Trans, Nonbinary and GNC Voices to Help you Celebrate Pride

By Jill Rothstein, Managing Librarian, Andrew Heiskell Library
June 1, 2020
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[Many people are isolated right now and need some good books. We've updated and annotated this resource guide  to make it easy to find e-book and e-audiobook titles available through the Library's SimplyE app so that you can get the books you need during the library's physical closure.] 

Welcome to Pride Month, everyone! Whether you are looking for stories you can relate to, books to help you learn more about trans and gender non-conforming (TGNC) friends and family, diverse titles to broaden your understanding of our city and community, or just a fun, romantic, or educational read, we have something at The New York Public Library for you.

You can also find a printable guide for TGNC resources in NYC

An annotated reading list of Trans and Gender Non Conforming related books for all ages in the NYPL collections

Book Categories

Awards

Picture Books

Middle Grades

Young Adult

Adult Memoirs | History and Theory | Science Fiction and Fantasy | Fiction and Romance

Parenting, Care, and Allyship | Health, Wellness, and Identity

Graphic Novels on Gender Roles and Expression | Poetry
 

Awards, Reading Lists, and Evaluating Materials

Adult Memoirs

  • This One Looks Like a Boy: My Gender Journey to Life as a Man by Lorimer Shenher. Since he was a small child, Lorimer Shenher knew something for certain: he was a boy. The problem was, he was growing up in a girl's body. In this candid and thoughtful memoir, Shenher shares the story of his gender journey, from childhood gender dysphoria to teenage sexual experimentation to early-adult denial of his identity and finally the acceptance that he is trans, culminating in gender reassignment surgery in his fifties. e-book

  • Becoming Eve: My Journey from Ultra-Orthodox Rabbi to Transgender Woman by Abby Stein. The powerful coming-of-age story of an ultra-Orthodox child who was born to become a rabbinic leader and instead became a woman. Stein was born as the first son in a dynastic rabbinical family, poised to become a leader of the next generation of Hasidic Jews. But Abby felt certain at a young age that she was a girl. She suppressed her desire for a new body while looking for answers wherever she could find them, from forbidden religious texts to smuggled secular examinations of faith. Finally, she orchestrated a personal exodus from ultra-Orthodox manhood to mainstream femininity-a radical choice that forced her to leave her home, her family, her way of life. e-book

  • Sorted: Growing Up, Coming Out, and Finding my Place by Jackson Bird. An unflinching and endearing memoir from LGBTQ+ advocate Jackson Bird about how, through a childhood of gender mishaps and an awkward adolescence, he finally sorted things out and came out as a transgender man in his mid-twenties. e-book

  • Rebent Sinner by Ivan E. Coyote. Ivan takes on the patriarchy and the political, as well as the intimate and the personal in these beguiling and revealing stories of what it means to be trans and non-binary today, at a time in their life when they must carry the burden of heartbreaking history with them, while combatting those who would misgender them or deny their very existence. These stories span thirty years of tackling TERFs, legislators, and bathroom police, sure, but there is joy and pleasure and triumph to be found here too, as Ivan pays homage to personal heroes like Leslie Feinberg and Ferron while gently guiding younger trans folk to prove to themselves that there is a way out of the darkness. e-book

  • Me, Myself, They: Life Beyond the Binary by Joshua M. Ferguson. Beginning with their birth and early childhood years of gender creativity, Ferguson recounts the complex and often challenging evolution of their identity, including traumatizing experiences with gender conversion therapy, bullying, depression, sexual assault, and violent physical assault. But Ferguson’s story is above all about survival, empathy, and self-acceptance. e-book and e-audiobook

  • Tomorrow Will be Different: Love, Loss, and the Fight for Trans Equality by Sarah McBride. Informative, heartbreaking, and profoundly empowering, Tomorrow Will Be Different is McBride’s story of love and loss and a powerful entry point into the LGBTQ community’s battle for equal rights and what it means to be openly transgender. From issues like bathroom access to health care to gender in America, McBride weaves the important political and cultural milestones into a personal journey that will open hearts and change minds. e-book and e-audiobook

  • Self-ish: A Transgender Awakening by Chloe Schwenke. A moving memoir of a remarkable transgender woman&;s life, from her childhood in a military family, an architectural career in Africa, a spiritual journey as a Quaker, and her service as a political appointee under President Obama. e-book

  • Happier as a Woman: Transforming Friendships, Transforming Lives by Martina Giselle Ramirez. Martina Ramirez first started wearing her mother’s shoes in secret in second grade, when everyone still knew her as Martin. Growing up in a conservative household as an adopted Mexican-American in a racially segregated city, she swore she would not be just another crime or teen pregnancy statistic. Martina lived up to that promise when she was named high school valedictorian, became a tenured professor at a prestigious university, and had a family. It was only then, after she had become established in her life and career, that she was able to finally be her true self. e-book

  • Fairest by Meredith Talusan. Fairest is a memoir about a precocious boy with albinism, a "sun child" from a rural Philippine village, who would grow up to become a woman in America. An academic scholarship to Harvard provided access to elite circles of privilege but required Talusan to navigate through the complex spheres of race, class, sexuality, and her place within the gay community. She emerged as an artist and an activist questioning the boundaries of gender. Talusan realized she did not want to be confined to a prescribed role as a man, and transitioned to become a woman, despite the risk of losing a man she deeply loved.  e-book and e-audiobook

  • Gender Outlaw by Kate Bornstein. On one level, Gender Outlaw details Bornstein’s transformation from heterosexual male to lesbian woman, from a one-time IBM salesperson to a playwright and performance artist. But this particular coming-of-age story is also a provocative investigation into our notions of male and female, from a self-described non-binary transfeminine diesel femme dyke who never stops questioning our cultural assumptions. e-book

  • I’m Afraid of Men by Vivek Shraya. Exposing the complex ways misogyny, homophobia, and transphobia shape our lives, Shraya’s writing is an intimate call to disrupt harmful gender binaries. e-book and e-audiobook

  • Tomboy Survival Guide by Ivan Coyote. A funny and moving memoir told in stories, in which Ivan recounts the pleasures and difficulties of growing up a tomboy in Canada’s Yukon, and how they learned to embrace their tomboy past while carving out a space for those of us who don’t fit neatly into boxes or identities or labels. e-book

  • Gender Failure by Ivan Coyote and Rae Spoon. Ivan E. Coyote and Rae Spoon are accomplished, award-winning writers, musicians, and performers; they are also both admitted "gender failures." In their first collaborative book, Ivan and Rae explore and expose their failed attempts at fitting into the gender binary, and how ultimately our expectations and assumptions around traditional gender roles fail us all. e-book

  • The Gender Games:The Problem With Men and Women, From Someone Who Has Been Both by Juno Dawson. 'It's a boy!' or 'It's a girl!' are the first words almost all of us hear when we enter the world. Before our names, before we have likes and dislikes - before we, or anyone else, has any idea who we are. And two years ago, as Juno Dawson went to tell her mother she was (and actually, always had been) a woman, she started to realise just how wrong we've been getting it. Gender isn't just screwing over trans people, it's messing with everyone. From little girls who think they can't be doctors to teenagers who come to expect street harassment. From exclusionist feminists to 'alt-right' young men. From men who can't cry to the women who think they shouldn't. As her body gets in line with her mind, Juno tells not only her own story, but the story of everyone who is shaped by society's expectations of gender - and what we can do about it.  

  • To Survive on This Shore: Photographs and Interviews with Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Older Adults  by Jess T. Dugan. For over five years, photographer Jess T. Dugan and social worker Vanessa Fabbre traveled throughout the United States, to big cities and small towns, documenting the life stories of this important but largely underrepresented group of older adults. The featured individuals have a wide variety of life narratives spanning the last ninety years, offering an important historical record of transgender experience and activism in the United States.  

  • In the Darkroom by Susan Faludi. When feminist writer Susan Faludi learned that her seventy-six-year-old father―long estranged and living in Hungary―had undergone sex reassignment surgery, the revelation would launch her on an extraordinary inquiry into the meaning of identity in the modern world and in her own haunted family saga.  e-book and e-audiobook

  • Stuck in the Middle with You: A Memoir of Parenting in Three Genders by Jennifer Finney Boylan. When her two children were young, Boylan came out as transgender, and as Jenny transitioned from a man to a woman and from a father to a mother, her family faced unique challenges and questions. In this thoughtful, tear-jerking, hilarious memoir, Jenny asks what it means to be a father, or a mother, and to what extent gender shades our experiences as parents. e-book

  • Every Breath We Drew by Amy Galpin. working within the framework of queer experience and actively constructed masculinity, these portraits examine the intersection between private, individual identity and the search for intimate connection with others. 

  • Super Late Bloomer: My Early Days in Transition by Julia Kaye. A highly personal collection documenting the early months of artist Julia Kaye’s gender transition.  Ebook (on Libby), Teacher Set

  • Gender Queer: A  Memoir by Maia Kobabe. (Graphic Novel) Maia's intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gay fanfiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears. Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: it is a useful and touching guide on gender identity-what it means and how to think about it-for advocates,friends, and humans everywhere. 

