited at the college level, like her parents have always envisioned. That is, if she can play through an overuse injury that has recently gone from bad to worse.

Ivy isn't just reffing to pay off her athletic fees or make some extra cash on the side. She wants to someday officiate at the professional level, even if her parents would rather she go to college instead. 

The first time they cross paths, Ivy throws June out of a game for grandstanding. Still, they quickly grow from enemies to begrudging friends . . . and then something more. But the rules state that players and umpires are prohibited from dating.

As June's shoulder worsens, and a rival discovers the girls' secret and threatens to expose them, everything the two have worked so hard for is at risk. Now both must choose: follow their dreams . . . or follow their hearts?

Jennifer Dugan writes great lesbian romance novels for adults and young adults. Read one today.

Dugan, Jennifer. (2024). Playing for Keeps. New York: Putnam.

Margo Zimmerman Gets the Girl

Margo Zimmerman Gets the Girl by Brianna Shrum and Sara Waxelbaum is a YA queer romance and a fun read. 

Margo Zimmerman is gay, but she didn’t know until now. An overachiever at heart, Margo is determined to ace her newly discovered gayness. All she needs is the right tutor.
 
Abbie Sokoloff has her own gayness down to a science. But a flunking grade in US History is threatening her acceptance to her dream school. All she needs is the right tutor.
 
Margo agrees to help Abbie get her history grade up in exchange for “Queer 101” lessons. But as they spend more and more time together, Margo realizes she doesn’t want just any girl—she wants the girl. [fantastic fiction]

This is a great YA romance filled with humor. Read it.

Shrum, Brianna and Sara Waxelbaum (2023). Margo Zimmerman Gets the Girl. New York: Inkyard Press.

The No-Girlfriend Rule

The No-Girlfriend Rule by Christen Randall is a YA coming of age novel set around a Dungeons & Dragons-like game.

Hollis is looking for a place to play S&S. Her boyfriend plays with his friends - and it is all they talk about. But the group has a no girlfriend rule. 

After trying a random game at a gaming store, Hollis is worried that there is no place for her at the game. On her way out, she sees a flyer looking for girls and queers to create a new game.

As Hollis gets to know the other player she learns more about who she wants to be. 

Randall has written a sweet coming of age YA queer, geek girl romance about learning to like yourself the way you are - and finding your group of people.

Randall, Christen. (2024). The No-Girlfriend Rule. New York: Pushkin.

Cool for the Summer

Larissa Bogdan just finished her junior year of high school. Whatever her plans were will have to change as her mom tells her they are going to the Outer Banks for the summer. Her mom’s boss summers there, and they have to work. They will be staying in his beach mansion.

Jasmine Killary has spent most summers in Outer Banks. It is the time she spends with her father, the rest of the time she lives with her mother. She sees the same friends each year – all the children of the very wealthy.

Larissa and Jasmine spend the summer going to parties and getting closer. When they say goodbye, they don’t think they will see each other again – just a summer fling. But on the first day of school Larissa sees Jasmine walk down the hall. She has moved in with her father to finish high school.

Adler is a wonderful writer. Her YA romance is great!

Adler, Dahlia. (2021). Cool for the Summer. New York: Wednesday Books.

True Biz

February Waters is the headmistress of the River Valley School for the Deaf in Ohio. As the child of deaf parents, or CODA, she has skills and experience both within Deaf culture and the hearing world. River Valley is the only Deaf school in three states. It is both a resident and a day school.

Charlie Serrano, age 15, had implants as a kid. Doctors told her parents not to teach her American Sign Language but make her rely on the technology. Now, after her parents' divorce, she will be going to a Deaf school for the first time. It will be the first time for her meeting someone else deaf.

Austin Workman is fifth generations Deaf. His family is legend. And every person between the extremes of Charlie and Austin is represented at the school.

Nović has written an important book, one that has been missing from YA literature. It is heartbreaking, funny, and full of information – including Waters’ lesson plans between chapter with history and how to sign, or other information on Deaf culture. Read this book today.

