Children's and Young Adult Literature: Best Fiction for Young Adults This guide is a starting place for exploring children's and young adult literature.
Top Ten Becoming a Queen by Dan Clay A vibrant and emotional novel from debut author Dan Clay about a boy who turns toward love, self-expression, and drag when the unthinkable happens, perfect for fans of Jandy Nelson and Julie Murphy. If only Mark Davis hadn't put on a dress for the talent show. It was a joke--other guys did it too--but when his boyfriend saw Mark in that dress, everything changed. And now, fresh on the heels of high school heartbreak, Mark has given up on love.
Maybe some people are just too much for this world--too weird, too wild, too feminine, too everything. Thankfully, his older brother Eric always knows what to say to keep Mark from spinning into self-loathing. Your full sequin-y self. When the source of Mark's strength suddenly becomes the source of his greatest pain, the path back to happiness seems impossible. Searching for a way out, Mark slips into a dress to just, briefly, become someone else, live a different life.
His escape, however, becomes an unexpected outlet for his pain--a path to authentic connection, and a provocation to finally see other people as fully as he wants to be seen. Beautifully written, heart-wrenching, and ultimately uplifting, Dan Clay's Becoming a Queen is a stunning story about love, loss, and the ineffable power of a purple princess dress.
ISBN: Dear Medusa by Olivia A. Cole This searing and intimate novel in verse follows a sixteen-year-old girl coping with sexual abuse as she grapples with how to reclaim her story, her anger, and her body in a world that seems determined to punish her for the sin of surviving.
