Miss Quinces

Written by: Kat Fajardo

First line: "And they never saw him again."

Why you should read this book: Fifteen-year-old Suyapa wants to spend the summer drawing comics and camping with her friends, or at least, keeping up with them on WhatsApp, but unfortunately, she has to spend a month in Honduras with her mother's side of the family, far from civilization with no internet at all. And what's worse, her mother has decided that Suyapa is going to have a princess-pink quinceañera, even though Sue has indicated numerous times that she hates big poofy dresses, has zero interest in high heeled shoes, can't dance, and despises the color pink. But the ritual and celebration she's been refusing for so long turns out to have important cultural implications for her family, and as Suyapa comes to a better understanding of who she is in the context of the people who love her, the idea of a quinceañera takes on new meaning—especially if everyone can make a few little changes here and there in order to help her feel more comfortable with her big day. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're still traumatized by all the times they forced you into dress clothes that didn't suit you at all, and no one ever once appreciated your own personal style.

Buy Miss Quinces Here!

Those Shoes

Written by: Maribeth Boelts and Noah Z. Jones

First line: I have dreams about those shoes. 

Why you should read this book: This is a story about economic necessity, fads, desire, and kindness. A little boy longs for a pair of stylish sneakers, but his family's situation is such that he ends up with a pair of charity shoes from the guidance counselor's stash. Eventually he acquires an affordable, secondhand, too-small pair of the coveted kicks, and while he can't really wear them, he can make a choice that demonstrates his understanding of the true value of material things. 

Why you shouldn't read this book: You don't have any shoes.

George

Written by: Alex Gino

First line: George pulled a silver house key out of the smallest pocket of a large red backpack.

Why you should read this book: I adored this gentle, quiet story about a little trans girl who wants nothing more than to play Charlotte in her school's performance of Charlotte's Web but isn't quite ready to explain her motivations to the world. George is well aware of her own gender, but no one else knows her secret, which basically involves looking wistfully at teen magazines and pretending the girls in the photographs are her real friends. When she works up the courage to share her true identity with her best friend, an entire new world of possibility opens up and she begins to navigate the world according to an entirely new set of rules.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're a hateful, gender-essentialist bigot.

Sunny Rolls the Dice

Written by: Jennifer L. Holm and Matthew Holm

First line: Are you a groovy teen?

Why you should read this book: It's the 1970s and young adolescent Sunny is constantly preoccupied with the question of how groovy she, her clothes, her hair, and her life choices might be. While she wants to look good and have the right clothes, she finds that what she's enjoying most are the weekly sessions of this weird new game called Dungeons and Dragons, where she can pretend to be a powerful fighter. But when she realizes that playing RPGs with boys isn't considered as groovy as expensive designer jeans, she has to decide what her own priorities are, and whether it's OK for her to make choices that don't align with her friends'.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You think D&D is a directly transit to hell, or that girls and boys shouldn't be allowed to play together, or that your value as a friend and a human is somehow connected to how much your pants cost.

The Empress and the Silkworm

Written by: Lily Toy Hong

First line: Nearly five thousand years ago, Huang-Ti, known as the Yellow Emperor, ruled the ancient land of China.

Why you should read this book: A disgusting confluence of a cocoon and a cup of hot tea turns into an epic discovery: silk. The emperor's wife dreams of using this magical new fiber to create a magnificent robe for her husband. This legendary story is based on historical events.

Why you shouldn't read this book: A worm falls into teacup. That's pretty nasty.

Green Pants

Written by: Kenneth Kraegel.

First line: Jameson only ever wore green pants.

Why you should read this book: Like many young children Jameson's peculiar insistence on a particular lifestyle choice—in this case, only wearing green pants—is amusing and tolerable to adults, until the day the world can no longer accommodate his eccentricity. When Jameson's cousin decides to marry the most beautiful girl Jameson can imagine, he's thrilled at her request to participate in the wedding, with on hitch: he'll have to wear a black tuxedo. After a crisis of monumental proportions, Jameson finds a way to stay true to himself while conforming to society's standards.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're in the process of shaming a young child out of any personality quirks that might differentiate them from other humans.

Thomas' Snowsuit

Written by: R. Munsch and M. Martchenko

First line: One day Thomas' mother bought him a nice new brown snowsuit.

Why you should read this book: Like Munsch's work, this book illustrates the hilarity inherent in the relationships between children and adults, children and their experience of the world, and children and their conviction. Thomas refuses to wear his ugly new snowsuit, although a series of adults, will increasingly less-successful results, work to stick Thomas and the snowsuit together. There's also some humor involving accidental cross-dressing and people ending up in their underwear, just right for keeping kids interested, and a surprise ending.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You wouldn't wear a brown snowsuit either.

Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress

Written by: Christine Balacchino and Isabelle Malenfant

First line: Morris Micklewhite has a mother named Moira and a cat named Moo.

Why you should read this book: I'm frankly jealous of kids today, and they way they get to crash through the gender binary without being stuffed into a role that doesn't fit them simply because that's the way people with similar genitals are supposed to behave. Morris is a typical little boy who likes dressing up in one particular orange dress, because it reminds him of "tigers, the sun and his mother's hair." Morris doesn't have any issues with his gender identity--he's just a boy who happens to like this dress, and is willing to stand up to the haters for his right to both wear what he like and be who he wants to be.

Why you shouldn't read this book: You're a hater with a vested interest in stuffing gender non-conforming kids into clothes and identities they hate.