Nović, Sara. (2022). True Biz. New York: Random House.

Not Here to Be Liked

Not Here to Be Liked by Michelle Quach is a high school struggle to balance being yourself and still get what you want.

Eliza Quan is the managing editor of her high school paper. Each year there is a staff election to pick the Editor in Chief. Eliza is sure she is going to be chosen as she is the most qualified and the only one running.

But when she gets to the election, Len a boy who usually sits in the corner and does not get involved other than to turn in articles about sports, announces he is running too. 

It turns out that while the staff respects Eliza, they like Len better. 

When Eliza writes an op ed about her loss, feminism, and why he was the wrong choice - an article that was never meant to be published but someone finds and post it - a wave of protests spread through the school.

Quach has written a compelling story that contains many important issued not often covered in YA. Great read.

Quach, Michelle. (2021). Not Here to Be Liked. New York: Katherine Tegen Books.

Some Girls Do

Some Girls Do by Jennifer Dugan is a young adult romance where opposites attract.

Morgan is changing high schools. Kicked out of her private school for being lesbian, she is suing her former school to make it easier for others to come out. 

Ruby has been in the same town her whole life. She is a beauty pageant contestant who wants to become a mechanic. Really the pageant thing is her mother's dream.

Morgan and Ruby meet when Ruby almost runs over Morgan as she sprints across the parking lot to catch her brother before he drives off with her backpack. 

Dugan has written a sweet tale of falling in love with someone who seems like your opposite. This is a great YA romance.

Dugan, Jennifer. (2021). Some Girls Do. New York: Putnam.

Tell Me How You Really Feel

Tell Me How You Really Feel by Aminah Mae Safi is the tale of school enemies being forced together and realizing they may have been wrong about each other.

Sana Khan is a Persian/Indian high school student in Los Angeles who lives with her mom, a production designer for movies. She is going to be a doctor, is currently a cheerleader and loves movies. 

Rachel Recht is a film student at the same high school. She creates and directs movies and is running out of time to finish her senior project - which could undue her acceptance to NYU is she doesn't work fast.

When they were both freshmen, Sana asked Rachel on a date. Rachel thought it was a prank by a snooty cheerleader and has hated Sana since that day. 

When an literal run in (to each other) happens and a camera gets damaged, the film teacher tells them they will have to work together to finish the project or pay for the damaged camera. 

Safi has set Sana and Rachel up for a bumpy start to the next phase of their relationship. This is fun young adult book. Great summer read. 

Safi, Aminah Mae. (2019). Tell Me How You Really Feel. New York: Feiwel and Friends.

It's Not Like It's a Secret

It's Not Like It's a Secret by Misa Sugiura is a coming out tale.

Sana is Japanese American. She grew up in Wisconsin where she doesn't look like any of her classmates. When her father gets a job in California, she and her parents move. In her new school, there are people from all cultures.

While Sana is getting settled in her new school, the first classmate who talks to her says she will join the other Asian girls group. And she does make friends with them - her first group of friends who understand her culture. But she also makes friends with a punk guy and she has a huge crush on a Latinx chick she met before school started. Sana even tries out for the cross country team to have an excuse to talk to Jaime again.

Sugiura has written a beautiful coming out tale, filled with the stress of not fitting in in a new school. Her characters are courageous and beautiful. She uses poetry for the characters to convey things that are hard to say to each other.

Sugiura, Misa. (2017). It's Not Like It's a Secret. New York: Harper Teen.

Read Me Like a Book

Read Me Like a Book by Liz Kessler is one young woman's story of finding out who she is and who she wants to be.

Ash is a mediocre student in her last year of school. While her very future depends on her A level exams, she is not too interested in school. She thinks of teachers are old, grumpy people who don't care about teaching so much as about discipline. Which may explain why she and her best friend Cat skip class so often.

But the new English teacher seems different. Miss Murray is only a few years older than Ash. And she is making class interesting. Ash wants to spend as much time with her as possible and works hard on her classwork to get a compliment.

