Maggie Millner’s Couplets is a novel-in-verse that explores the fierce intensity of falling in love and how it affects one’s expression, especially when the initial excitement begins to falter and fail. This debut reads like a challenge to form itself: can desire, betrayal, and queer longing be woven into the rigid dance of couplets without dulling theirRead More
Rivals, Resistance, and Recovery: It’s All or Nothing, Vale by Andrea Beatriz Arango
It’s All or Nothing, Vale is a middle grade novel-in-verse about seventh grader Vale, who used to be a champion fencer. And she will be again. She will. She doesn’t need a cane. She’s definitely not disabled. In fact, she’s returning to her fencing school just this week, and she’ll make up the losses from months of no fencing, PT, surgery, and recovery.
A Grounded Middle-Grade Sapphic Romance: Redwood and Ponytail by K.A. Holt Review
Redwood and Ponytail is a middle grade novel in verse about two girls whose friendship causes them to question many of the norms in their lives. Tam is a tall, confident volleyball player with a strong support network of quirky characters; Kate is a cheerleader—scratch that, she’s the cheerleader, but she’s beginning to wonder if this is quiteRead More
Forever is Now by Mariama J Lockington
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! Content warnings: biphobia, racism, police violence Forever is Now by Mariama J. Lockington tells the story of Sadie, a Black teenage girl with anxiety that develops into agoraphobia after a truly terrible day. Her girlfriend breaks up with her and they witness an incidence ofRead More
A Standing Ovation for Clap When You Land by Elizabeth Acevedo
Buy this from Bookshop.org to support local bookstores and the Lesbrary! “There is another girl / on this planet / who is my kin. / My father / lied to me / every day of my life. / [ . . . ] I want to put my fingers / against my sister’s cheek. /Read More