Ages 13 and up; Gr.8 and up.
Theo Mori and Gabriel Moreno have always been at odds. Their parents own rival businesses--an Asian American café and a Puerto Rican bakery--and Gabi's lack of coordination has cost their soccer team too many games to count. Stuck in the closet and scared to pursue his own dreams, Gabi sees his family's shop as his future. Stuck under the weight of his parents' expectations, Theo's best shot at leaving Vermont means first ensuring his parents' livelihood is secure. So when a new fusion café threatens both shops, Theo and Gabi realize an unfortunate truth--they can only achieve their goals by working together to cook up an underground snack operation and win back their customers.

Lexile measure HL830L;Ages 14 and up; Gr.10 and up; Printz honor book, 2023.
A. L. Graziadei's Icebreaker is an irresistible YA debut about two hockey players fighting to be the best--and the romance that catches them by surprise along the way. Seventeen-year-old Mickey James III is a college freshman, a brother to five sisters, and a hockey legacy. With a father and a grandfather who have gone down in NHL history, Mickey is almost guaranteed the league's top draft spot. The only person standing in his way is Jaysen Caulfield, a contender for the #1 spot and Mickey's infuriating (and infuriatingly attractive) teammate.

Ages 13 and up; Gr.8 and up.
Sixteen-year-old Yamilet Flores prefers to be known for her killer eyeliner, not for being one of the only Mexican kids at her new, mostly white, very rich Catholic school. But at least here no one knows she's gay, and Yami intends to keep it that way. After being outed by her crush and ex-best friend before transferring to Slayton Catholic, Yami has new priorities: keep her brother out of trouble, make her mom proud, and, most importantly, don't fall in love.

Ages 13 and up; Gr.9 and up.
Death lurks around every corner in this unforgettable Jewish historical fantasy about a city, a boy, and the shadows of the past that bind them both together.

Ages 14 and up; Gr.9 and up.
Julián Luna has a plan for his life: Graduate. Get into UCLA. And have the chance to move away from Corpus Christi, Texas, and the suffocating expectations of others that have forced Jules into an inauthentic life. Then in one reckless moment, with one impulsive tweet, his plans for a low-key nine months are thrown--literally--out the closet. The downside: the whole world knows, and Jules has to prepare for rejection.

Gr.9 and up.
Eighteen-Firekeeper's Daughter, is a groundbreaking YA thriller about a Native teen who must root out the corruption in her community. Daunis, who is part Ojibwe, defers attending the University of Michigan to care for her mother and reluctantly becomes involved in the investigation of a series of drug-related deaths.

Ages 14 and up; Gr.9 and up.
In this feminist, suspenseful thriller the daughter of a con artist is taken hostage in a bank heist--and will need to tap into all her skills in order to survive.

Lexile measurement 900L; Ages 14-20.
Seventeen-year-old Lily Hu can't remember exactly when the feeling took root--that desire to look, to move closer, to touch. Whenever it started growing, it definitely bloomed the moment she and Kathleen Miller walked under the flashing neon sign of a lesbian bar called the Telegraph Club. Suddenly everything seemed possible.

Ages 13-18; Gr.10-12.
Graciela Cristales' whole world changes after she and a boy she barely knows are assaulted at the same party. She loses her gift for making enchanted pan dulce. Neighborhood trees vanish overnight, while mirrored glass appears, bringing reckless magic with it. And Ciela is haunted by what happened to her, and what happened to the boy whose name she never learned.

Ages 13-18; Gr.9 and up.
Tina never worries about being 'ordinary'--she doesn't have to, since she's known practically forever that she's not just Tina Mains, average teenager and beloved daughter. She's also the keeper of an interplanetary rescue beacon, and one day soon, it's going to activate, and then her dreams of saving all the worlds and adventuring among the stars will finally be possible.