It takes a while for Ash to realize she has a crush on her teacher - the results of which may be hard to deal with in the near future, but will spark Ash's interest in a life after school.

Kessler has written a great coming out story set in England. The scene of Ash coming out to her parents (specifically her mother's reaction) is wonderful - and the closest to my own story I have seen in a book.

Kessler. Liz. (2016). Read Me Like A Book. Summerville, MA: Candlewick Press.

South of Sunshine

South of Sunshine by Dana Elmendorf is the story of first love.

Senior Kaycee McCoy is tired of attempting to date boys. She has no interest in them. She just needs to stay hidden until the end of the school year. Then she will start breaking free of Sunshine, Tennessee.

But her plan begins to fall apart as soon as she sees the new student. Bren Dawson, from Boston, has lived all over the place. Even in Africa. She is tall and beautiful and stands out because of her skin. Her mother is Cuban.

Kaycee tries to avoid Bren. But then she wonders if she will be too obvious by not being her friend. Van and Sarabeth, Kaycee's best friends since childhood start to notice her strange behavior. Van, who is not closeted, but is not shouting to the small conservative town that he is gay wants Kaycee to admit to him her feelings. Sarabeth is acting strange and trying to force a new boyfriend on Kaycee.

Elmendorf has written a beautiful coming out story with a brave and wonderful ending.

Elmendorf, Dana. (2016). South of Sunshine. Illinois: Albert Whitman & Co.

If I Was Your Girl

If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo is a beautiful story of a young woman becoming who she is meant to be.

Amanda is moving to a small time outside of Atlanta. She will be living with her father for the first time since her parent's divorce six years ago. She is ready to start a new school - one where no one knows her. Her plan is to keep her head down and finish and get into a good college in a big city.

Amanda makes friends on her first day of school. Grant asks her out for his friend Parker. Amanda thinks that he is tricking her - she is not used to good attention. She does not think she is pretty - but her new classmates seem to think so. At her last school, Amanda was passing as a boy - the body she was mistakenly born into. Most of the attention was focused on shoving her into lockers. But now, after hormone therapy, starting over, she is starting to feel like herself.

After missing the bus home - due to a rather unscheduled art period - Amanda is picked up on her walk home (6 miles in 113 degrees) by three new classmates. Layla, Anne and Chloe are a group. They want to get to know the new, pretty girl, and add her to their group.

Readers will follow Amanda through a school year and her decision about whether to tell people about her past - her new friends and her first boyfriend. Amanda is a great and sympathetic character - she was written to be appealing to a wide audience in that she fits in as a girl (no trouble passing) who has had access to medical therapy (very expensive and hard to get so early in development) and she is straight. These choices Russo made do not make Amanda a less realistic character. She has obviously worked hard to get where she is at the beginning of the story. This book is a great introduction to a trans character.

Russo, Meredith. (2016). If I Was Your Girl. New York: Flatiron Books.

Symptoms of Being Human

Symptoms of Being a Human by Jeff Garvin is a book about a high school student who does not fit neatly into a box.

Riley Cavanaugh is changing schools. And Riley thinks life will be better in public school. Riley doesn't fit the stereotype of how a person should act or dress - Riley is gender fluid - sometimes feeling like a girl and sometimes like a boy. But classmates tend to react poorly if you change your look once they have labeled you, so Riley tends to dress androgynously - somewhere in the middle.

To make matters worse, Riley's father is running for reelection to Congress.

Garvin has written a great book where readers are never sure of Riley's sex. And why should it matter? Follow Riley through a school year - gaining two good friends and a handful of enemies.

Symptoms of Being Human is a great and important read.

Garvin, Jeff. (2016). Symptoms of Being Human. New York: Balzer & Bray.

Desert Dark

Desert Dark by Sonja Stone is about a school that trains teens to work in the field of black ops for the CIA.

