This post is sponsored by Athlete is Agender, ed. by Katherine Locke and Nicole Melleby (the team that brought you This is Our Rainbow), a nonfiction Middle Grade anthology releasing from Christy Ottaviano Books on May 13, 2025!

Athlete is agender. Athlete can mean anyone. This incredible collection revels in the achievements of strong, passionate, and determined queer athletes across every age, level, and field of sports.

Buy it: Bookshop | Amazon | B&N

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A World Worth Saving by Kyle Lukoff (February 4th)

Covid lockdown is over, but A’s world feels smaller than ever. Coming out as trans didn’t exactly go well, and most days, he barely leaves his bedroom, let alone the house. But the low point of A’s life isn’t online school, missing his bar mitzvah, or the fact that his parents monitor his phone like hawks—it’s the weekly Save Our Sons and Daughters meetings his parents all but drag him to.

At SOSAD, A and his friends Sal and Yarrow sit by while their parents deadname them and wring their hands over a nonexistent “transgender craze.” After all, sitting in suffocating silence has to be better than getting sent away for “advanced treatment,” never to be heard from again.

When Yarrow vanishes after a particularly confrontational meeting, A discovers that SOSAD doesn’t just feel soul-sucking…it’s run by an actual demon who feeds off the pain and misery of kids like him. And it’s not just SOSAD—the entire world is beset by demons dining on what seems like an endless buffet of pain and bigotry.

But how is one trans kid who hasn’t even chosen a name supposed to save his friend, let alone the world? And is a world that seems hellbent on rejecting him even worth saving at all?

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