Shannon Hale is an American author primarily of young adult fantasy, including the Newbery Honor book Princess Academy and The Goose Girl. Her first novel for adults, Austenland, was adapted into a film in 2013. She is a graduate of the University of Utah and the University of Montana. She has also co-written with her husband, Dean.
The Year of Billy Miller, a 2014 children's book written by Kevin Henkes, was a Newbery Honor book in 2014.
Katie Rain Hill is an American transgender activist and author. In 2014, she published the award-winning autobiographical book Rethinking Normal (2014).
Alex Gino is an American children's book writer. Gino's debut book, Melissa, was the winner of the 2016 Stonewall Book Award as well as the 2016 Lambda Literary Award in the category of LGBT Children's/Young Adult.
Jason Reynolds is an American author of novels and poetry for young adult and middle-grade audience. Born in Washington, D.C. and raised in neighboring Oxon Hill, Maryland, Reynolds found inspiration in rap and had an early focus on poetry, publishing several poetry collections before his first novel in 2014, When I Was The Greatest, which won the Coretta Scott King/John Steptoe Award for New Talent.
Alex Fierro is a fictional character and one of the main characters in Rick Riordan's Magnus Chase and the Gods of Asgard series. Alex's portrayal in The Hammer of Thor was praised for its honest and accurate approach to the character's genderfluid identity. As a child of Loki, Alex is a demigod and also capable of shapeshifting; in The Hammer of Thor, Alex becomes an einherjar.
Anna-Marie McLemore is a Mexican-American author of young adult fiction magical realism, best known for their Stonewall Honor-winning novel When the Moon Was Ours, Wild Beauty, and The Weight of Feathers.
The Inquisitor's Tale: Or, The Three Magical Children and Their Holy Dog is a young adult novel written by Adam Gidwitz and illuminated by Hatem Aly, published by Dutton Children's Books in 2016. It is set in medieval France and describes how three magical children meet each other and become outlaws. It was named a Newbery Honor book in 2017.
Kyle Lukoff is a children's book author, school librarian, and former bookseller. He is most known for the Stonewall award-winning When Aidan Became a Brother and for Call Me Max, which gained attention when parents in Texas complained about the book being read in an elementary school classroom and a Utah school district canceled its book program after the book was read to third graders.
New Kidis a 2019 graphic novel by Jerry Craft. The novel tells the story of a 12-year-old African American boy named Jordan Banks who experiences culture shock when he enrolls at a private school. Taking place over Jordan's freshman year at a prestigious private school, he has to adjust to a new school, experiences and witnesses microaggressions, and makes friends with other students. The book is semi-autobiographical for Craft, who based the book on his experiences in a private school and those of his two sons. While he wishes the book to be appreciated by a wide range of readers, Craft particularly wanted it to accurately reflect a present-day African American experience.
Christina Soontornvat is an American author, educator, and mechanical engineer. She won two Newbery Honors in 2021 for the children's books A Wish in the Dark and All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team, and another Newbery Honor in 2023 for the middle grade novel "The Last Mapmaker".
All Thirteen: The Incredible Cave Rescue of the Thai Boys' Soccer Team is a 2020 nonfiction children's book by American author Christina Soontornvat. It describes the 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue. The book received positive reviews from critics and was awarded a Newbery Honor and a Sibert Honor in 2021.
Beyond Magenta: Transgender Teens Speak Out is a 2014 book written by American author Susan Kuklin. For the book, Kuklin met and interviewed six transgender or gender-neutral young adults, describing their sense of identity before, during, and after transitioning.
The Deep & Dark Blue is a graphic novel written and illustrated by Niki Smith. It tells the story of identical twins Grayce, a transgender girl, and Hawke, a cisgender boy, who have to flee from their home when their cousin stages a coup on the kingdom and kills the rest of their family.
Symptoms of Being Human is a 2016 young adult novel by Jeff Garvin. The book tells the story of young Riley Cavanaugh, a gender fluid adolescent who writes a blog about their experiences and identity. The story evolves around Riley's life and their eventual decision to come out as gender fluid to the world.
Donna Barba Higuera is an American children's book author. Her debut novel, Lupe Wong Won't Dance, was a Pura Belpré Award honor book and PNBA winner in 2021. Her middle grade dystopian novel, The Last Cuentista, won the 2022 Newbery Medal and the Pura Belpré Medal.
Watercress is a children's book written by Andrea Wang, illustrated by Jason Chin, and published on March 30, 2021 by Neal Porter Books.
The Last Cuentista is a middle-grade dystopian novel by Donna Barba Higuera, published October 12, 2021 by Levine Querido. The story follows Petra Peña who, along with her family and a few hundred others, leave Earth to continue the human race after a comet strikes the planet. After awaking on a new planet, Petra is the only one who remembers Earth and must use storytelling to keep her people's history alive.
Cheer Up: Love and Pompoms, sometimes stylized as Cheer Up!, is a young adult graphic novel written by Crystal Frasier, with art by Val Wise and lettering by Oscar Jupiter. Published on August 10, 2021, by Oni Press, it tells the story of two queer high school girls, Beatrice – who is transgender – and Annie, as they try and become cheerleaders.