  • Man Alive: A True Story or Violence, Forgiveness, and Becoming a Man by Thomas Page McBee. What does it really mean to be a man? In Man Alive, Thomas Page McBee attempts to answer that question by focusing on two of the men who most impacted his life; one, his otherwise ordinary father who abused him as a child, and the other, a mugger who almost killed him. Standing at the brink of the life-changing decision to transition from female to male, McBee seeks to understand these examples of flawed manhood and tells us how a brush with violence sent him on the quest to untangle a sinister past, and freed him to become the man he was meant to be.  e-book (always available)

  • Amateur: A True Story about What Makes a Man by Thomas Page McBee. the author, a trans man, trains to fight in a charity match at Madison Square Garden while struggling to untangle the vexed relationship between masculinity and violence. e-book and e-audiobook

  • Tomorrow Will Be Different by Sarah McBride. Informative, heartbreaking, and profoundly empowering, Tomorrow Will Be Different is McBride’s story of love and loss and a powerful entry point into the LGBTQ community’s battle for equal rights and what it means to be openly transgender. From issues like bathroom access to health care to gender in America, McBride weaves the important political and cultural milestones into a personal journey that will open hearts and change minds. e-book and e-audiobook

  • Redefining Realness by Janet Mock. With unflinching honesty and moving prose, Janet Mock relays her experiences of growing up young, multiracial, poor, and trans in America, offering readers accessible language while imparting vital insight about the unique challenges and vulnerabilities of a marginalized and misunderstood population.  e-book and e-audiobook

  • Surpassing Certainty: What My Twenties Taught Me by Janet Mock. Mock’s writing about pop culture brought her into the mainstream, and she’s used that position to advocate for the rights of trans women of color ever since. In her second memoir, Mock explores in more depth the challenges she faced in her 20s and the journey of coming into her own as a writer. e-book and e-audiobook

  • I Rise-The Transformation of Toni Newman by Toni Newman. From cross-dressing and Bible Study classes in Jacksonville, North Carolina, to writing and studying while tending to the fetish fantasies of Hollywood’s A-list, I Rise is far from a tale of fitting in. It is instead a unique and mesmerizing study of finding oneself in a world where gender and beauty can be hard fought for and earned. 

  • An Unspoken Compromise by Rizi Xavier Timane. Rizi grew up in an extremely religious traditional Christian home in Africa and was subjected to multiple exorcisms and other reparative attempts by his family and the church to “pray the gay/trans away.” An Unspoken Compromise takes you through his journey of self-discovery and spiritual exploration.  

  • Sissy: A Coming of Gender Story by Jacob Tobia. A heart-wrenching, eye-opening, and giggle-inducing memoir about what it's like to grow up not sure if you're (a) a boy, (b) a girl, (c) something in between, or (d) all of the above.  e-book and e-audiobook

  • Yes, You Are Trans Enough by Mia Violet. With entertaining anecdotes and thoughtful observations, this memoir depicts the realities of being a trans woman - from bullying and botched coming out attempts to self-acceptance and love—whilst exploring the inaccuracies of trans representation and confront what the media has gotten wrong. 

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History and Theory

  • Queer City: Gay London from the Romans to the Present Day by Peter Ackroyd.  In Roman Londinium, the city was dotted with lupanaria (“wolf dens” or public pleasure houses), fornices (brothels), and thermiae (hot baths). Then came the Emperor Constantine, with his bishops, monks, and missionaries. And so began an endless loop of alternating permissiveness and censure. Ackroyd takes us right into the hidden history of the city; from the notorious Normans to the frenzy of executions for sodomy in the early nineteenth century. He journeys through the coffee bars of sixties Soho to Gay Liberation, disco music, and the horror of AIDS. Ackroyd reveals the hidden story of London, with its diversity, thrills, and energy, as well as its terrors, dangers, and risks, and in doing so, explains the origins of all English-speaking gay culture.  e-book and e-audiobook

  • Normal Life: Administrative Violence, Critical Trans Politics, and the Limits of Law by Dean Spade. Dean Spade presents revelatory critiques of the legal equality framework for social change and points to examples of transformative grassroots trans activism that are raising demands that go beyond traditional civil rights reforms. Spade explodes the assumptions about what legal rights can do for marginalized populations and describes transformative resistance processes and formations that address the root causes of harm and violence. 

  • How Sex Changed: A History of Transsexuality in the United States by Joanne Meyerowitz. A comprehensive history of how the ontological category of “transsexual” was created, how trans people advocated for their own care through use of the label, and how transsexual identity and reality came to be defined and redefined within medical fields, through social activism, and by popular media. Gripping, well-researched, and objective. e-book

  • Queer: A Graphic History by Dr. Meg-John Barker and Julia Scheele. A kaleidoscope of characters from the diverse worlds of pop-culture, film, activism and academia guide us on a journey through the ideas, people and events that have shaped ‘queer theory.’ e-book

  • A Queer History of the United States by Michael Bronski. A book that radically challenges how we understand American history. Drawing upon primary-source documents, literature, and cultural histories, scholar and activist Michael Bronski charts the breadth of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender history, from 1492 to the 1990s.  e-book and e-audiobook

  • Histories of the Transgender Child by Julian Gill-Peterson. Until now, little has been known about early transgender history and life and its relevance to children. Using a wealth of archival research from hospitals and clinics, including incredible personal letters from children to doctors, as well as scientific and medical literature, this book reaches back to the first half of the twentieth century—a time when the category transgender was not available but surely existed, in the lives of children and parents. 

  • Trap Door: Trans Cultural Production and the Politics of Visibility by edited by Reina Gossett. The essays, conversations, and dossiers gathered here delve into themes as wide-ranging yet interconnected as beauty, performativity, activism, and police brutality. Collectively, they attest to how trans people are frequently offered “doors”―entrances to visibility and recognition―that are actually “traps,” accommodating trans bodies and communities only insofar as they cooperate with dominant norms. 

  • Trans*: A Quick and Quirky Account of Gender Variability by Jack Halberstam. In the last decade, public discussions of transgender issues have increased exponentially. However, with this increased visibility has come not just power, but regulation, both in favor of and against trans people. What was once regarded as an unusual or even unfortunate disorder has become an accepted articulation of gendered embodiment as well as a new site for political activism and political recognition. What happened in the last few decades to prompt such an extensive rethinking of our understanding of gendered embodiment? How did a stigmatized identity become so central to U.S. and European articulations of self? And how have people responded to the new definitions and understanding of sex and the gendered body? e-book

  • When Brooklyn Was Queer by Hugh Ryan.  A groundbreaking exploration of the LGBT history of Brooklyn, from the early days of Walt Whitman in the 1850s up through the queer women who worked at the Brooklyn Navy Yard during World War II, and beyond. e-book

  • LGBTQ Stats: Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer People by the Numbers by Bennett Singer. LGBTQ Stats chronicles the ongoing LGBTQ revolution, providing the critical statistics, and draws upon and synthesizes newly collected data. Deschamps and Singer—whose previous books and films on LGBTQ topics have won numerous awards and found audiences around the globe—provide chapters on family and marriage, workplace discrimination, education, youth, criminal justice, and immigration, as well as evolving policies and laws affecting LGBTQ communities. A chapter on LGBTQ life around the globe contrasts the dramatic progress for LGBTQ people in the United States with violent backlash in countries such as Russia, Iran, and Nigeria. e-book

  • Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity by C. Riley Snorton. Drawing on a deep and varied archive of materials—early sexological texts, fugitive slave narratives, Afro-modernist literature, sensationalist journalism, Hollywood films—Snorton attends to how slavery and the production of racialized gender provided the foundations for an understanding of gender as mutable. In tracing the twinned genealogies of blackness and transness, Snorton follows multiple trajectories, from the medical experiments conducted on enslaved black women by J. Marion Sims, the “father of American gynecology,” to the negation of blackness that makes transnormativity possible. e-book

  • Captive Genders: Trans Embodiment and the Prison Industrial Complex by Eric A. Stanley and Nat Smith bring together current and former prisoners, activists, and academics for a new understanding of how race, gender, ability, and sexuality are lived under the crushing weight of captivity. Through a politic of gender self-determination, this collection argues that trans/ queer liberation and prison abolition must be grown together.

  • Transgender History by Susan Stryker. Covering American transgender history from the mid-twentieth century to today, Transgender History takes a chronological approach to the subject of transgender history, with each chapter covering major movements, writings, and events. e-book and e-audiobook

  • Video Games Have Always Been Queer by Bnnie Ruberg. While popular discussions about queerness in video games often focus on big-name, mainstream games that feature LGBTQ characters, the author pushes the concept of queerness in games beyond a matter of representation, exploring how video games had be played, interpreted, and designed queerly, whether or not they include overtly LGBTQ content.  

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Science Fiction and Fantasy

  • Meanwhile, Elsewhere: Science Fiction and Fantasy from Transgender Writers edited by Cat Fitzpatrick and Casey Plett. The #1 post-reality generation device approved for home use! This manual will prepare you to travel from multiverse to multiverse. No experience is required. Choose from twenty-five preset post-realities! Rejoice at obstacles unquestionably bested and conflicts efficiently resolved. Bring denouement to your drama with THE FOOLPROOF AUGMENTATION DEVICE FOR OUR CONTEMPORARY UTOPIA.  

  • River of Teeth and Taste of Marrow by Sarah Gailey. In the early 20th Century, the United States government concocted a plan to import hippopotamuses into the marshlands of Louisiana to be bred and slaughtered as an alternative meat source. This is true. Other true things about hippos: they are savage, they are fast, and their jaws can snap a man in two. This was a terrible plan. Contained within this volume is an 1890s America that might have been: a bayou overrun by feral hippos and mercenary hippo wranglers from around the globe. It is the story of Winslow Houndstooth and his crew. It is the story of their fortunes. It is the story of his revenge.  e-book and e-audiobook

  • Full Fathom Five by Max Gladstone. On the island of Kavekana, Priestess Kai builds gods to order―sort of. When Kai tries to save a friend's dying idol, she's gravely injured―then sidelined from the business, her near-suicidal rescue attempt offered up as proof of her instability. But when Kai gets tired of hearing her boss, her coworkers, and her ex-boyfriend call her crazy, and digs into the cause of the idol's death, she uncovers a conspiracy of silence and fear that will break her if she can't break it first.  e-book  and e-audiobook (always available)

  • Machineries of Empire series (1, 2, 3) by Yoon Ha Lee. Captain Kel Cheris of the hexarchate is disgraced for using unconventional methods in a battle against heretics.  Kel Command gives her the opportunity to redeem herself by retaking the Fortress of Scattered Needles, a star fortress that has recently been captured by heretics.  Cheris' career isn't the only thing at stake.  If the fortress falls, the hexarchate itself might be next.  all 3 available as e-books

  • Love Beyond Body, Space, and Time: An Indigenous LGBT Sci-Fi Anthology by Hope Nicholson. Puppies in space! Cyborg escapes! Rockabilly girls with spider-magic! Benevolent aliens! Love Beyond Body, Space, and Time is a collection of Indigenous science fiction and urban fantasy focusing on LGBT and Two-Spirit characters. These stories range from a transgender woman undergoing an experimental transition process to young lovers separated through decades and meeting in their own far future. These are stories of machines and magic, love and self-love. Featuring Governor General award-winning authors David Alexander Robertson and Cherie Dimaline.  

