For Part I, click here.
Just Happy to Be Here by Naomi Kanakia
Better Catch Up, Krishna Kumar by Anahita Kartik
Rani Choudhury Must Die by Adiba Jaigirdar
As Long As You Loathe Me by Swati Hegde
Ramin Abbas Has MAJOR Questions by Ahmad Saber
Tag Archives: Naomi Kanakia
Happy Trans Day of Visibility 2025!
Children’s
Just Like Queen Esther by Ari Moffic and Kerry Olitzky (text) and Rena Yehuda Newman (illustration)
Atara loves to wear her crown – to the library, to the dentist, even to her swim lessons. It gives her confidence, and shows the world that she is a girl, not a boy, like everyone thought at first. But when Atara reads the story of Queen Esther, on the Jewish holiday of Purim – she realises that you don’t need a costume to express who you really are…
New Releases: May 28, 2024
Middle Grade
Noah Frye Gets Crushed by Maggie Horne
Noah Frye just had the Best Summer Ever. Not only did she have an epic time at science camp, but her new camp friend Jessa is going to Noah’s school in the fall. Noah can’t wait to introduce Jessa to her best friends Zoey and Luna when classes start. But when the friend group is reunited after their summer apart, something seems to have changed: Zoey and Luna have discovered boys, and now it’s all they want to obsess over.
Suddenly, it feels like Noah is the odd one out in their friend group, especially since Noah hasn’t ever even considered boys in that way. When Noah finds herself caught in a lie about having a boy crush of her own, she decides she’ll do anything to fit in with her friends again—even if that means using the scientific method. Noah’s crush experiment is simple: find a boy, fake a crush until it turns real, and get her friends back. But that might be easier said than done, especially when Noah can’t stop thinking about Jessa. What ensues is a hilarious and heartwarming turn of events in this queer contemporary middle grade story about friendship, first crushes, and self-discovery.
Happy (Upcoming) Trans Day of Visibility 2024!
March 31st is Trans Day of Visibility, and we’re celebrating as we do by highlighting a whole bunch of wonderful trans books! For even more recs, check out previous years’ posts.
Books to Read Now
Middle Grade
Magical Princess Harriet by Leiah Moser
“To put it simply, Harris Baumgartner was late to school on the first day of the seventh grade because something he saw in the abandoned lot at the end of his street changed his life forever…”
Middle school can be tough, especially when you can’t figure out whether you’re supposed to be a boy or a girl. Homework and gym class are hard enough to deal with, but what exactly do you do when a pushy angel shows up insisting you’re a magical princess and that it’s your job to defend your school from the forces of darkness? For Harris Baumgartner, only one thing is certain — life is about to get a lot more complicated!
Continue reading Happy (Upcoming) Trans Day of Visibility 2024!
New Release Spotlight: Just Happy to Be Here by Naomi Kanakia
Kanakia is the queen of blunt, honest writing, and perhaps nowhere is that more evident than in her first novel starring a trans girl, Just Happy to Be Here, which released on January 2nd from HarperTeen and stars Tara, who grapples with all sorts of issues at her fancy school. (Spoiler: one is a crush, and it is adorable.) I happen to have blurbed this one officially, so I’ll just share that here: “Kanakia’s razor-sharp candor, insight, and nuance make her one of YA’s most fascinating and relevant authors. Just Happy to Be Here is an absolute and necessary game-changer.”
Tara just wants to be treated like any other girl at Ainsley Academy.
That is, judged on her merits—not on her transness. But there’s no road map for being the first trans girl at an all-girls school. And when she tries to join the Sibyls, an old-fashioned Ainsley sisterhood complete with code names and special privileges, she’s thrust into the center of a larger argument about what girlhood means and whether the club should exist at all.
Being the figurehead of a movement isn’t something Tara’s interested in. She’d rather read old speeches and hang out with the Sibyls who are on her side—especially Felicity, a new friend she thinks could turn into something more. Then the club’s sponsor, a famous alumna, attacks her in the media and turns the selection process into a spectacle.
Tara’s always found comfort in the power of other peoples’ words. But when it comes time to fight for herself, will she be able to find her own voice?
New Releases: January 2024
Today’s post is sponsored by Beverly Gandara and What Did You Know and Who Did You Tell, out now!
When Did You Know and Who Did You Tell? LGBTQAI+/Biographies
Interviews with 25 diverse LGBTQAI+ Role Models
How would you cope if your family rejected you, your religion abandoned you and society labeled you an outcast? Read the Inspirational, heartfelt coming-out stories by 25 LGBTQAI+ role models from the ages of 21-80 who journeyed from strength to strength to become their authentic selves.
Buy it: Amazon
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The Curse of Eelgrass Bog by Mary Averling (2nd)
Nothing about Kess Pedrock’s life is normal. Not her home (she lives in her family’s Unnatural History Museum), not her interests (hunting for megafauna fossils and skeletons), and not her best friend (a talking demon’s head in a jar named Shrunken Jim).
But things get even stranger than usual when Kess meets Lilou Starling, the new girl in town. Lilou comes to Kess for help breaking a mysterious curse—and the only clue she has leads straight into the center of Eelgrass Bog. Everyone knows the bog is full of witches, demons, and possibly worse, but Kess and Lilou are determined not to let that stop them. As they investigate the mystery and uncover long-buried secrets, Kess begins to realize that the curse might hit closer to home than she’d ever expected, and she’ll have to summon all her courage to find a way to break it before it’s too late.
Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Young Adult Fiction: January-June 2024
Just Happy to Be Here by Naomi Kanakia (January 2nd)
Tara just wants to be treated like any other girl at Ainsley Academy.
That is, judged on her merits—not on her transness. But there’s no road map for being the first trans girl at an all-girls school. And when she tries to join the Sibyls, an old-fashioned Ainsley sisterhood complete with code names and special privileges, she’s thrust into the center of a larger argument about what girlhood means and whether the club should exist at all.
Being the figurehead of a movement isn’t something Tara’s interested in. She’d rather read old speeches and hang out with the Sibyls who are on her side—especially Felicity, a new friend she thinks could turn into something more. Then the club’s sponsor, a famous alumna, attacks her in the media and turns the selection process into a spectacle.
Tara’s always found comfort in the power of other peoples’ words. But when it comes time to fight for herself, will she be able to find her own voice?
Continue reading Most Anticipated LGBTQ+ Young Adult Fiction: January-June 2024
Exclusive Cover Reveal: We Mostly Come Out at Night ed. by Rob Costello
Today on the site, I’m delighted to be revealing the cover of We Mostly Came Out at Night, a YA anthology edited by Rob Costello and releasing from Running Press Books on May 21, 2024 that’s the perfect intro to spooky season! Here’s the gist:
An empowering cross-genre YA anthology that explores what it means to be a monster, exclusively highlighting trans and queer authors who offer new tales and perspectives on classic monster stories and tropes.
Be not afraid! These monsters, creatures, and beasties are not what they appear. We Mostly Come Out at Night is a YA anthology that reclaims the monstrous for the LGBTQA+ community while exploring how there is freedom and power in embracing the things that make you stand out. Each story centers on both original and familiar monsters and creatures—including Mothman, Carabosse, a girl with thirteen shadows, a living house, werebeasts, gorgons, sirens, angels, and many others—and their stories of love, self-acceptance, resilience, and empowerment. This collection is a bold, transformative celebration of queerness and the creatures that (mostly) go bump in the night.
Contributors include editor Rob Costello, Kalynn Bayron, David Bowles, Shae Carys, Rob Costello, H.E. Edgmon, Michael Thomas Ford, Val Howlett, Brittany Johnson, Naomi Kanakia, Claire Kann, Jonathan Lenore Kastin, Sarah Maxfield, Sam J. Miller, Alexandra Villasante, and Merc Fenn Wolfmoor.
And here’s the creeptastic cover, designed by Frances Soo Ping Chow and illustrated by James Fenner!
Rob Costello (he/him) writes contemporary and speculative fiction with a queer bent for and about young people. He’s the author of the forthcoming short story collection The Dancing Bears: Queer Fables for the End Times (Lethe Press, 2024). His stories have appeared in The Dark, The NoSleep Podcast, The Magazine of Fantasy & Science Fiction, Hunger Mountain, Stone Canoe, Narrative, and Rural Voices: 15 Authors Challenge Assumptions About Small-Town America (Candlewick, 2020). An alumnus of the Millay Colony of the Arts, Rob holds an MFA in writing from the Vermont College of Fine Arts and has served on the faculty of the Highlights Foundation since 2014. He lives in upstate New York with his husband and their four-legged overlords.
Exclusive Cover Reveal: Just Happy to Be Here by Naomi Kanakia
Today on the site I am so excited to reveal the cover of Just Happy to Be Here by Naomi Kanakia, which releases January 2, 2024 from HarperTeen! I know readers have been dying for more trans girl YA, so I’m thrilled to be able to share more about this one!
Tara just wants to be treated like any other girl at Ainsley Academy.
That is, judged on her merits—not on her transness. But there’s no road map for being the first trans girl at an all-girls school. And when she tries to join the Sibyls, an old-fashioned Ainsley sisterhood complete with code names and special privileges, she’s thrust into the center of a larger argument about what girlhood means and whether the club should exist at all.
Being the figurehead of a movement isn’t something Tara’s interested in. She’d rather read old speeches and hang out with the Sibyls who are on her side—especially Felicity, a new friend she thinks could turn into something more. Then the club’s sponsor, a famous alumna, attacks her in the media and turns the selection process into a spectacle.
Tara’s always found comfort in the power of other peoples’ words. But when it comes time to fight for herself, will she be able to find her own voice?
And here’s the gorgeous cover, photographed by Liam Woods and designed by Catherine Lee!
This is Naomi Kanakia’s third young adult novel. She also has some forthcoming books for adults, and her essays, short stories, and poetry have appeared all over the place. She grew up in Washington, D.C., and she currently lives in San Francisco with her wife and daughter.
Fave Five: LGBTQ YA with MCs of Indian Descent
The Loophole by Naz Kutub
Jaya and Rasa by Sonia Patel
What a Desi Girl Wants by Sabina Khan
We Are Totally Normal by Naomi Kanakia
All the Yellow Suns by Malavika Kannan
Bonus: There’s no official pub date yet, but keep an eye out for Just Happy to Be Here by Naomi Kanakia
Double Bonus: While Scavenge the Stars by Tara Sim is set in a secondary world, Amaya’s father is from a country modeled on India. You can read more about that here.