Ages 13-18; Gr. 10-12.
A trans boy determined to prove his gender to his traditional Latinx family summons a ghost who refuses to leave. When his traditional Latinx family has problems accepting his true gender, Yadriel becomes determined to prove himself a real brujo. With the help of his cousin and best friend Maritza, he performs the ritual himself, and then sets out to find the ghost of his murdered cousin and set it free.

Ages 12 and up; Gr.8 and up
From author Kelly Quindlen comes a poignant and deeply relatable story about friendship, self-acceptance, and what it means to be a Real Teenager. Late to the Party is an ode to late bloomers and wallflowers everywhere. Seventeen is nothing like Codi Teller imagined. She's never crashed a party, never stayed out too late. She's never even been kissed. And it's not just because she's gay. It's because she and her two best friends, Maritza and JaKory, spend more time in her basement watching Netflix than engaging with the outside world.

Ages 14+.
Now that high school is over, Ari is dying to move to the big city with his ultra-hip band, if he can just convince his dad to let him quit their struggling family bakery. But in the midst of interviewing candidates for his replacement, Ari meets Hector, an easy-going guy who loves baking as much as Ari wants to escape it. As they become closer over batches of breads, love begins to bloom . . . that is, if Ari doesn't ruin everything.

Ages 14 and up; Gr.9 and up.
On the day Torrey moves and officially becomes a college freshman, he gets a call that might force him to drop out before he's even made it through orientation: the bank is foreclosing on the bee farm his Uncle Miles left him. Torrey's worked hard to become the first member of his family to go to college, but while the neighborhood held him back emotionally, Uncle Miles encouraged him to reach his full potential. For years, it was just the two of them tending the farm. So Torrey can't let someone erase his uncle's legacy without a fight.

Ages 13 and up; Gr.9 and up.
Mads is pretty happy with her life. She goes to church with her family, and minor league baseball games with her dad. She goofs off with her best friend Cat, and has thus far managed to avoid getting kissed by Adam, the boy next door. It's everything she hoped high school would be... until all of a sudden, it's not. Her dad is hiding something big--so big it could tear her family apart. And that's just the beginning of her problems: Mads is starting to figure out that she doesn't want to kiss Adam... because the only person she wants to kiss is Cat.

Gr.9 and up; Printz honor, 2020.
Author Mariko Tamaki and illustrator Rosemary Valero-O'Connell bring to life a sweet and spirited tale of young love in Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me, a graphic novel that asks us to consider what happens when we ditch the toxic relationships we crave to embrace the healthy ones we need.

Lexile measure 820; ages 12 and up; gr.9 and up
The highly-anticipated, genre-defying new novel by award-winning author Akwaeke Emezi that explores themes of identity and justice. Pet is here to hunt a monster. Are you brave enough to look? There are no monsters anymore, or so the children in the city of Lucille are taught.

Gr.8 and up; Coretta cott King honor, 2020.
Told in two distinct and irresistible voices, Junauda Petrus's bold and lyrical debut is the story of two black girls from very different backgrounds finding love and happiness in a world that seems determined to deny them both. Port of Spain, Trinidad.

Lexile measure HL760; ages 13 and up; Gr.8 and up.
The biggest lie of all is the story you think you already know. The del Cisne girls have never just been sisters; they're also rivals, Blanca as obedient and graceful as Roja is vicious and manipulative. They know that, because of a generations-old spell, their family is bound to a bevy of swans deep in the woods. They know that, one day, the swans will pull them into a dangerous game that will leave one of them a girl, and trap the other in the body of a swan.

Lexile measure HL590L: Gr.8 and up.
Brynn Harper's life has one steadying force--Rachel Maddow. She watches her daily, and after writing to Rachel for a school project, Brynn drafts emails to Rachel but never sends them. Brynn tells Rachel about breaking up with her first girlfriend, about her brother Nick's death, her passive mother and even worse stepfather, about how she's stuck in remedial courses at school and is considering dropping out.