  • Transcendent: The Year's Best Transgender Speculative Fiction edited by K. M. Szpara  Volume 2 , Volume 3 . Szpara shoots the death-obsessed conventions of transgender narratives into space with this splendid collection of 15 speculative works by trans authors, starring trans characters, and/or featuring themes of transformation, placing gender's many permutations under a warm and welcoming spotlight.  volumes 2 & 3 available ase-books

  • Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir by Kai Cheng Thom. Highly sensational, ultra-exciting, sort-of true coming-of-age story of a young Asian trans girl, pathological liar, and kung-fu expert who runs away from her parents' abusive home in a rainy city called Gloom. Striking off on her own, she finds her true family in a group of larger-than-life trans femmes who live in a mysterious pleasure district known only as the Street of Miracles. e-audiobook

  • The Black Tides of Heaven, The Red Threads of Fortune, and The Descent of Monsters (Tensorate Series) by YJ Yang. Mokoya and Akeha, the twin children of the Protector, were sold to the Grand Monastery as infants. While Mokoya developed her strange prophetic gift, Akeha was always the one who could see the strings that moved adults to action. While Mokoya received visions of what would be, Akeha realized what could be. What's more, they saw the sickness at the heart of their mother's Protectorate. A rebellion is growing. Unwilling to continue as a pawn in their mother's twisted schemes, Akeha leaves the Tensorate behind and falls in with the rebels. But every step Akeha takes towards the Machinists is a step away from Mokoya. Can Akeha find peace without shattering the bond they share with their twin?  The Black Tides of Heaven available as e-audiobook. 

  • Gideon the Ninth by Tamsyn Muir. The Emperor needs necromancers. The Ninth Necromancer needs a swordswoman. Gideon has a sword, some dirty magazines, and no more time for undead bullshit. Brought up by unfriendly, ossifying nuns, ancient retainers, and countless skeletons, Gideon is ready to abandon a life of servitude and an afterlife as a reanimated corpse. She packs up her shord, shoes, and magazines and prepares to launch her daring escape. But her childhood nemesis won’t set her free without a service.  e-book

  • This is How You Lose the Time War by Amal El-Mohtar and Max Gladstone. Among the ashes of a dying world, an agent of the Commandant finds a letter. It reads: Burn before reading… Thus begins an unlikely correspondence between two rival agents hellbent on securing the best possible future for their warring factions. Now, what began as a taunt, a battlefield boast, grows into something more. Something epic. Something romantic. Something that could change the past and the future. Except the discovery of their bond would mean death for each of them. There’s still a war going on, after all. And someone has to win that war.  e-book and e-audiobook

  • The Long Way to a Small, Angry Planet by Becky Chambers. Rosemary doesn’t expect much when she joins the crew of the aging Wayfarer. While the patched-up ship has seen better days, it offers her a bed, a chance to explore the far-off corners of the galaxy, and most importantly, some distance from her past. She’s never met anyone remotely like the ship’s diverse crew, including Sissix, the exotic reptilian pilot, chatty engineers Kizzy and Jenks who keep the ship running, and Ashby, their noble captain.  e-book and e-audiobook

  • The Future of Another Timeline by Annalee Newitz. 1992: After a confrontation at a riot grrl concert, 17-year-old Beth finds herself in a car with her friend’s abusive boyfriend dead in the backseat, agreeing to help her friends hide the body. This murder sets Beth and her friends on a path of escalating violence and vengeance as they realize many other young women in the world need protecting too. 2022: Determined to use time travel to create a safer future, Tess has dedicated her life to visiting key moments in history and fighting for change. But rewriting the timeline isn’t as simple as editing one person or event. And just when Tess believes she’s found a way to make an edit that actually sticks, she encounters a group of dangerous travelers bent on stopping her at any cost.  e-audiobook

  • Once & Future by Amy Rose Capetta and Cori McCarthy. When Ari crash-lands on Old Earth and pulls a magic sword from its ancient resting place, she is revealed to be the newest reincarnation of King Arthur. Then she meets Merlin, who has aged backward of the centuries into a teenager and together they must break the curse that keeps Arthur coming back. Their quest? Defeat the cruel, oppressive government and bring peace and equality to all humankind. No pressure.  e-book and e-audiobook

  • Ancillary Justice by Ann Leckie. On a remote, icy planet, the soldier known as Breq is drawing closer to completing her quest. Once, she was the Justice of Toren—a colossal starship with an artificial intelligence linking thousands of soldiers in the service of the Radch, the empire that conquered the galaxy. Now, an act of treachery has ripped it all away, leaving her with one fragile human body, unanswered questions, and a burning desire for vengeance.  e-book and e-audiobook

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Fiction and Romance

  • This is How it Always Is by Laurie Frankel. A family reshapes their ideas about family, love, and loyalty when youngest son Claude reveals increasingly determined preferences for girls' clothing and accessories and refuses to stay silent. e-book and e-audiobook

  • Stone Butch Blues by Leslie Feinberg. Published in 1993, this brave, original novel is considered to be the finest account ever written of the complexities of a transgendered existence. Woman or man? That’s the question that rages like a storm around Jess Goldberg, clouding her life and her identity. Growing up differently gendered in a blue collar town in the 1950’s, coming out as a butch in the bars and factories of the prefeminist ’60s, deciding to pass as a man in order to survive when she is left without work or a community in the early ’70s. This powerful, provocative and deeply moving novel sees Jess coming full circle, she learns to accept the complexities of being a transgendered person in a world demanding simple explanations: a he-she emerging whole, weathering the turbulence. e-book

  • Frankissstein by Jeanette Winterson. Lake Geneva, 1816. Nineteen-year-old Mary Shelley is inspired to write a story about a scientist who creates a new life-form. In Brexit Britain, a young transgender doctor called Ry is falling in love with Victor Stein, a celebrated professor leading the public debate around AI and carrying out some experiments of his own in a vast underground network of tunnels. Meanwhile, Ron Lord, just divorced and living with his mom again, is set to make his fortune launching a new generation of sex dolls for lonely men everywhere. Across the Atlantic, in Phoenix, Arizona, a cryogenics facility houses dozens of bodies of men and women who are medically and legally dead… but waiting to return to life. e-book. e-audiobook, Spanish-language e-book

  • The House of Impossible Beauties by Joseph Cassara. A gritty and gorgeous debut that follows a cast of gay and transgender club kids navigating the Harlem ball scene of the 1980s and 90s, inspired by the real House of Xtravaganza made famous by the seminal documentary Paris Is Burning. e-book and e-audiobook

  • Little Fish by Casey Plett. The winner of the 2019 Lambda Literary Award for Transgender Fiction, this novel follows Wendy, a trans Canadian woman navigating volatile friendships and relationships, who discovers a family secret that leads her to suspect her Mennonite grandfather may also have been trans. e-book

  • The Best Bad Things by Katrina Carrasco. A period novel about a gender fluid detective who goes undercover to infiltrate a smuggling ring, and navigates shifting allegiances once on the inside. e-book and e-audiobook

  • Nevada by Imogen Binnie. This cult classic transgender novel opens as Maria Griffiths, an underpaid and depressed trans bookstore clerk, breaks up with her girlfriend, quits her job, buys an absurd quantity of drugs, and heads west looking for answers about life, love, and whether trans people can actually form community.  

  • Paul Takes The Form of a Mortal Girl by Andrea Lawlor. Nonbinary author Lawlor introduces Paul, a confident shapeshifting gay boy partying his way through undergrad in Iowa City and spending evenings alternately as a hot boy and cute lesbian, with a range of partners dispensed with easily the next morning. As Paul opens his heart to love and loss, however, a classic American road trip narrative takes shape, and Paul finds that even he is not immune to insecurity, failure, or growth. e-book and e-audiobook

  • Confessions of the Fox by Jordy Rosenberg. Recently jilted and increasingly unhinged, trans man academic Dr. Voth throws himself into his work, obsessively researching the life of Jack Sheppard, a legendary eighteenth century thief. No one knows Jack's true story--his confessions have never been found. That is, until Dr. Voth discovers a mysterious stack of papers titled Confessions of the Fox indicating that Sheppard may have been an early modern transgender revolutionary.  e-book and e-audiobook

  • Wallflower by Heidi Belleau. Art student and MMORPG addict Robert Ng has always been a loner, but he's recently made it his goal to make more (IRL) friends. Which is how he winds up working nights at Rear Entrance Video, shilling sketchy porn and blowup dolls as a favor to his roommate. The longer he works there, though, the more he realizes he’ll never be truly happy until he becomes the person he is online: his female persona, Bobby.  

