5 New or Upcoming MG Novels Starring LGBTQ Kids

The Whispers, by Greg Howard (January 5)
Howard made his queer kidlit debut last spring with his YA, Social Intercourse, but now he’s making his first inroads into middle grade with this heartbreaker about a boy named Riley who’s struggling with his mother’s disappearance, his bedwetting, and the fact that no matter how many times he speaks to Detective Frank, he can’t reveal the fact that his being gay is responsible for her leaving. Desperate to get her back, he convinces his best friend to go camping with him so he can ask the “whispers” of bedtime story legend to help return her. But is he ready for what he’ll find when he ventures into those woods?

The Mighty Heart of Sunny St. James, by Ashley Herring Blake (March 26)
Blake is currently queer kidlit’s most prolific cross-category author, with two YAs and two MGs out in the past three years. She’s also one of its most beautiful writers, as anyone who’s read Ivy Aberdeen’s Letters to the World can attest, so you know you’re in for a treat with the story of Sunny, a girl whose new heart gives her a new lease on life, complete with the determination to make a new best friend and finally kiss a boy. But when the first wish comes true, it helps Sunny realize that maybe the second wish isn’t really a wish at all, and maybe it isn’t a boy she wants to kiss.

Where the Heart Is, by Jo Knowles (April 2)
There should be a lot for Rachel to celebrate in this touching novel. She’s turning thirteen, there’s a whole summer of beach time ahead, and she has her best friend, Micah, at her side. But eventually, everyone expects her friendship with Micah to turn romantic, and Rachel just don’t feel like she wants to go there, with him or any other boy. As her parents’ financial issues worsen, Rachel needs her best friend more than ever, but when he discovers that her attractions indeed lie elsewhere, can and will he still be there like she needs him to be?

Hurricane Season, by Nicole Melleby (May 7)
I’d just like to take a brief moment to thank the cover gods for this one, which won’t let you forget that Vincent Van Gogh plays a role in this debut. Specifically, he becomes the subject of Fig’s research as her own creative father’s mental health breaks down. She wants to understand where he’s coming from and how his brain works, even taking an art class to try to experience art in a similar way. But nothing can put her in his shoes, even the help she seeks from outside forces. There is respite, though, in the form of the girl who works at the library, a girl who’s causing a whole different kind of storm for Fig than the one that seems to be raging inside her home.

Zenobia July, by Lisa Bunker (May 21)
Bunker’s already brought Middle Grade fiction one of its best queer books with Felix Yz, and now she’s back with her second, about a trans girl with serious coding and hacking talents who’s finally able to live as herself now that she’s moved to Maine to live with her aunts. When her school’s website fills with hateful memes, what should be her nice new life is filled with a mystery she’s dreading solving, even though her cyberskills all but demand she take up the detective mantel. But how can she ever make herself at home if she can’t get it to be a safer place?
Want even more queer MG goodness in 2019? Check out To Night Owl From Dogfish by Holly Goldberg Sloan and Meg Wolitzer (February 12), about two girls trying to set up their gay single dads.