Lexile HL740L; Ages 15+.
Mara and Owen are as close as twins can get, so when Mara's friend Hannah accuses Owen of rape, Mara doesn't know what to think. Can her brother really be guilty of such a violent act? Torn between her family and her sense of right and wrong, Mara feels lost, and it doesn't help that things are strained with her ex-girlfriend, Charlie. As Mara, Hannah, and Charlie come together in the aftermath of this terrible crime, Mara must face a trauma from her own past and decide where Charlie fits into her future.

Gr.9 and up.
In this sequel to the acclaimed Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, we follow Simon's BFF Leah as she grapples with changing friendships, first love, and senior year angst. And even though her mom knows she's bisexual, she hasn't mustered the courage to tell her friends--not even her openly gay BFF, Simon.

Ages 14 and up; Gr.8 and up.
In 1955, eighteen-year-old Janet Jones keeps the love she shares with her best friend Marie a secret. It's not easy being gay in Washington, DC, in the age of McCarthyism, but when she discovers a series of books about women falling in love with other women, it awakens something in Janet.

Lexile measure HL730L; Ages 14 and up; Gr.10 and up; Winner of the 2017 Andre Norton Award for Outstanding Young Adult Science Fiction or Fantasy Book.Matt hasn't eaten in days. His stomach stabs and twists inside, pleading for a meal, but Matt won't give in. The hunger clears his mind, keeps him sharp--and he needs to be as sharp as possible if he's going to find out just how Tariq and his band of high school bullies drove his sister, Maya, away.

Lexile measure 900; Ages 14 and up; Gr.9 and up.
A young bisexual British lord embarks on an unforgettable Grand Tour of Europe with his best friend/secret crush. An 18th-century romantic adventure for the modern age.

Lexile measure 860; Ages 14 and up; Gr.10 and up.
Quinn Roberts is a sixteen-year-old smart aleck and Hollywood hopeful whose only worry used to be writing convincing dialogue for the movies he made with his sister Annabeth. Of course, that was all before--before Quinn stopped going to school, before his mom started sleeping on the sofa...and before the car accident that changed everything. Enter: Geoff, Quinn's best friend who insists it's time that Quinn came out--at least from hibernation.

Lexile measure HL820L; Ages 14 and up.
When Griffin's first love and ex-boyfriend, Theo, dies in a drowning accident, his universe implodes. Even though Theo had moved to California for college and started seeing Jackson, Griffin never doubted Theo would come back to him when the time was right. But now, the future he's been imagining for himself has gone far off course.

Lexile measure HL660L; Ages 14 and up; Gr.9 and up.
Ben Carver returns for the spring semester at the exclusive Natick School in Massachusetts determined to put his relationship with Rafe Goldberg behind him and concentrate on his grades and the award that will mean a full scholarship--but Rafe is still there, there is a girl named Hannah whom he meets in the library, and behind it all is his relationship with his distant, but demanding father.

Ages 14 and up; Gr.9 and up, Winner of the Asian/Pacific American Award for Young Adult Literature, 2018 YALSA Best Fiction for Young Adults, 2018 Rainbow Book List. This charming and bittersweet coming-of-age story featuring two girls of color falling in love.

Lexile measure HL820L; Ages 14 and up; Gr.10 and up; A Stonewall Book Award Winner.
Suzette returns home to Los Angeles from boarding school and grapples with her bisexual identity when she and her brother Lionel fall in love with the same girl, pushing Lionel's bipolar disorder to spin out of control and forcing Suzette to confront her own demons.

Gr.9 and up.
Sallot Leon is a thief, and a good one at that. But gender fluid Sal wants nothing more than to escape the drudgery of life as a highway robber and get closer to the upper-class--and the nobles who destroyed their home.

Ages 14-20.
When a cuddly Canadian comes to call, Yaichi-a single Japanese dad-is forced to confront his painful past. With his young daughter Kana leading the way, he gradually rethinks his assumptions about what makes a family.

Lexile measure 870; Ages 14 and up; Gr.9 and up.
Adam Silvera reminds us that there's no life without death and no love without loss in this devastating yet uplifting story about two people whose lives change over the course of one unforgettable day.