Nadia Riley is having a terrible time at the beginning of her junior year. Her best friend hooked up with her boyfriend. And her math teacher accused her of cheating - until she does another test in front of him. Now she is short on friends and just wants to disappear. But be careful what you wish for...

A man shows up at her house with an opportunity. There is a hidden test within the PSAT - sixty questions that test the way you think. The average student gets one or two right. Students who get recruited to the Desert Mountain Academy - a government funded private school - usually get about 20. Nadia Riley got them all right.

Nadia is assigned to a team that is already at school. She has some catching up to do. She will have to fit in with three different students to form a team that can work together and protect each other during the survival tests. Her team is Libby (her roommate), Damon and Alan with a team leader, Jack.

Along with trying to catch up and fit in, Nadia will be caught up in the rumor of a double agent at the school. The whole reason Nadia got to join the school is because the girl she is replacing was killed.

Stone's debut novel is a fast-paced, thrilling story filled with espionage, martial arts and puzzles. This is a great read!

Stone, Sonja. (2016). Desert Dark. New York: Holiday House.

The Art of Being Normal

The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson is the story of two students who

David Piper is an outsider. He has two good friends and not many others. The popular kids have picked on him for years. His parents think he is gay and keep hinting that it is okay. But he is not gay. He was born into the wrong body. He is a girl trapped inside a boy.

Leo Denton is new to Eden Park School. He transferred from the rough school in town. Rumor has it that he got kicked out for cutting off the finger of a teacher. But the truth is that he transferred for a chance to have a better life and a shot at university.

David wants Leo to join him and his friends Zoe and Felix for lunch, but Leo is convinced that it is better to be invisible and not have any friends. He wants to keep his secrets to his self. But David is persistent and so is a beautiful girl that Leo has trouble ignoring.

Williamson has written a sensitive and compelling novel about a transgender teen and the struggle to get others to see you as you see yourself.

Available in May 2016 in the US.

Williamson, Lisa. (2016). The Art of Being Normal. New York: Farrar Straus Giroux.

This is Where it Ends

This is Where it Ends by Marieke Nijkamp is the story of a school shooting from four different student perspectives. The entire novel takes place over 54 minutes.

It is the first day back from Winter break at Opportunity High School in Opportunity, Alabama. As on the first day of each semester, there is an assembly during first period where the principal will give a speech. Of all students who came to school, only a few are not in the auditorium.

The track team is practicing. They have been in the championships for a few years and the coach will train them to death to win this year. Claire is running with her teammates. She and Chris just finish running when they hear two gun shots.

Tomas is in the principals office with Fareed. They are looking through student files to check on someone Tomas is worried about - a kid who dropped out but is rumored to be returning, a kid who scares Tomas's sister Sylv.

Sylv and Autumn are in the auditorium listening to the same speech they have heard every semester. When the speech ends they are talking and waiting for the room to clear, but people are not leaving. Someone has locked the doors, trapping almost every student and every teacher.

Told in two minute chapters, This is Where it Ends is both a thriller and a look at the life of four high school students through flashbacks. The story captures the horror of the shooting and characters within the try to figure out why the shooter is seeking revenge on his fellow students. Nijkamp offers no step by step process to explain the shooters reasoning, but looks at the ups and downs of the lives of a few students in the school - all of whom had a hard time but only one of whom decided to attack others. This is a great book on a subject that, unfortunately, is more and more common.

US release date for This is Where it Ends is January 5, 2016.

Nijcamp, Marieke. (2016). This is Where it Ends. Naperville, IL: Sourcebooks Fire.

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli is a coming of age story and a coming out story - sparked by blackmail.

Simon Spier is not out about the fact that he is attracted to boys. He has never said the words out loud. But while visiting an online board he found someone else as his school who is gay and not out. Now, using fake names, they have been emailing each other for a while. Simon is relieved to have someone to confide in - someone who understands the fears about coming out. He and Blue have a great friendship online and have no idea if they have classes together during school.