  • 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. Soon, the only upside to the job is that Seth has a painful crush on their painfully straight boss, and Kieran has a front row seat to the drama. But when Seth proves to be as respectful and supportive as he is prickly, Kieran develops an awkward crush of his own—one which Seth is far too prim and proper to ever reciprocate.  e-book

  • Peter Darling by Austin Chant. Ten years ago, Peter Pan left Neverland to grow up, leaving behind his adolescent dreams of boyhood and resigning himself to life as Wendy Darling. Growing up, however, has only made him realize how inescapable his identity as a man is. But when he returns to Neverland, everything has changed: the Lost Boys have become men, and the war games they once played are now real and deadly. Even more shocking is the attraction Peter never knew he could feel for his old rival, Captain Hook—and the realization that he no longer knows which of them is the real villain.  e-book

  • An Unsuitable Heir by KJ Charles. On the trail of an aristocrat’s secret son, enquiry agent Mark Braglewicz finds his quarry in a music hall, performing as a trapeze artist with his twin sister. Graceful, beautiful, elusive, and strong, Pen Starling is like nobody Mark’s ever met—and everything he’s ever wanted. But the long-haired acrobat has an earldom and a fortune to claim. Pen doesn’t want to live as any sort of man, least of all a nobleman. And he won’t be pushed into taking a title that would destroy his soul. But there’s a killer stalking London’s foggy streets, and more lives than just Pen’s are at risk. e-book

  • Uncovering Ray by Edie Danford. Hey, man-you a chick or a dude? Dealing with the same old boring question is a downer for college drop-out Ray Fayette, especially when it's asked by the low-tipping, over-privileged students at the Ellery Diner. When six-foot-five, muscle-bound straight arrow Wyatt Kelly publicly smacks down a fellow frat brother for caveman behavior, Ray's interest is sparked. Wyatt suggests a housing arrangement that has surprising appeal--there's space available at his frat house—but he's unaware just how complicated Ray's "identity issues" are. Ellery College kicked out Ray for a reason--a reason that could deep-six Wyatt's academic career and Ray's newly hopeful heart.  e-book

  • The Map of Salt and Stars by Zeyn Joukhadar. In the summer of 2011, just after Nour loses her father to cancer, her mother moves Nour and her sisters from New York City back to Syria to be closer to their family. In order to keep her father’s spirit as she adjusts to her new home, Nour tells herself their favorite story—the tale of Rawiya, a twelfth-century girl who disguised herself as a boy in order to apprentice herself to a famous mapmaker. But the Syria Nour’s parents knew is changing, and it isn’t long before the war reaches their quiet Homs neighborhood. Following alternating timelines and a pair of unforgettable heroines coming of age in perilous times, The Map of Salt and Stars is the epic story of one girl telling herself the legend of another and learning that, if you listen to your own voice, some things can never be lost.  e-book and e-audiobook

  • Lost Boi by Sassafras Lowrey. In this gorgeous queer punk reimagining of the classic Peter Pan story, prepare to be swept overboard into a world of orphaned, abandoned, and runaway bois who have sworn allegiance and service to Pan, the fearless leader of the Lost Bois brigade and the newly corrupted Mommy Wendi who, along with the tomboy John Michael, Pan convinces to join him at Neverland.  e-book

  • Geek Out: A Collection of Trans and Genderqueer Romance by Cecil Wilde, et. al. Gamers. Cosplayers. B-Movie Lovers. Otaku. Comic Book Enthusiasts. History buffs. Animals. Coffee. we all geek about something, and nothing quite rivals the passion displayed by geeks for the things they love. There's no limit to what can be geeked over, and no rules about who is allowed to geek about what—and no telling when and where those geeks will fall in love.  

  • What it Looks Like by Matthew J. Mertzger. Eli Bell is the only son of a police chief inspector and a forensic scientist. He's grown up wonky in a world that only deals with the straight and narrow -- and his new boyfriend isn't helping. Rob Hawkes is six feet of muscle, tattoos, and arrest warrants. A career criminal and a former tenant of Her Majesty's Prison Service, he'd rather hit Eli's parents than sit down to dinner with them. One wrong move, and Rob could destroy Eli—and his family—without a second thought. But this isn't what it looks like. Rob's not in control here—and Eli's the one to blame.  

  • Erik the Pink by Matthew J. Mertzger. Erik has wanted to be a father for as long as he can remember -- but now that the day is finally here, he's terrified. Surely a ham-fisted Viking of a man like Erik shouldn't be allowed to handle things as tiny and delicate as his new baby girl? But it's not just his daughter that's come into Erik's world. His partner has finally returned too. After nine months of watching Andreas struggle with the mental and physical toll of being a man and being pregnant at the same time, the birth of their daughter is both a beginning and an ending. 

  • Hold Me by Courtney Milan. Jay na Thalang is a demanding, driven genius. He doesn’t know how to stop or even slow down. The instant he lays eyes on Maria Lopez, he knows that she is a sexy distraction he can’t afford. He’s done his best to keep her at arm’s length, and he’s succeeded beyond his wildest dreams. Maria has always been cautious. Now that her once-tiny, apocalypse-centered blog is hitting the mainstream, she’s even more careful about preserving her online anonymity. She hasn’t sent so much as a picture to the commenter she’s interacted with for eighteen months—not even after emails, hour-long chats, and a friendship that is slowly turning into more. Maybe one day, they’ll meet and see what happens. e-book

  • Roller Girl by Vanessa North. Recently divorced Tina Durham is trying to be self-sufficient, but her personal-training career is floundering, her closest friends are swept up in new relationships, and her washing machine has just flooded her kitchen. It’s enough to make a girl cry. Instead, she calls a plumbing service, and Joanne “Joe Mama” Delario comes to the rescue. Joe is sweet, funny, and good at fixing things. She also sees something special in Tina and invites her to try out for the roller derby team she coaches. Derby offers Tina an outlet for her frustrations, a chance to excel, and the female friendships she’s never had before. And as Tina starts to thrive at derby, the tension between her and Joe cranks up. e-book

  • Documenting Light by EE Ottoman. The subjects in the mysterious photograph sit side by side, their hands close but not touching. One is dark, the other fair. Both wear men’s suits. Were they friends? Lovers? Business partners? Curiosity drives Grayson and Wyatt to dig deep for information, and the more they learn, the more they begin to wonder—about the photograph, and about themselves.  

  • Unmasked by the Marquess by Cat Sebastian. Robert Selby is determined to see his sister make an advantageous match. But he has two problems: the Selbys have no connections or money and Robert is really a housemaid named Charity Church. She’s enjoyed every minute of her masquerade over the past six years, but she knows her pretense is nearing an end. Charity needs to see her beloved friend married well and then Robert Selby will disappear…forever. Alistair, Marquess of Pembroke, has spent years repairing the estate ruined by his wastrel father, and nothing is more important than protecting his fortune and name. He shouldn’t be so beguiled by the charming young man who shows up on his doorstep asking for favors. And he certainly shouldn’t be thinking of all the disreputable things he’d like to do to the impertinent scamp.  e-book and e-audiobook

  • Sovereign Erotics: A Collection of Two-Spirit Literature by edited by Qwo-Li Driskill, Daniel Heath Justice, Deborah Miranda, and Lisa Tatonetti. A collection of poetry and prose bringing together Native Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer and Two-Spirited writing. Through diverse voices and writing styles, this collection is a powerful example of creative resistance. 

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Parenting, Care, and Allyship

  • A Quick & Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns by Archie Bongiovanni. A quick, easy and important educational comic guide to using gender-neutral pronouns. Archie, a snarky genderqueer artist, is tired of people not understanding gender-neutral pronouns. Tristan, a cisgender dude, is looking for an easy way to introduce gender-neutral pronouns to his increasingly diverse workplace. The longtime best friends team up in this short and fun comic guide that explains what pronouns are, why they matter, and how to use them. They also include what to do if you make a mistake, and some tips-and-tricks for those outside the binary to keep themselves safe in this binary-centric world.  

  • The Transgender Teen: A Handbook for Parents and Professionals Supporting Transgender and Non-Binary Teens by Stephanie A. Brill. Is it just a phase, a fad, or a real issue with your teen? This comprehensive guidebook explores the unique challenges that thousands of families face every day raising a teenager who may be transgender, gender-variant or gender-fluid. Covering extensive research and with many personal interviews, as well as years of experience working in the field, the author covers pressing concerns relating to physical and emotional development, social and school pressures, medical options, and family communications. Learn how parents can advocate for their children, find acceptable colleges and career paths, and raise their gender variant or transgender adolescent with love and compassion. 

  • Rethinking Sexism, Gender, and Sexuality by edited by Annika Butler-Wall. How do you respond when a child asks, "Can a girl turn into a boy?" What if your daughter brings home school books with sexist, racist stories? What does "queering the curriculum" look like? What's wrong with "anti-bullying" policies? What are alternatives? Rethinking Sexism, Gender, and Sexuality is a collection of inspiring stories about how to integrate feminist and LGBTQ content into curriculum, make it part of a vision for social justice, and create classrooms and schools that nurture all children and their families.  

  • A Clinician's Guide to Gender-Affirming Care: Working with Transgender and Gender Nonconforming Clients bySand C. Chang PhD. Transgender and gender nonconforming (TNGC) clients have complex mental health concerns, and are more likely than ever to seek out treatment. Written by a team of psychologists and TNGC specialists, this comprehensive resource outlines the latest research and recommendations to provide clinicians with the requisite knowledge, skills, and awareness to treat these clients with competent and affirming care.  

  • The Gender Creative Child: Pathways for Nurturing and Supporting Children Who Live Outside Gender Boxes by Diane Ehrensaft PhD. In this comprehensive resource, Dr. Ehrensaft explains the interconnected effects of biology, nurture, and culture to explore why gender can be fluid, rather than binary. As an advocate for the gender affirmative model and with the expertise she has gained over three decades of pioneering work with children and families, she encourages caregivers to listen to each child, learn their particular needs, and support their quest for a true gender self.  e-book

  • Gender Born, Gender Made: Raising Healthy Gender-Nonconforming Children by Diane Ehrensaft PhD. A comprehensive guidebook for the parents and therapists of children who do not identify with or behave according to their biological gender. Drawing on the case histories of several children, each "gender creative" in his or her own way, Dr. Diane Ehrensaft offers concrete strategies for understanding and supporting children who experience confusion about their gender identities. She also discusses the latest therapeutic advancements available to gender-variant children. Traditionally, psychologists have sought to "cure" gender variance by pressuring children to conform to typical gender behavior. From her perspective as both clinician and parent of a gender creative child, Dr. Ehrensaft advocates a new approach, encouraging caregivers to support gender-variant children as they explore their gender identities. e-book

  • Counseling Transgender and Non-Binary Youth: The Essential Guide by Irwin Krieger. An informed guide to supporting and working with transgender and non-binary youth. Topics of discussion include gender identity, sexuality, transitioning and mental health. Additional resources and suggested reading lists make this an essential reference for all professionals who counsel transgender youth.  