Lexile measure HL660L; Ages 14 and up; Gr.8 and up.
After picking up and leaving everything behind in California, eighteen-year-old Marin, with the help of her former friend, must confront her grief and the truths that caused her to flee her home.

Lexile measure HL670L; Ages 14 and up; Gr.10 and up.
Maria Lyon and Lily Boiten are their school's ultimate power couple--but one thing stands between them and their perfect future: campus superstar Delilah Dufrey. Golden child Delilah is a legend at exclusive Acheron Academy, and the presumptive winner of the distinguished Cawdor Kingsley Prize. But Delilah doesn't know that Lily and Maria are willing to do anything--absolutely anything--to unseat Delilah for the scholarship. After all, it would lock in Maria's attendance at Stanford--and assure her and Lily four more years in a shared dorm room.

Gr.9 and up; Morris award finalist, 2016.
All Pen wants is to be the kind of girl she's always been. So why does everyone have a problem with it? They think the way she looks and acts means she's trying to be a boy--that she should quit trying to be something she's not.

Lexile measure HL700L; Gr.9 and up.
Agoraphobic sixteen-year-old Solomon has not left his house in three years, but Lisa is determined to change that--and to write a scholarship-winning essay based on the results.

Lexile measure HL770L; Ages 12 and up; Gr.9-12.
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.

Ages 14 and up; Gr.9 and up.
Flynn's girlfriend, January, is missing. The cops are asking question he can't answer, and her friends are telling stories that don't add up. All eyes are on Flynn--as January's boyfriend, he must know something. But Flynn has a secret of his own. And as he struggles to uncover the truth about January's disappearance, he must also face the truth about himself.

Lexile measure HL800L; Ages 14 and up; Gr.9 and up.
Henry Denton has spent years being periodically abducted by aliens. Then the aliens give him an ultimatum: The world will end in 144 days, and all Henry has to do to stop it is push a big red button.

Lexile measure 920; Ages 14 and up.
To everyone who knows them, best friends Miel and Sam are as strange as they are inseparable. Roses grow out of Miel's wrist, and rumors say that she spilled out of a water tower when she was five. Sam is known for the moons he paints and hangs in the trees and for how little anyone knows about his life before he and his mother moved to town.

Gr.9 and up.
Mark and Kate sit next to each other in school but are barely acquainted until they meet at a San Francisco club during Pride Week and connect over each one's forbidden love.

Lexile measure HL570L; Ages 14 and up; Gr.10-12.
Simon Snow is the worst Chosen One who's ever been chosen. That's what his roommate, Baz, says. And Baz might be evil and a vampire and a complete git, but he's probably right. Half the time, Simon can't even make his wand work, and the other half, he starts something on fire.

Ages 15 and up; Gr.9-12.
Senior Will Caynes must face unsettling feelings for his best friend Angus after they share a drunken kiss, while also embarking on his first real relationship with sophomore Brandy--all as the burden of home-life troubles weigh heavily.

Lexile measure HL730L; Ages 12 and up; Gr.9-12.
At Saint Francis Prep school in Mountain View, New Jersey, Mira, Jeremy, and Sebby come together as they struggle with romance, bullying, foster home and family problems, and mental health issues.

Gr.9-12.
Larger-than-life Tiny Cooper finally gets to tell his story, from his fabulous birth and childhood to his quest for true love and his infamous parade of ex-boyfriends, in the form of a musical he wrote.

Lexile measure 850; Ages 14 and up; Gr.9-12.
After enduring his father's suicide, his own suicide attempt, broken friendships, and more in the Bronx projects, Aaron Soto, sixteen, is already considering the Leteo Institute's memory-alteration procedure when his new friendship with Thomas turns to unrequited love.