Then his secret email account is discovered. Simon checked his email at school and somehow forgot to log out. Now Martin is blackmailing him. He wants Simon to make it possible for him to hang out with Abby - one of Simon's good friends. Simon has to decide how to react - does he hang out with Martin and Abby so his secret is kept. Or should he figure out a way to come out before he can be outed.

Albertalli has written a moving and funny novel of coming out. She captures the feelings of what it is like to want to come out to the people you love with the fear of rejection. The online relationship gives both Simon and Blue someone to talk to in confidence, discussing thing they never would have the courage to talk about in person. This is a really sweet book.

Albertalli, Becky. (2015). Simon vs. the Home Spiens Agenda. New York: Blazer & Bray.

Looks

Looks by Madeleine George is a book about a new friendship.

Meghan Ball is practically invisible in her school - in spite of the fact that she is the largest person at Valley Regional High. People say things in front of her as if she is not there. She has no friends, but recognizes potential in a new student.

Aimee Zorn is as thin as Meghan is large. She is outwardly angry. And on the first day of her freshman year she sees a group of boys picking on a large girl and no one doing anything to stop it.

Meghan tries to warn Aimee when she starts to hang out with Cara. They are on the literary magazine together and Cara seems interested in her poetry. Meghan is sure it will end badly, like her friendship with Cara ended badly.

George has created a realistic book about how it feels to be different or invisible in high school. Her characters seem like stereotypes but are complete people who are not seen as whole by their shallow classmates. Looks is what can happen with the support of even one friend.

George, Madeleine. (2008). Looks. New York: Viking.

I Crawl Through It

I Crawl Through It by A.S. King is the story of four teens who are trying to deal with too much.

Stanzi is obsessed with biology. To calm herself she dissects frogs. The order of the insides calms her. For the last few weeks at school there has been an almost daily bomb threat. They are having most classes outside now. And when Stanzi gets home, a note says her parents are in bed, to make a frozen dinner and turn out the lights.

Gustav hasn't been to school in a long time. He spends all of his time building a helicopter in his garage - an invisible helicopter that he will use to fly himself and Stanzi away from their town.

Lansdale Cruise is a liar. She tells a lies all of the time. Her long hair grows each time she lies, like a hair-Pinocchio. She lies so much she doesn't remember how to stop.

China Knowles has turned herself inside out. Something bad happened that she is not talking about, but everyone knows. She mostly communicates by writing poetry, but has found a friend in an online support group and is thinking of running away to be with him.

King is a brilliant writer who writes weird book that make people think. Her characters are great and readers never know if they are going crazy or making a breakthrough. If you are a fan of reading, read something by A.S. King. It will be worth it and you will remember the book forever.

[I Crawl Through It will be released on September 22, 215.]

King, A.S. (2015). I Crawl Through It. New York: Little, Brown and Company.

The Pregnancy Project: A Memoir

The Pregnancy Project: A Memoir by Gaby Rodriguez is the story of one young woman faking a pregnancy during high school to study people's reactions.

Gaby Rodriguez grew up in a family where her older siblings were setting a trend of becoming teen parents. Gaby felt like it was expected that she would follow this pattern, but she had already decided she wanted to go a different route - college.

When considering her upcoming senior project - on a topic of her choosing - one of her brothers made a comment. He said that he drank because his father drank. It was genetic. He got Gaby to thinking about who people are perceived by others and the stereotypes that form - and that people did not have to live up to.

Convincing her school to let her do the project, she told only a few people what she was planning. Her boyfriend had to be in on the secret. Her mother knew. And one sister and one friend from school who could keep track of the comments said about her. Gaby was convinced she could handle the comments because the pregnancy would not be real.

The Pregnancy Project is the story of Gaby's project and how people reacted - both during and after she announced the truth. Her project gained so much attention that she ended up on nation wide news and Lifetime made a movie about her story.

Rodriguez, Gaby and Jenna Glatzer. (2012). The Pregnancy Project: A Memoir. New York: Simon and Schuster.