  • Helping Your Transgender Teen, 2nd Edition: A Guide for Parents by Irwin Krieger. This book offers essential guidance to parents of transgender and non-binary teens to help them support and understand their children. It alleviates common concerns parents have and gives advice on hormones and surgery, use of pronouns and how to transition socially. It also includes sample family letters, case studies and further reading.  

  • Transgender Children and Youth: Cultivating Pride and Joy with Families in Transition by Elijah C. Nealy. These days, it is practically impossible not to hear about some aspect of transgender life. Whether it is the bathroom issue in North Carolina, trans people in the military, or on television, trans life has become front and center after years of marginalization.And kids are coming out as trans at younger and younger ages, which is a good thing for them.But what written resources are available to parents, teachers, and mental health professionals who need to support these children?Elijah C. Nealy, a therapist and former deputy executive director of New York City’s LGBT Community Center, and himself a trans man, has written the first-ever comprehensive guide to understanding, supporting, and welcoming trans kids.Covering everything from family life to school and mental health issues, as well as the physical, social, and emotional aspects of transition, this book is full of best practices to support trans kids.  e-book

  • He/She/They - Us: Essential Information, Vocabulary, and Concepts to Help You Become a Better Ally to the Transgender and Gender Diverse People in Your Life by Jessica Soukup. Gender in America has become the hot button issue for some politicians but for many, it is just an attempt to live their lives. Transgender and gender diverse people and their families, friends, work associates and others just want to find themselves and live in peace.This book is glue to hold people together through the process of self exploration. It covers basic vocabulary, concepts, challenges and some ways to be a supportive ally. It was written for the layperson not well versed in the terms and language of gender and transition. It attempts to begin to provide some answers for the questions everyone has.  

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Health/Wellness/Identity

  • To My Trans Sisters edited by Charlie Craggs. Dedicated to trans women everywhere, this inspirational collection of letters written by successful trans women shares the lessons they learnt on their journeys to womanhood, celebrating their achievements and empowering the next generation to become who they truly are. Written by politicians, scientists, models, athletes, authors, actors, and activists from around the world, these letters capture the diversity of the trans experience and offer advice from make-up and dating through to fighting dysphoria and transphobia. e-book

  • No House to Call My Home: Love, Family, and other Transgressions by Ryan Berg. Underemployed and directionless, Ryan Berg took a job in a group home for disowned and homeless LGBTQ teenagers. His job was to help these teens discover their self worth, get them back on their feet, earn high school degrees, and find jobs. But he had no idea how difficult it would be, and the complexities that were involved with coaxing them away from dangerous sex work and cycles of drug and alcohol abuse, and helping them heal from years of abandonment and abuse. In No House to Call My Home, Ryan Berg tells profoundly moving, intimate, and raw stories from the frontlines of LGBTQ homelessness and foster care. e-book

  • Beyond Trans: Does Gender Matter? by Heath Fogg Davis. In this accessible guide, he offers advice for those in organizations who want to redesign sex-classification policies related to situations such as single-sex colleges, public restrooms, and athletic teams. Davis integrates his own experiences as a transgender man born as woman as he argues that we need fewer sex-classification policies in order to reduce sex-identity discrimination. e-book

  • Balancing on the Mechitza: Transgender in the Jewish Community by edited by Noach Dzmura. “Many transgender and gender-variant people sit in the congregation, marry under the chuppah, and create Jewish families. Balancing on the Mechitza gives voice to this movement in Jewish culture” e-book

  • Trans Bodies, Trans Selves: A Resource for the Transgender Community by Laura Erickson-Schroth. A go-to resource for transgender populations, covering health, cultural and social questions, history, theory, legal issues, and more. It is a place for transgender and gender-questioning people, their partners and families, students, educators, counselors, and others to look for up-to-date information on transgender life. It remains one of the most comprehensive works on trans health and development for trans populations, serving much the same role as Our Bodies, Ourselves, which is now published for women worldwide.  

  • You and Your Gender Identity: A Guide to Discovery by Dara Hoffman-Fox. An accomplished gender therapist and thought leader whose articles, blogs, and videos have empowered thousands worldwide-helps you navigate your journey of self-discovery in three approachable stages: preparation, reflection, and exploration.  

  • How to Understand your Gender: A Practical Guide for Exploring Who You Are by Alex Iantaffi and Meg-John Barker. Have you ever questioned your own gender identity? Do you know somebody who is transgender or who identifies as non-binary? Do you ever feel confused when people talk about gender diversity? This down-to-earth guide is for anybody who wants to know more about gender, from its biology, history and sociology, to how it plays a role in our relationships and interactions with family, friends, partners and strangers. It looks at practical ways people can express their own gender, and will help you to understand people whose gender might be different from your own. With activities and points for reflection throughout, this book will help people of all genders engage with gender diversity and explore the ideas in the book in relation to their own lived experiences.  

  • Trans Like Me: Conversations for All of Us by C. N. Lester. Lester takes readers on a measured, thoughtful, intelligent yet approachable tour through the most important and high-profile narratives around the trans community, turning them inside out and examining where we really are in terms of progress. e-book and e-audiobook

  • The Voice Book for Trans and Non-Binary People: A Practical Guide to Creating and Sustaining Authentic Voice and Communication by Matthew Mills. Learn how voice and communication therapy can help you find your authentic voice with this guide. It gives a thorough account of the process and includes exercises to change pitch, resonance and intonation. Each chapter features insider accounts from trans and gender diverse individuals who have explored, or are exploring, voice and communication related to their gender expression. Includes access to videos demonstrating vocal exercises online.  

  • Headcase: LGBTQ Writers and Artists on Mental Health and Wellness by edited by Stephanie Schroeder, Teresa Theophano. a groundbreaking collection of personal reflections and artistic representations illustrating the intersection of mental wellness, illness, and LGBTQ identity, as well as the lasting impact of historical views equating queer and trans identity with mental illness. In the anthology, readers will access the inner thoughts of an array of individuals, including: a therapist with dual status who also happens to be transgender and practicing in the Midwest; a lesbian writer and psychotherapist recounting her mother's experience with forced institutionalization, shock therapy, and "conversion therapy" in the 1950s; a queer illustrator presenting unique glyph illustrations that represent a panoply of identity-related questions and answers; an award-winning gay male writer discussing his struggle with depression publicly for the first time; and a trans activist of color writing about surviving madness in the inner city and how his community of mental health and social justice youth activists help each other thrive. Several contributors also document the difficulty of navigating flawed health care systems that limit affordable access to genuinely affirming, effective services.  

  • The Queer and Transgender Resilience Workbook: Skills for Navigating Sexual Orientation and Gender Expression by Anneliese A. Singh PhD LPC. Resilience is a key ingredient for psychological health and wellness. Packed with evidence-based activities and exercises, The Queer and Transgender Resilience Workbook makes years of research on resilience accessible to queer and transgender adults. This book teaches readers to challenge internalized negative messages, handle stress, embrace who they are, remove obstacles from their life, and ultimately build a life that matters in a world still filled with micro-aggressions and discrimination.  

  • Unbound: Transgender Men and the Remaking of Identity by Arlene Stein. Award-winning sociologist Arlene Stein takes us into the lives of four strangers who find themselves together in a sun-drenched surgeon's office, having traveled to Florida from across the United States in order to masculinize their chests. Ben, Lucas, Parker, and Nadia wish to feel more comfortable in their bodies; three of them are also taking testosterone so that others recognize them as male. Following them over the course of a year, Stein shows how members of this young transgender generation, along with other gender dissidents, are refashioning their identities and challenging others' conceptions of who they are. During a time of conservative resurgence, they do so despite great personal costs. e-book and e-audiobook

  • Transgender 101: A Simple Guide to a Complex Issue by Nicholas Teich. Written by a social worker, popular educator, and member of the transgender community, this resource combines a portrait of transgenderism with a history of transgender life and its unique experiences of discrimination. Each chapter explains how transgender individuals handle their gender identity, how others view it within the context of non-transgender society, and how the transitioning of genders is made possible. e-book

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Graphic Novels (Including ones on Gender Expression)

  • Stage Dreams by Melanie Gillman. In this rollicking queer western adventure, Gillman puts readers in the saddle alongside Flor and Grace, a Latinx outlaw and a trans runaway, as they team up to thwart a Confederate plot in the New Mexico Territory. 

  • Grease Bats by Archie Bongiovanni. Andy and Scout are best buds, roommates, and gay disasters. Along with their friends and plenty of beer, they’re just trying to make it through their 20s, survive late capitalism, and navigate the dating world. Tough and loving Andy is a genderqueer trans individual, who dates like there’s no tomorrow, while Scout, an all-feelings-all-the-time mistake-maker, is still languishing over her ex-girlfriend…from like two years ago.

  • Death Threat by Vivek Shraya. In the fall of 2017, the acclaimed writer and musician Vivek Shraya began receiving vivid and disturbing transphobic hate mail from a stranger. Acclaimed artist Ness Lee brings these letters and Shraya’s responses to them to startling life in Death Threat, a comic book that, by its existence, becomes a compelling act of resistance. Using satire and surrealism, Death Threat is an unflinching portrayal of violent harassment from the perspective of both the perpetrator and the target, illustrating the dangers of online accessibility, and the ease with which vitriolic hatred can be spread digitally. 