Ages 14-18; Gr.9-12.
When Kristin Lattimer is voted homecoming queen, it seems like another piece of her ideal life has fallen into place. She's a champion hurdler with a full scholarship to college and she's madly in love with her boyfriend. In fact, she's decided that she's ready to take things to the next level with him. But Kristin's first time isn't the perfect moment she's planned -- something is very wrong. A visit to the doctor reveals the truth: Kristin is intersex, which means that though she outwardly looks like a girl, she has male chromosomes, not to mention boy "parts."

Lexile measure 910; Ages 14 and up; Gr.9-12.
Auditioning for a New York City performing arts high school could help Etta escape from her Nebraska all-girl school, where she is not gay enough for her former friends, not sick enough for her eating disorders group, and not thin enough for ballet, but it may also mean real friendships.

Lexile measure HL640L; Ages 14 and up; Gr.9-12.
Sixteen-year-old, not-so-openly-gay Simon Spier is blackmailed into playing wingman for his classmate or else his sexual identity--and that of his pen pal--will be revealed.

Lexile measure 1180L; Ages 13 and up; Gr.9-12.
Police raids on gay bars happened regularly in this era. But one hot June night, when cops pounded on the door of the Stonewall, almost nothing went as planned. Tensions were high. The crowd refused to go away. Anger and frustration boiled over. The raid became a riot. The riot became a catalyst. The catalyst triggered an explosive demand for gay rights. Ann Bausum's riveting exploration of the Stonewall Riots and the national Gay Rights movement that followed is eye-opening, unflinching, and inspiring.

Lexile measure HL600L; Ages 13 and up; Gr.9-12.
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.

Lexile measure HL820L; Ages 14 and up; Gr.9-12.
Sixteen-year-old Gabi Hernandez chronicles her senior year in high school as she copes with her friend Cindy's pregnancy, friend Sebastian's coming out, her father's meth habit, her own cravings for food and cute boys, and especially, the poetry that helps forge her identity.

Lexile measure 720; Ages 10-13; Gr.5-8; Guided reading X
Grayson Sender has been holding onto a secret for what seems like forever: "he" is a girl on the inside, stuck in the wrong gender's body. The weight of this secret is crushing, but sharing it would mean facing ridicule, scorn, rejection, or worse. Despite the risks, Grayson's true self itches to break free. Will new strength from an unexpected friendship and a caring teacher's wisdom be enough to help Grayson step into the spotlight she was born to inhabit?

Ages 12 and up; Gr.9-12; Guided reading Z+
Tired of being known as "the gay kid", Rafe Goldberg decides to assume a new persona when he comes east and enters an elite Massachusetts prep school--but trying to deny his identity has both complications and unexpected consequences.

Lexile measure 780; Ages 13 and up, gr. 9-12.
A chorus of men who died of AIDS observes and yearns to help a cross-section of today's gay teens who navigate new love, long-term relationships, coming out, self-acceptance, and more in a society that has changed in many ways.

Lexile measure 380; Ages 15 and up, gr. 9-12.
Aristotle is an angry teen with a brother in prison. Dante is a know-it-all who has an unusual way of looking at the world. When the two meet at the swimming pool, they seem to have nothing in common. But as the loners start spending time together, they discover that they share a special friendship--the kind that changes lives and lasts a lifetime.

Lexile measurement HL600L; Ages 14 - 17; Gr. 9-12.
"This is Beautiful Music for Ugly Children, on community radio 90.3, KZUK. I'm Gabe. Welcome to my show." My birth name is Elizabeth, but I'm a guy. Gabe. My parents think I've gone crazy and the rest of the world is happy to agree with them, but I know I'm right. I've been a boy my whole life.

Lexile measure 1120, Ages 14 and up, gr. 9-12.
In this provocative literary debut, a gay teen girl coming of age in Montana is sent to a religious conversion camp to 'fix' her sexuality. The book is an unforgettable literary debut about discovering who you are and finding the courage to live life according to your own rules.

Ages 13 and up, gr. 8-12.
On the night of October 6, 1998, a gay twenty-one-year-old college student named Matthew Shepard was lured from a Wyoming bar by two young men, savagely beaten, tied to a remote fence, and left to die.

