In this episode of #VelshiBannedBookClub, Gino and Citizen Board Member and MSNBC host Ali Velshi speak about the dangers of book banning. This year, author Alex Gino renamed the multi-award-winning book to befit the true name of the main character, a child whose assigned gender at birth did not match her gender identity. And more stories with joy.Melissa is a middle-grades work of fiction that was, from 2015 to 2022, titled George.

Also, more intersectionality! More people of colour, more people with disabilities, more stories that reflect, respect and celebrate the range of people we are. There is a layer of depth and truth that comes from people writing from inside their communities that can never be replicated by people outside it. What would you like to see more of in the realm of trans kidlit? Her words are so genuine, and she shares so deeply of herself without ever feeling exploitive. It’s the only book for adults that I’ve read in the last year and a half it’s Redefining Realness by Janet Mock, and it’s beautiful. And I’m going to go ahead and do it I’m going to recommend a book for (gasp) grown-ups. Robin Talley also has a great genderqueer theme in her upcoming What We Left Behind (also YA). I’m excited that both Kate Rain Hill and Arin Andrews put out autobiographies last year, though both are YA. The queer MG field is small, very small, and in that sense I would say everyone has to read them. Interestingly, we all play with the theme of being on stage as a way to try on identities and to reveal who we are. There’s Gracefully Grayson by Ami Polonsky, which is the only other trans MG novel I’m aware of from a mainstream publisher, and 5-6-7-Nate! and its sequel by Tim Federle. I have to think carefully about when I’m representing a member of a group I’m part of and when I’m allying with those I care about.īecause no interview is complete without some book recommendations: are there any other middle grade novels with LGBTQ+ themes that you think everyone needs to read?

I was just focused on telling the story I needed to see in the world, until I looked up and saw the distant wave coming closer, and I knew it was time to finish it up, take the plunge, and send it out into the world.Īs I’m working on my new project, which is more intersectional (involving issues of deafness, the Black Lives Matter movement, intergenerational strife and first crushes), I’m running into a new terrain of balancing the varying threads of the piece. I was never intending George to be marketable. Did you ever experience this? If so, how did you combat it? I often hear marginalized authors talk about the tendency to self-censor – to erase the diverse elements in a story in advance out of fear that keeping them would tank the book’s marketability.

Alex gino melissa