Jamie
L.D. Lapinski
This joyful and uplifting story speaks to the universal experience of the nerves around moving from primary school to secondary school. For Jamie these fears are only made worse as there is only a girls school and a boys school in the area, but Jamie isn’t a boy or a girl, they’re non-binary. Stuck with a choice between two schools where they don’t belong, and a group of best friends risking being split up in the process, Jamie has to fight to have their voice heard. With hijinks including swearing at teachers, accidentally getting stuck on a roof, and even becoming an overnight news sensation, Jamie has their fair share of adventures along the way to putting things right!
Jamie’s fight to just live as their joyful self represents the all-too-real adversity LGBTQ+ teens face, but also captures the universal growing pains of being a young teen – holding onto a friendship group that’s changing, feeling like adults aren’t listening to you, and trying to find out who you are without hurting anyone else.
This was a thoroughly enjoyable story celebrating the joy to be found in the LGBTQ+ community and living life as your authentic self. I wish this book had existed in my childhood growing up queer.
This is a perfect book for young teens navigating the transition to secondary school, and all young readers who feel misunderstood.
Published by Orion (Hachette)
