Middle Grade Books with Pride

"Lily Jo McGrother, born Timothy McGrother, is a girl. But being a girl is not so easy when you look like a boy. Especially when you're in the eighth-grade. Norbert Dorfman, nicknamed Dunkin Dorfman, is bipolar and has just moved from the New Jersey town he's called home for the past thirteen years. This would be hard enough, but the fact that he is also hiding from a painful secret makes it even worse. One summer morning, Lily Jo McGrother meets...

When people look at Melissa, they think they see a boy named George. But she knows she's not a boy. She knows she's a girl. Melissa thinks she'll have to keep this a secret forever. Then her teacher announces that their class play is going to be Charlotte's Web . Melissa really, really, REALLY wants to play Charlotte. But the teacher says she can't even try out for the part... because she's a boy. With the help of her best friend, Kelly, Melissa comes...

Twelve-year-old Sunny St. James has a new perspective on life after she gets a heart transplant. Now that she's healthier, she sets out to do things she could never do before, which includes making a new best friend and kissing a boy. But as her plans progress and she seems to be moving in the right direction, Sunny's mother comes back into her life, leaving Sunny's new heart heavy with feelings she's tucked away for years. And as she enjoys her new...

Four students who do not fit in at their small-town middle school decide to create a third party for the student council elections to represent all students who have ever been called names.

Welcome to Andover... where superpowers are common, but internships are complicated. Just ask high school nobody, Jessica Tran. Despite her heroic lineage, Jess is resigned to a life without superpowers and is merely looking to beef-up her college applications when she stumbles upon the perfect (paid!) internship--only it turns out to be for the town's most heinous supervillain. On the upside, she gets to work with her longtime secret crush, Abby,...

Twelve-year-old Shane Woods loves pitching on his baseball team, writing graphic novels, and spending time with his best friend Josh. But nobody knows that Shane is transgender--that he was assigned at birth as female but really identifies as a boy. And when someone at school threatens to expose Shane's secret, he must find a way to ignore the hate, accept himself, and show the world what his identity means.

Technically, Olivia is not a girl, even though he was born as a girl. He's transgender. Liv knows he was always meant to be a boy. But at Bankridge Middle School, the dress code means he can't wear pants. Only skirts. So Operation: Pants Project begins! To Liv, this isn't just a mission to change the policy. It's a mission to change his life. And that's a pretty big deal.

"Second book in a Taiwanese-inspired middle-grade fantasy series about a young girl's quest to become a champion of Wu Liu, an art form that blends figure skating with martial arts" --

Told in verse in two voices, with a chorus of fellow students, this is a story of two girls, opposites in many ways, who are drawn to each other; Kate appears to be a stereotypical cheerleader with a sleek ponytail and a perfectly polished persona, Tam is tall, athletic and frequently mistaken for a boy, but their deepening friendship inevitably changes and reveals them in ways they did not anticipate.

A fictionalized account of Charley (Charlotte) Parkhurst who ran away from an orphanage, posed as a boy, moved to California, and fooled everyone by her appearance.