Review by Booklist Review
Middle-schoolers find increased self-awareness and solidarity at an LGBTQ+ camp in this empathetic, widely representative novel, which unites 12-year-old Abigail and 13-year-old Kai from the anthology This Is Our Rainbow (2022), edited by Melleby and Katherine Locke. The novel's protagonists arrive at Camp QUILTBAG as hesitant newcomers after Abigail was ostracized at Catholic school for her crush on Stacy's mom (Laura Dern's also got it going on), and Kai was injured by school bullies who refuse to accept em as e is. Their fellow campers reflect a wide array of often intersectional identities and are at varying stages of their own queer awareness. A camp-wide competition and several miscommunications lend plot tensions, while casual moments like swimming and dance lessons frame important insights around gender expression and identity. Prominent in queer middle-grade fiction, Melleby (The Science of Being Angry, 2022) and Sass (Ellen Outside the Lines, 2022) write with incredible compassion, crafting a sweet summertime romance while modeling difficult conversations and valuable lessons in inclusivity. An instructive, affirming pick for rainbow readers and allies.
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Via a perceptive dual narrative, Melleby (The Science of Being Angry) and Sass (Ellen Outside the Lines) weave the perspectives of two queer kids drawn together by a need for community. Desperate for friends following the publicizing of her crush on a friend's mom and subsequent ostracism at her New Jersey Catholic school, 12-year-old lesbian Abigail Rabb wants to attend Minnesota's Camp QUILTBAG, a two-week program for queer youth. Outside of Minneapolis, nonbinary 13-year-old Kai Lindquist, who uses the pronouns e, em, and eir, isn't interested in the camp, but eir parents push for it after e experiences bullying, an injury, and the loss of eir best friend. The two couldn't be more different in interests and motivation--Abigail's into Jurassic Park and Laura Dern, while Kai's a "former gymnast-turned-parkour wizard"--but they develop an unlikely alliance when the camp announces a competition: Abigail will help Kai's cabin win in exchange for confidence lessons. While the contest is meant to bring all the campers together, the duo's alliance, anxieties, budding romances, and trauma all clash, perhaps compromising further connections. Distilling many relatable experiences and engaging with themes of layered identity, this important story highlights the importance of queer camaraderie and education. Protagonists read as white; campers are portrayed as intersectionally diverse. Ages 8--12. Agents: (for Melleby) Jim McCarthy, Dystel, Goderich & Bourret; (for Sass) Jordan Hamessley, New Leaf Literary. (Mar.)
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Review by Horn Book Review
Melleby and Sass bring together the middle schoolâe"aged protagonists they each created for the 2021 short-story anthology This Is Our Rainbow (co-edited by Melleby and Katherine Locke) in this novel set at a camp for LGBTQ+ youth. Mellebyâe(tm)s Abigail (she/her/hers), all but ostracized by her friends since she admitted to a crush on one of their mothers, begs her parents to send her to the camp. Sassâe(tm)s Kai (e/em/eir) attends under protest: eir parents sign em up after a bullying incident. The two newbies form sometimes-bumpy relationships with each other and with the more seasoned campers in a safe but not necessarily awkwardness-free space. Thereâe(tm)s a heightened awareness (even more than in other settings) that anyone might be romantically interested in anyone else -- or might not. Thereâe(tm)s also, realistically, a wide range of knowledge about and comfort with queer identities among the kids: one of them launches a campaign for a more inclusive camp name (âeoethereâe(tm)s no letter in the QUILTBAG acronym for pansexual kids, plus a lot of othersâe), while Kai tries to remember what pansexual means. Intersectionality in the differences between campers adds another dimension, especially in the area of religion: Abigail attends Catholic school; Kai is âeoekind ofâe Jewish and tentatively learns more about Judaism from another camper. This engaging, gently affirming novel should be valuable to young Âreaders exploring their own identities or curious about those of others. Shoshana FlaxMarch/April 2023 p.74 (c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
Abigail and Kai, two campers at a Minnesota summer camp for LGBTQ+ kids, navigate friendship and young love. Twelve-year-old Abigail, a White girl from New Jersey, has been shunned by her friends after being outed as a lesbian, one who's in love with her friend's mom to boot. She asks her parents to send her to Camp QUILTBAG, where people might get her. Thirteen-year-old Kai, who is also White, was bullied for being nonbinary (Kai's pronouns are e/em/eir). Now, though, e has a group of friends who accept em and isn't thrilled about being sent away to camp. Through making new friends and participating in camp activities, Abigail starts to learn to be proud of who she is, and both tweens begin to trust people again. The main characters stand as loving depictions of cis lesbian and nonbinary kids. Along with Abigail and Kai, who alternate chapters in close third person, there is a moderately sized supporting case that is diverse in terms of race, religion, gender, sexuality, and neurodiversity. There are teachable moments about many of these identities throughout, which eventually become a bit tedious. However, overall, this is a fun story that gently deals with real issues that LGBTQ+ middle schoolers face. It captures that camp feeling of getting away from home, meeting different people, and growing as a person, all over the course of just two weeks. At its heart, an enjoyable summer camp story. (authors' note) (Fiction. 9-13) Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