  • The Witch Boy  by Molly Ostertag. In thirteen-year-old Aster's family, all the girls are raised to be witches, while boys grow up to be shapeshifters. Anyone who dares cross those lines is exiled. Unfortunately for Aster, he still hasn't shifted . . . and he's still fascinated by witchery, no matter how forbidden it might be. When a mysterious danger threatens the other boys, Aster knows he can help -- as a witch. It will take the encouragement of a new friend, the non-magical and non-conforming Charlie, to convince Aster to try practicing his skills. And it will require even more courage to save his family . . . and be truly himself.  e-book

  • The Hidden Witch by Molly Ostertag. Aster and his family are adjusting to his unconventional talent for witchery; unlike the other boys in his family, he isn't a shapeshifter. He's taking classes with his grandmother and helping to keep an eye on his great-uncle whose corrupted magic wreaked havoc on the family. Meanwhile, Aster's friend from the non-magical part of town, Charlie, is having problems of her own -- a curse has tried to attach itself to her. She runs to Aster and escapes it, but now the friends must find the source of the curse before more people -- normal and magical alike—get hurt. (also The Midwinter Witche-book

  • Tomboy: A Graphic Memoir by Liz Prince. Growing up, Liz Prince wasn't a girly girl, dressing in pink tutus or playing Pretty Pretty princess like the other girls in her neighborhood. But she wasn't exactly one of the guys either, as she quickly learned when her Little League baseball coach exiled her to the outfield instead of letting her take the pitcher's mound. Liz was somewhere in the middle, and Tomboy is the story of her struggle to find the place where she belonged.  e-book, e-audiobook

  • Cardboard Kingdom by Chad Sell et al. Welcome to a neighborhood of kids who transform ordinary boxes into colorful costumes, and their ordinary block into cardboard kingdom. This is the summer when sixteen kids encounter knights and rogues, robots and monsters--and their own inner demons--on one last quest before school starts again.  In the Cardboard Kingdom, you can be anything you want to be--imagine that!  e-book

  • Deadendia: The Watcher’s Test by Hamish Steele. Barney and his best friend Norma are just trying to get by and keep their jobs, but working at the Dead End theme park also means battling demonic forces, time traveling wizards, and scariest of all--their love lives! Follow the lives of this diverse group of employees of a haunted house, which may or may not also serve as a portal to hell, in this hilarious and moving graphic novel, complete with talking pugs, vengeful ghosts and LBGTQIA love!  

  • The Prince and the Dressmaker by Jen Wang. Paris, at the dawn of the modern age: Prince Sebastian is looking for a bride―or rather, his parents are looking for one for him. Sebastian is too busy hiding his secret life from everyone. At night he puts on daring dresses and takes Paris by storm as the fabulous Lady Crystallia―the hottest fashion icon in the world capital of fashion! Sebastian’s secret weapon (and best friend) is the brilliant dressmaker Frances―one of only two people who know the truth: sometimes this boy wears dresses.  

  • The Lie and How We Told It by Tommi Parrish. A beautifully painted graphic novel about a chance meeting between friends who’ve grown apart and a sex worker’s fraught relationship with a client. Parrish is a master of capturing the awkward moments that make us human. 

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Poetry

  • All the Gay Saints by Kayleb Rae Candrilli. Focused on love, partnership, and cultivating the landscape of one’s own body, All the Gay Saints seeks happiness in a world saturated with transphobia and marred by climate change. Though this world is finite, these poems want you to live forever. They will unbarb your body if you let them. e-book

  • The Black Condition Ft. Narcissus byJayy Dodd.  Dodd weaves together mythology and autobiographical poetry as a blxk trans womxn. 

  • Feeld by Jos Charles. Poetic exploration in Middle English about the body, physical space, ownership of space, gender, and transitioning genders.  e-book

  • Dialectic of the Flesh by Roz Kaveney. Brings together poems on queer and trans experience, poems which run the gamut of emotions, from exuberant and witty celebrations of the joy of sex to elegies of murdered friends, written for Transgender Day of Remembrance. 

  • Disintegrate/Dissociate by Arielle Twist. Existing in the boundaries between death and rebirth, Twist’s poetry collection explores the reality of loving when faced with colonialism and transmisogyny. Visceral, powerful, and transformative, Twist confronts painful realities and fights for something better. 

  • Don't Call us Dead by Danez Smith. Smith's unflinching poetry addresses race, class, sexuality, faith, social justice, mortality, and the challenges of living HIV positive at the intersection of black and queer identity. The collection opens with a heartrending sequence that imagines an afterlife for black men shot by police, a place where suspicion, violence, and grief are forgotten and replaced with the safety, love, and longevity they deserved on earth. "Dear White America," which Smith performed at the 2014 Rustbelt Midwest Region Poetry Slam, has as strong an impact on the page as it did on the spoken word stage. Smith's courage and hope amidst the struggle for unity in America will humble and uplift you. 

  • Nepantla: An Anthology for Queer Poets of Color edited by Christopher Soto. Produced in conjunction with Lambda Literary. 

  • A Place Called No Homeland by Kai Cheng Thom. This extraordinary poetry collection journeys to the place where forgotten ancestors live and monstrous women roam—and where the distinctions between body, land, and language are lost. In these fierce yet tender narrative poems, Thom draws from both memory and mythology to create new maps of gender, race, sexuality, and violence. Descended from the traditions of oral storytelling, spoken word, and queer punk, Thom's debut collection is evocative and unforgettable. e-book

  • Troubling the Line : Trans and Genderqueer Poetry and Poetics by edited by TC Tolbert and Tim Trace Peterson. Gathers together a diverse range of 55 poets with varying aesthetics and backgrounds. In addition to generous samples of poetry by each trans writer, the book also includes poetics statements"reflections by each poet that provide context for their work covering a range of issues from identification and embodiment to language and activism. Poets include Samuel Ace, Julian Talamantez Brolaski, Micha Cardenas, kari edwards, Duriel Harris, Joy Ladin, Dawn Lundy Martin, Eileen Myles, Trish Salah, Max Wolf Valerio, John Wieners, Kit Yan, and more. 

  • The Year of Blue Water by Yanyi. Yanyi’s arresting and straightforward poems weave experiences of immigration as a Chinese American, of racism, of mental wellness, and of gender from a queer and trans perspective. Between the contrast of high lyric and direct prose poems, Yanyi invites the reader to consider how to speak with multiple identities through trauma, transition, and ordinary life. 

Young Adult Books

  • Pet by 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. e-book

  • The Truth Is by NoNieqa Ramos. Closed off and grieving her best friend, fifteen-year-old overachiever Verdad faces prejudices at school and from her traditional mother, her father's distance since his remarriage, and her attraction to a transgender classmate. e-book

  • And She Was by Jessica Verdi. When Dara finds her birth certificate, she is puzzled to find two strange names on it, but when her mother, Mellie, reveals that she is transgender and transitioned when Dara's biological mother died soon after Dara's birth, Dara is stunned and angry--and she sets off with her friend Sam, in search of the grandparents she never knew existed (and who may be able to fund her tennis career), and the family secrets she can only guess at. e-book

  • Being Emily by Rachel Gold. They say that whoever you are it’s okay, you were born that way. Those words don’t comfort Emily, because she was born Christopher and her insides know that her outsides are all wrong. She wants to be the woman she knows is inside, but it’s not until a substitute therapist and a girl named Natalie come into her life that she believes she has a chance of actually Being Emily. e-book

  • Something Like Gravity by Amber Smith. A near fatal car accident between two neighbors leads Chris, a transgender youth, to fall in love for the first time with Maia, a girl grieving the loss of her older sister. e-book

  • Some Assembly Required: The Not-So-Secret Life of a Transgender Teen by Arin Andrews. 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 first-of-its-kind memoir. Now with a reading group guide and an all-new afterword from the author!  

  • Trans mission: My Quest to a Beard by Alex Bertie. The YouTube personality and social advocate presents a courageous firsthand account of his life, struggles and victories as a transgender youth, discussing his private battles with identity, the challenges of the healthcare system and what he recommends for today's transitioning teens. e-book and e-audiobook

  • As The Crow Flies by Mel Gillman. Charlie Lamonte is thirteen years old, queer, black, and questioning what was once a firm belief in God. So naturally, she's spending a week of her summer vacation stuck at an all-white Christian youth backpacking camp. As the journey wears on and the rhetoric wears thin, she can't help but poke holes in the pious obliviousness of this “sanctuary” with little regard for people like herself—or her fellow camper, trans girl Sydney. 

  • Super Late Bloomer by Julia Kaye. A highly personal, funny collection documenting the early months of artist Julia Kaye's gender transition. Instead of a traditional written diary, Julia Kaye has always turned to art as a means of self-reflection. So when she began her gender transition in 2016, she decided to use her popular webcomic, Up and Out, to process her journey and help others with similar struggles realize they weren't alone.  e-book 

  • Trans Teen Survival Guide by Fox Fisher and Owl Fisher. Wondering how to come out to your family and friends, what it's like to go through hormonal replacement therapy, or how to put on a packer? Trans youth activists Owl and Fox have stepped in to answer (almost) everything that trans teens and their families need to know.  

  • Trans Bodies, Trans Selves by Laura Erickson-Schroth, ed. Inspired by Our Bodies, Ourselves, this is an anthology of essays, poems, art, articles, and resource lists by and for transgender people. Though published in 2014, this is still one of the most comprehensive anthologies of work about trans health, sexuality, relationships, relationship to family, and more.  

  • A Quick and Easy Guide to Queer and Trans Identities by Mady G and J.R Zuckerberg. "Covering essential topics like sexuality, gender identity, coming out, and navigating relationships, this guide explains the spectrum of human experience through informative comics, interviews, worksheets, and imaginative examples. A great starting point for anyone curious about queer and trans life.  

  • A Quick and Easy Guide to They/Them Pronouns by Archie Bongiovanni and Tristan Jimerson. Archie, a snarky genderqueer artist, is tired of people not understanding gender neutral pronouns. Tristan, a cisgender dude, is looking for an easy way to introduce gender neutral pronouns to his increasingly diverse workplace. The longtime best friends team up in this short and fun comic guide that explains what pronouns are, why they matter, and how to use them.  

