Middle Grade Books with Pride

"In thirteen-year-old Aster's family, all the girls are raised to be witches, while boys grow up to be shapeshifters. Anyone who dares cross those lines is exiled. Unfortunately for Aster, he still hasn't shifted... and he's still fascinated by witchery, no matter how forbidden it might be. When a mysterious danger threatens the other boys, Aster knows he can help -- as a witch. It will take the encouragement of a new friend, the non-magical and non-conforming...

"For thirteen-year-old Rachel, summer is meant to be a time of long days of swimming at the lake and hanging out with her best friend, Micah. And this year she has a summer job, taking care of the animals at the small hobby farm across the road. The chickens and pig are challenging, but she loves looking after the gentle horses and goats, and especially the adorable baby steer. At home, though, things are complicated. Her parents seem more worries...

Unable to celebrate the holidays in the wake of his older brother's death in a gang-related shooting, Lolly Rachpaul struggles to avoid being forced into a gang himself while constructing a fantastically creative LEGO city at the Harlem community center.

A fifth-grader whose best friends walked away, whose mother is detached, and whose father does unspeakable things, copes with the help of friend Sofie and anonymous letters tied to balloons and released. Includes a list of resources related to abuse, gender, sexuality, and more.

Eleven-year-old Rick Ramsey has generally gone along with everybody, just not making waves, even though he is increasingly uncomfortable with his father's jokes about girls, and his best friend's explicit talk about sex; but now in middle school he discovers the Rainbow Spectrum club, where kids of many genders and identities can express themselves--and maybe among them he can find new friends and discover his own identity, which may just be to opt...

Forbidden to contact her pregnant sister after her strict Catholic parents send her to stay with a great-aunt, Evie secretly sends her letters, writing about their family, her life, and the new girl in school, June, who may be more than a friend.

"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" --

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.

From the moment she met Samantha, star of the school basketball team, on her first day at Daniel Boone Middle School, Allison Drake felt she had found a friend, something she needs badly since her brother died and her father left--but as their friendship grows it begins to evolve into a deeper emotion, and in North Carolina in 1977, it is not easy to discover that you might be gay.

After moving to Florida, Amedeo, a precocious sixth-grader who dreams of someday making both an important discovery and a new friend, unites with his classmate William Wilcox to sort through the belongings of an eccentric neighbor.