Lexile measure 860; Ages 14 and up, gr. 8-12.
Seventeen-year-olds Kaede and Taisin are called to go on a dangerous and unprecedented journey to Tanlili, the city of the Fairy Queen, in an effort to restore the balance of nature in the human world.

Lexile measure HL 730; Ages 14 and up.
It's Dade's last summer at home, and things are pretty hopeless. He has a crappy job, a "boyfriend" who treats him like dirt, and his parents' marriage is falling apart. So when he meets and falls in love with the mysterious Alex Kincaid, Dade feels like he's finally experiencing true happiness.

Awards: Stonewall Children's and Young Adult Literature Award, Lexile measure 620; Book level 4.5; Ages 14 and up, gr. 9-12.
With his mother working long hours and in pain from a romantic break-up, eighteen-year-old Logan feels alone and unloved until a zany new student arrives at his small-town Missouri high school, keeping a big secret.

Lexile measure 1030; ages 12-up; book level 6.1, gr. 8-12.
Three teenagers in Boston narrate their experiences of a year of new friendships, first loves, and coming into their own.

Lexile measure 1000; ages 12-18; Gr. 9-12.
This groundbreaking book, first published in 1982, is the story of two teenage girls whose friendship blossoms into love and who, despite pressures from family and school that threaten their relationship, promise to be true to each other and their feelings.

Lexile measure 660; Ages 13-up; Book level 4.2, gr. 9-12.
Billy Bloom is gay, but it's mostly theoretical, as he hasn't had much experience. When he has to move to Florida, he can't believe his bad luck. His new school is a mix of Bible Belles, Aberzombies, and Football Heroes, none of which are exactly his type.

Ages 15-18.
In this honest, emotionally captivating short story collection, renowned author and National Book Award finalist, Julie Ann Peters, offers a stunning portrayal of young women as they navigate the hurdles of relationships and sexual identity.

Lexile Measure 880; ages 12-18, gr. 9-12.
Thom Creed, the gay son of a disowned superhero, finds that he, too, has special powers and is asked to join the very League that rejected his father, and it is there that Thom finds other misfits whom he can finally trust.

Lexile measure 1010; Ages 14-up; Book level 6, gr. 9-12.
Eighteen-year-old James living in New York City with his older sister and divorced mother struggles to find a direction for his life.

Ages 12-18; Book level 5.2; Gr. 9-12.
A variety of students at the same high school describe their ideas, experiences, and relationships in a series of interconnected free verse stories.

Lexile measure 500; ages 15-18; book level 3.5; Gr. 9-12.
A groundbreaking novel about a transgender teen, selected as a National Book Award Finalist! Regan's brother Liam can't stand the person he is during the day. Like the moon from whom Liam has chosen his female name, his true self, Luna, only reveals herself at night.

Ages 12-up; Book level 4.6, gr. 9-12.
All Aurin wants to do the summer before her senior year in high school is hang out with her friends Kenney and Fred, but when she falls in love with Neila, everything changes.

Lexile measure 700; Ages 15-18; grade level 5.6; Gr. 9-12.
As she tries to understand the closeness between her older brother and his best friend, fourteen-year-old Ellen finds her relationship with each of them changing.

Lexile measure 720; Ages 15-18; Grade level 6.1.
The critically acclaimed debut novel from Stephen Chbosky, Perks follows observant "wallflower" Charlie as he charts a course through the strange world between adolescence and adulthood. First dates, family drama, and new friends. Sex, drugs, and The Rocky Horror Picture Show.

Ages 14 -up, gr. 9-12.
Francesca Lia Block's luminous, postmodern fairy tales chronicle the thin line between fear and desire, pain and pleasure, cutting loose and holding on in a world where everyone is vulnerable to the most beautiful and dangerous angel of all: love.

Lexile measure 760; Ages 13 and up; Book level 5.4, gr. 8-12.
A collection of short stories about homosexuality by such authors as Bruce Coville, M.E. Kerr, William Sleator, and Jane Yolen.