  • I Am J by Cris Beam. J had always felt different. He was certain that eventually everyone would understand who he really was: a boy mistakenly born as a girl. Yet as he grew up, his body began to betray him; eventually J stopped praying to wake up a "real boy" and started covering up his body, keeping himself invisible -- from his parents, from his friends, from the world. But after being deserted by the best friend he thought would always be by his side, J decides that he's done hiding. It's time to be who he really is. And this time he is determined not to give up, no matter the cost. e-book

  • Beautiful Music for Ugly Children by Kirstin Cronn-Mills. This is Beautiful Music for Ugly Children, on community radio 90.3, KZUK. I'm Gabe. Welcome to my show. My birth name is Elizabeth, but I'm a guy. Gabe. My parents think I've gone crazy and the rest of the world is happy to agree with them, but I know I'm right. I've been a boy my whole life. When you think about it, I'm like a record. Elizabeth is my A side, the song everybody knows, and Gabe is my B side--not heard as often, but just as good. It's time to let my B side play. e-book

  • Dreadnought (The Nemesis series) 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. e-book

  • This Book is Gay by Juno Dawson. 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. This book is for YOU. There's a long-running joke that, after "coming out," a lesbian, gay guy, bisexual, or trans person should receive a membership card and instruction manual. THIS IS THAT INSTRUCTION MANUAL. You're welcome. e-book and e-audiobook

  • Symptoms of Being Human by Jeff Garvin. Riley Cavanaugh is many things: Punk rock. Snarky. Rebellious. And gender fluid. Some days Riley identifies as a boy, and others as a girl. The thing is…Riley isn’t exactly out yet. And between starting a new school and having a congressman father running for reelection in uber-conservative Orange County, the pressure—media and otherwise—is building up in Riley’s so-called “normal” life. e-book and e-audiobook (always available)

  • Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out by Susan Kuklin. 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. e-book

  • Being Jazz by Jazz Jennings. Jazz Jennings is one of the youngest and most prominent voices in the national discussion about gender identity. At the age of five, Jazz transitioned to life as a girl, with the support of her parents. e-book and e-audiobook

  • The Annex by Rich Larson. When the aliens invade, all seems lost. The world as they know it is destroyed. Their friends are kidnapped. Their families are changed. But with no adults left to run things, young trans-girl Violet and her new friend Bo realize that they are free. Free to do whatever they want. Free to be whoever they want to be. e-book

  • Not Your Sidekick by CB Lee. Bells Broussard thought he had it made when his superpowers manifested early. Being a shapeshifter is awesome. He can change his hair whenever he wants and, if putting on a binder for the day is too much, he's got it covered. But that was before he became the country's most wanted villain. e-book and e-audiobook

  • Two Boys Kissing by David Levithan. New York Times bestselling author David Levithan tells the based-on-true-events story of Harry and Craig, two 17-year-olds who are about to take part in a 32-hour marathon of kissing to set a new Guinness World Record—all of which is narrated by a Greek Chorus of the generation of gay men lost to AIDS.  While the two increasingly dehydrated and sleep-deprived boys are locking lips, they become a focal point in the lives of other teen boys, including a trans boy, dealing with long-term relationships, coming out, navigating gender identity, and falling deeper into the digital rabbit hole of gay hookup sites—all while the kissing former couple tries to figure out their own feelings for each other. e-book and e-audiobook

  • Every Heart a Doorway by Seanan McGuire. Eleanor West's Home for Wayward Children: No Solicitations, No Visitors, No Quests. Children have always disappeared under the right conditions; slipping through the shadows under a bed or at the back of a wardrobe, tumbling down rabbit holes and into old wells, and emerging somewhere... else. But magical lands have little need for used-up miracle children. e-book and e-audiobook

  • When the Moon was Ours by Anna Marie McLemore. From the author of The Weight of Feathers comes a young adult novel about a girl hiding the truth, a boy with secrets from his past, and four sisters who could ruin them both. e-book

  • The ABC’s of LGBT+ by Ashley Mardell. Along with in-depth written definitions, personal anecdotes, helpful infographics, links to online videos, and more, Mardell aims to provide a friendly voice to a community looking for information. e-audiobook

  • Spy Stuff by Matthew J. Metzger. Anton never thought anyone would ever want to date him. Everyone knows nobody wants a transgender boyfriend, right? So he's as shocked as anyone when seemingly-straight Jude Kalinowski asks him out, and doesn't appear to be joking. The only problem is ... well, Jude doesn't actually know.  e-book

  • Mask of Shadows and Ruin of Stars by Linsey Miller. Perfect for fantasy fans of Sarah J. Maas and Leigh Bardugo, the first book in this new duology features a compelling genderfluid main character, impressive worldbuilding, and fast-paced action. e-book and e-audiobook

  • All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages by Saundra Mitchell. Take a journey through time and genres and discover a past where queer figures live, love and shape the world around them. Seventeen of the best young adult authors across the queer spectrum have come together to create a collection of beautifully written diverse historical fiction for teens. e-book

  • Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World by Sarah Prager. World history has been made by countless lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer individuals—and you’ve never heard of many of them. Queer author and activist Sarah Prager delves deep into the lives of 23 people who fought, created, and loved on their own terms. e-book

  • If I Was Your Girl by Meredith Russo. A new kind of big-hearted novel about being seen for who you really are. Amanda Hardy is the new girl in school. Like anyone else, all she wants is to make friends and fit in. But Amanda is keeping a secret, and she's determined not to get too close to anyone. e-book and e-audiobook

  • Lizard Radio by Pat Schmatz. Fifteen-year-old bender Kivali has had a rough time in a gender-rigid culture. Abandoned as a baby and raised by Sheila, an ardent nonconformist, Kivali has always been surrounded by uncertainty. Where did she come from? Is it true what Sheila says, that she was deposited on Earth by the mysterious saurians? What are you? people ask, and Kivali isn’t sure. Boy/girl? Human/lizard? Both/neither? e-book

  • Out of Salem by Hal Schrieve. Genderqueer fourteen-year-old Z Chilworth has to adjust quickly to their new status as a zombie after waking from death from a car crash that killed their parents and sisters. Always a talented witch, Z now can barely perform magic and is rapidly decaying. Faced with rejection from their remaining family members and old friends, Z moves in with Mrs. Dunnigan, an elderly witch and befriends Aysel, a loud would-be-goth classmate who is, like Z, a loner. As Z struggles to find a way to repair the broken magical seal holding their body together, Aysel fears that her classmates will discover her status as an unregistered werewolf. When a local psychiatrist is murdered by what seems to be werewolves, the town of Salem, Oregon, becomes even more hostile to "monsters," and Z and Aysel are driven together in an attempt to survive a place where most people wish that neither of them existed. Rarely has a first-time author created characters of such immediacy and power as Z, Aysel, Tommy (suspected fey) and Elaine (also a werewolf), or a world that parallels our own so clearly and disturbingly. e-book

  • Lumberjanes (Comic Series) by Noelle Stevenson. At Miss Qiunzella Thiskwin Penniquiqul Thistle Crumpet’s Camp for Hardcore Lady Types, things are not what they seem. Three-eyed foxes. Secret caves. Anagrams. Luckily, Jo, April, Mal, Molly, and Ripley are five rad, butt-kicking best pals determined to have an awesome summer together…and they’re not gonna let a magical quest or an array of supernatural critters get in their way! e-book

  • The Backstagers (Comic Series) by James Tynion IV. All the world's a stage . . . but what happens behind the curtain is pure magic—literally! When Jory transfers to an all-boys private high school, he’s taken in by the only ones who don’t treat him like a new kid, the lowly stage crew known as the Backstagers. Not only does he gain great, lifetime friends, Jory is also introduced to an entire magical world that lives beyond the curtain. With the unpredictable twists and turns of the underground world, the Backstagers venture into the unknown, determined to put together the best play their high school has ever seen.  e-book

  • The Art of Being Normal by Lisa Williamson. Two boys. Two secrets. David Piper has always been an outsider. His parents think he’s gay. The school bully thinks he’s a freak. Only his two best friends know the real truth – David wants to be a girl. On the first day at his new school Leo Denton has one goal – to be invisible. Attracting the attention of the most beautiful girl in year eleven is definitely not part of that plan. e-book

  • Parrotfish by Ellen Wittlinger. Last week I cut my hair, bought some boys' clothes and shoes, wrapped a large ACE bandage around my chest to flatten my fortunately-not-large breasts, and began looking for a new name.  e-book

  • Trans+: Love, Sex, Romance, and Being You by Katheryn Gonzales and Karen Rayne. This book is an all-inclusive, uncensored guide for teens who are transgender, nonbinary, gender-nonconforming, or gender-fluid. It answers all your questions, easy and hard, about gender and covers mental health, physical health and reproduction, transitioning, relationships, sex, and life as a trans or nonbinary individual. 

  • Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher. Logan recently discovered that his girlfriend of three years cheated on him. But things start to look up when a new student breezes through the halls of his small-town high school. Sage befriends Logans at a time when he no longer trusts or believes in people. One day, Logan acts on his growing feelings for Sge. Moments later, he wishes he never had. Sage finally discloses her big secret: she was born a boy. e-book and e-audiobook

  • Beast by Brie Spangler. Dylan doesn’t look like your average 15-year-old, so, naturally, high school has not been kind to him. To make matters worse, on the day his high school has banned hats, he goes up to the roof only to fall and wake up in the hospital with a broken leg and mandated group therapy for self-harmers. Dylan meets Jamie there, who’s funny, smart, stunning, and a secret that, if Dylan had been paying attention, she mentions on the first day of therapy. Will things stay the same or change forever? e-book and e-audiobook

  • I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver. When Ben De Backer comes out to their parents as nonbinary, they’re thrown out of their house and forced to move in with their estranged older sister and her husband, whom Ben has never met. Struggling with anxiety, they come out only to their sister and therapist and try to keep a low profile in a new school. e-book and e-audiobook

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Middle Grade Books

  • Freeing Finch by Ginny Rorby. When her father leaves and her mother passes away soon afterward, Finch can’t help feeling abandoned. Now she’s stuck living with her stepfather and his new wife. They’re mostly nice, but they don’t believe the one true thing Finch knows about herself: that she’s a girl, even though she was born in a boy’s body.

