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Transgender, Non-Binary and Gender Expansive Characters

The books listed offer a way to affirm, learn, and start important conversations about celebrating individuality. 

High School

Cover of Canto Contigo
Jonny
Garza Villa
2024

When Mariachi star Rafael Alvarez moves to a new school, he anticipates claiming the lead vocalist role, but instead faces a rival with a familiar face as he navigates family issues, competition, and complicated feelings for his rival.

Cover of Compound Fracture
Andrew Joseph
White
2024

After being nearly beaten to death for evidence he holds against the corrupt sheriff, sixteen-year-old transgender Miles joins his fellow townsfolk to end the blood feud and oppressive politics that plague his town.

Cover of Girlmode
Magdalene
Visaggio
Paulina Ganucheau
2024

A recently transitioned girl tries to figure out who she is--while trying to manage who everyone else wants her to be--in this funny, unexpected, and affecting new graphic novel.

Cover of Lucy, Uncensored
Mel Hammond and
Teghan Hammond
2024

When Lucy finds a beautiful school with a great theater program on a list of the most LGBTQ+ friendly colleges, it seems like fate--except that the school is hundreds of miles away. And there's something unexpected about it: it's a women's college. As far as she can tell, they've never admitted a trans woman. Will they let Lucy in? This is a road trip through gender identity, self-expression, and the thorny process of figuring out where you fit after high school as an out-and-proud transgender teen.  

Cover of Escape from St. Hell: My T
Lewis
Hancox
2024

In this sequel, author-illustrator Lewis Hancox charts his journey with plenty of laughs, a good number of cringes, and an honesty that takes readers along for the ride of Lew's life. Book one: Welcome to St. Hell: My Trans Teen Adventure

Cover of Thanks For Listening
Molly
Horan
2024

No one takes Mia's advice, so she creates an anonymous account to offer guidance, but add the girl of her dreams and friends who are hiding something, and Mia needs advice to make it through senior year. This wry and insightful novel features a swoony ace romance and a secret social media advice account that goes wonderfully, terribly astray.

Cover of They Thought They Buried U
Nonieqa
Ramos
2024

Sixteen-year-old Yuiza, a proud queer Boricua who loves to make horror movies, finds themself living in one when they are sent to an elite boarding school that holds sinister secrets.

Cover of  Being Ace: AnAnthology of
Madeline
Dyer (editor)
2023

Discover the infinite realms of asexual love across sci-fi, fantasy, and contemporary stories. Whether adventuring through space, outsmarting a vengeful water spirit, or surviving haunted cemeteries, no two aces are the same in these 14 unique works that highlight asexual romance, aromantic love, and identities across the asexual spectrum.

Cover of Transmogrify!: 14 Fantasti
g. haron
davis
2023

Transness is as varied and colorful as magic can be. In Transmogrify!, you'll embark on fourteen different adventures alongside unforgettable characters who embody many different genders and expressions and experiences--because magic is for everyone, and that is cause for celebration.

Cover of Always the Almost
Edward
Underhill
2023

A trans pianist makes a New Year's resolution on a frozen Wisconsin night to win regionals and win back his ex, but a new boy complicates things.

Cover of I Was Born For This
Alice
Oseman
2022

The Ark, a boy band, is the center of life for super-fan Fereshteh (A.K.A Angel) Rahimi, transgender front man Jimmy Kaga-Ricci, and friend and bandmate Rowan, but their relationships become complicated when Jimmy and Angel are unexpectedly thrust together.

Cover of What's the T?: The Guide t
Juno
Dawson
2022

Stonewall ambassador and bestselling author Juno Dawson is back again, this time with everything you've wanted to know about labels and identities and offering uncensored advice on coming out, sex, and relationships with her trademark humor and lightness of touch. It is informative, helpful, optimistic, and funny but with a good dose of reality and some of the things that can downright suck too.

Cover of Gender Queer
Maia
Kobabe
2019

This memoir by author and illustrator Maya Kababe begins with eir childhood in rural California with hippie parents, no electricity or running water, and very few gender expectations. As Kababe grows up, e confides about fumbling through high school, learning about other LGBTQ+ people, going to art school, and coming to know and understand emself as a genderqueer and asexual person. With humor, honesty, and a healthy smattering of pop culture references, e delves into topics such as sex and dating, gender dysphoria and gender euphoria, and coming out.

Cover of A Quick & Easy Guide to Qu
Mady G. and
J.R. Zuckerberg
2019

This helpful resource guides readers through the basics of the LGBT+ world. Covering essential topics like sexuality, gender identity, and navigating relationships, it explains the spectrum of human experience through informative comics, interviews, worksheets, and imaginative examples.

Cover of Being Jazz: My Life as a (
Jazz
Jennings
2016

Teen activist and trailblazer Jazz Jennings--named one of "The 25 most influential teens" of the year by Time--shares her very public transgender journey, as she inspires people to accept the differences in others while they embrace their own truths.

Cover of If I Was Your Girl
Meredith
Russo
2016

Amanda Hardy only wants to fit in at her new school, but she is keeping a big secret, so when she falls for Grant, guarded Amanda finds herself yearning to share with him everything about herself, including her previous life as Andrew.

Cover of Beyond Magenta: Transgende
Susan
Kuklin
2014

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. Portraits, family photographs, and candid images grace the pages, augmenting the emotional and physical journey each youth has taken. Each honest discussion and disclosure, whether joyful or heartbreaking, is completely different from the other because of family dynamics, living situations, gender, and the transition these teens make in recognition of their true selves.

Cover of Parrotfish
Ellen
Wittlinger
2007

Grady, a transgendered high school student, yearns for acceptance by his classmates and family as he struggles to adjust to his new identity as a male.

Cover of Luna
Julie Anne
Peters
2004

Fifteen-year-old Regan's life, which has always revolved around keeping her older brother Liam's transsexuality a secret, changes when Liam decides to start the process of transitioning by first telling his family and friends that he is a girl who was born in a boy's body.