  • The Moon Within by Aida Salazar. Eleven-year-old Celi Rivera, who is a mix of Black-Puerto Rican-Indigenous Mexican is secretive about her approaching period, and the changes that are happening to her body; she is horrified that her mother wants to hold a traditional public moon ceremony to celebrate the occasion; she must choose loyalty to her life-long best friend who is contemplating an even more profound change of life or the boy she likes. e-book

  • Zenobia July by Lisa Bunker. 12-year old Zenobia July, an excellent coder and hacker, investigates a mystery while wrestling with the challenges of a new school, a new family, and presenting her true gender for the first time. e-book

  • The Pants Project by Cat Clarke. Eleven-year-old Liv fights to change the middle school dress code requiring girls to wear a skirt and, along the way, finds the courage to tell his moms he is meant to be a boy. e-book and e-audiobook, always available

  • Lily & Dunkin by Donna Gephart. Trans girl Lily Jo McGrother meets Dunkin Dorfman just as she is almost ready to come out and just as Dunkin is starting to adjust to the absence of his father. Their lives after meeting will never be the same. e-book and e-audiobook

  • George by Alex Gino. When people look at Melissa, they think they see a boy. But she knows she's not a boy. She knows she's a girl. Melissa thinks she'll have to keep this a secret forever. Then her teacher announces that their class play is going to be Charlotte's Web. Melissa really, really, REALLY wants to play Charlotte. But the teacher says she can't even try out for the part...because she's a boy. With the help of her best friend, Kelly, Melissa comes up with a plan. Not just so she can be Charlotte—but so everyone can know who she is, once and for all. e-book and e-audiobook

  • The Other Boy by M. G. Hennessey. A beautifully heartfelt story about one trans boy’s journey toward acceptance. e-book

  • Who Are You? The Kid’s Guide to Gender Identity by Brook Pessin-Whedbee. This primer on sex, gender, and identity is an ideal title for caregivers and educators to share with children. 

  • Gracefully Grayson by Amy Polonski. Grayson, a transgender twelve-year-old girl, learns to accept her true identity and share it with the world. e-book

  • Sex is a Funny Word by Cory Silverberg. A comic book for kids that includes children and families of all makeups, orientations, and gender identities, Sex Is a Funny Word is an essential resource about bodies, gender, and sexuality for children ages 8 to 10 as well as their parents and caregivers. e-book

  • Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series (1, 2, 3) by Rick Riordan. Magnus Chase, a homeless boy living in Boston, finds out he is the son of a Norse god. Includes a genderfluid main character, a shapeshifter child of Loki. e-book and e-audiobook

  • The Gay Rights Movement by Eric Braun. A lot has changed throughout the history of the gay rights movement. In 1969, the Stonewall Riots brought light to a movement that would later establish gay pride parades and persist in the fight for same-sex marriage. But allies and LGBTQ+ community members are still fighting for progress today. What are the gay rights movement's main concerns today? And what challenges has the movement faced? e-book

  • Dragon Pearl by Yoon Ha Lee. To keep the family safe, Min’s mother insists that none of them use any fox-magic, such as Charm or shape-shifting. They must appear human at all times. Min feels hemmed in by the household rules and resents the endless chores, the cousins who crowd her, and the aunties who judge her. She would like nothing more than to escape Jinju, her neglected, dust-ridden, and impoverished planet. She’s counting the days until she can follow her older brother, Jun, into the Space Forces and see more of the Thousand Worlds. Non-binary main character, trans man author. e-book and e-audiobook

  • Phoebe and Her Unicorn series by Dana Simpson. It all started when a girl named Phoebe skipped a rock across a pond and accidentally hit a unicorn in the face. Improbably, this led to Phoebe being granted one wish, and she used it to make the unicorn, Marigold Heavenly Nostrils, her obligational best friend. But can a vain mythical beast and a nine-year-old daydreamer really forge a connection? (trans author, no trans characters) e-book

  • The Deep & Dark Blue by Niki Smith. After a terrible political coup usurps their noble house, Hawke and Grayson flee to stay alive and assume new identities, Hanna and Grayce. Desperation and chance lead them to the Communion of Blue, an order of magical women who spin the threads of reality to their will.  As the twins learn more about the Communion, and themselves, they begin to hatch a plan to avenge their family and retake their royal home.While Hawke wants to return to his old life, Grayce struggles to keep the threads of her new life from unraveling, and realizes she wants to stay in the one place that will allow her to finally live as a girl. (trans girl main character) 

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Children's Picture Books

  • Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress by Christine Baldacchino, illustrated by Isabelle Malenfant. Morris faces taunts and criticism when he wears an orange dress to school, but things begin to change for him after he uses his imagination to paint a fantastic picture that he shares with his classmates. e-book

  • When Aidan Became a Brother by Kyle Lukoff, illustrated by Kaylani Juanita. A young transgender boy who has already come out to his parents and found acceptance anticipates his new job as a big brother by helping his parents prepare for his baby sibling’s arrival. 

  • Neither by Airlie Anderson. Because Neither is unlike both the rabbits and birds of the Land of This and That, it sets out to find a new place where all kinds of creatures are welcome. e-book

  • Worm Loves Worm by JJ Austrian, illustrated by Mike Curato. When a worm meets a special worm and they fall in love, you know what happens next: They get married! But their friends want to know—who will wear the dress? And who will wear the tux? The answer is: It doesn't matter. Because worm loves worm. 

  • Call Me Tree/Llámame Árbol by Maya Gonzalez. In this spare, lyrically written story, we join a child on a journey of self-discovery. Finding a way to grow from the inside out, just like a tree, the child develops as an individual comfortable in the natural world and in relationships with others.  

  • Red: A Crayon’s Story by Michael Hall. A blue crayon mistakenly labeled as "red" suffers an identity crisis in this book about being true to your inner self and following your own path despite obstacles that may come your way.  read-along e-nook, Spanish, e-audiobook, e-book

  • I Am Jazz by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings, illustrated by Shelagh McNicholas. The story of a transgender girl based on the real-life experience of Jazz Jennings, who has become a spokesperson for transkids everywhere.  e-book

  • A House for Everyone by Jo Hirst, illustrated byNaomi Bardoff. Jackson is a boy who likes to wear dresses. Ivy is a girl who likes her hair cut really short. Alex doesn't feel like 'just' a boy, or 'just' a girl. They are all the same, they are all different—but they are all friends. 

  • Jacob’s New Dress by Sarah Hoffman, illustrated by Chris Case. This heartwarming story speaks to the unique challenges faced by boys who don't identify with traditional gender roles.  e-book

  • My Princess Boy by Cheryl Kilodavis, illustrated by Suzanne DeSimone. Dyson loves pink, sparkly things. Sometimes he wears dresses. Sometimes he wears jeans. He likes to wear his princess tiara, even when climbing trees. He's a Princess Boy.  e-book

  • Julián is a Mermaid by Jessica Love. In an exuberant picture book, a glimpse of costumed mermaids leaves one boy flooded with wonder and ready to dazzle the world.  e-book

  • One of a Kind, Like Me / Unico Como Yo by Laurin Mayeno, illustrated by Robert Liu-Trujillo. This charming bilingual book is based on a true story about the author’s son who wanted to be a princess in a purple dress for Halloween.  

  • Sparkleboy by Lesléa Newman; illustrated  by Maria Mola. Here is a sweet, heartwarming story about acceptance, respect, and the freedom to be yourself in a world where any gender expression should be celebrated.  

  • Be Who You Are by Todd Parr. In a brand-new companion to beloved classic It's Okay to Be Different, author Todd Parr encourages kids to be proud of who they are inside.  e-book

  • Pink is for Boys by Robb Perlman, illustrated by Eda Kaban. A celebration of how colors are for everyone depicts characters engaging in their favorite activities.  e-book

  • The Boy & the Bindi by Vivek Shraya, illustrated by Rajni Perera. A beautiful children's picture book that showcases a young Indian boy's fascination with his mother's bindi, the red dot commonly worn by Hindu women.  

  • Jack (not Jackie) by Erica Silverman, illustrated by Holly Hatam. In this heartwarming picture book, a big sister realizes that her little sibling doesn't like dresses or fairies-but likes ties, bugs and the name Jack. Will the big sister and her family be able to accept Jack’s expression of his identity?  

  • They She He Me: Free to Be! by Maya and Matthew Smith-Gonzalez. Pronouns serve as a familiar starting point for kids and grown-ups to expand ideas about gender and celebrate personal expression with fun imagery that provides a place to meet and play.  

  • From the Stars in the Sky to the Fish in the Sea by Kai Cheng Thom and Kai Yun Ching, illustrated by Wai-Yant Li, Kai Yun Ching. Miu Lan is not just any child, but one who can change into any shape they can imagine. The only problem is they can’t decide what to be: A boy or a girl? A bird or a fish? A flower or a shooting star?  

  • Ogilvy by Deborah Underwood, illustrated by T.L. McBeth. Ogilvy, a knitwear-clad rabbit who’s new in town, arrives at the local park to find bunnies “drawing and knitting and climbing” and even playing ball. But Ogilvy’s affable approach is met with stares and a demanding “what is that you’re wearing?” The town’s social norms, it seems, mean that only “bunnies in dresses play ball and knit socks,” whereas “bunnies in sweaters make art and climb rocks.” In the mood for ball, Ogilvy calls the knit tunic a dress—for the day. Relabeling the recurring outfit at will, Ogilvy enjoys the freedom choice affords until a group of bunnies demand that Ogilvy choose a garment type “once and for all.”  e-book

  • Introducing Teddy: A Gentle Story about Gender and Friendship by Jessica Walton, illustrated by Dougal MacPherson. Introducing Teddy introduces the youngest readers to understanding gender identity and transition in an accessible and heart-warming story about being true to yourself and being a good friend.  e-book

  • 10,000 Dresses by Marcus Ewert, illustrated by Rex Ray. Every night, Bailey dreams about magical dresses: dresses made of crystals and rainbows, dresses made of flowers, dresses made of windows. Unfortunately when Baily’s awake, no one wants to hear about these beautiful dreams. Quite the contrary: “you’re a boy,” mother and father tell Bailey. “You shouldn’t be thinking about dresses at all.” Then Bailey meets Laurel, an older girl who is touched and inspired by Bailey’s imagination.  

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Summaries provided via NYPL’s catalog, which draws from multiple sources. Click through to each book’s title for more.

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