This novel tells a story of loving and embracing yourself while learning to trust yourself and open up to others. To her family, teachers and peers George is a boy. George however identifies as a girl and longs to live and present herself the way she wants to. She is so excited when the school […]

14-year-old Izzy lives in a small town, goes to school and doesn’t think of her life as anything extraordinarily special or exciting. That all changes when her father comes out as a trans-woman. The story deals with Izzy’s feelings of uncertainty and fear. Will her parents divorce? Will her classmates at school gossip about her? […]

This novel narrates an unlikely friendship between two outsiders and what a difference standing up for one another can make. David longs to be a girl, but is labelled by others as gay or a freak. Leo just wants to be invisible at school, but defends David against bullies in a fight. They stick together, […]

A Shakespearean Renaissance sonnet that satirises the idealistic descriptions of beauty in the Elizabethan era. The lyric persona uses stereotypical Renaissance nature imagery to contrast his mistress with. In the end, he indicates that his love is truer as it is not based on “false compare”. This sonnet, which is in the public domain, provides […]

This Shakespearean sonnet from Renaissance belongs to the Fair Youth sequence focussing on love, passion, beauty and seperation. The persona misses the beloved one and describes the beauty of spring that is not enjoyable because they were apart. This is an easily accessible example of a Shakespearean sonnet that can be used well for comparison […]

This Renaissance comedy is a play about deceptions and the importance of honour packed into a colourful story of love, wit, and confusion. The soldiers Claudio and Benedick return from battle to Messina. Claudio and Hero are in love with each other and plan to marry. Meanwhile, Benedick, an opponent of marriage, is at a […]

The Canterbury Tales are a medieval collection of 24 different short stories written in verse and prose. Frame action is a storytelling contest between a couple of pilgrims on their way from London to Canterbury. The characters such as the Knight, the Nun, the Cook, the Pardoner and the Wife of Bath represent different estates […]

“Article 5: Children are considered valid citizens when conceived by a married man and wife. All other children are to be removed from the home and subjected to rehabilitative procedures.“ In this dystopian world, the Bill of Rights has been replaced by the Moral Statutes after a war rampaged through the United States. Children out […]

Ben has finally gathered the courage to come out to their parents as nonbinary. But what should be the people who love them most in the world, refuse to accept Ben’s identity. They’re quick to kick Ben out, leaving them lost and alone. They have no choice but to call their estranged sister Hannah and […]

This dystopian novel details the journey of a father and his son through the post-apocalyptic remains of the United States. Their sole goal being survival, the two travel across the barren terrain with nothing but a gun, two small backpacks and a shopping cart. On their journey, they encounter individuals who are immediately treated as […]

Based on a true story, this novel is set in a 1960s reform school in Florida. 16-year-old Elwood Curtis has always admired Dr. Martin Luther King and plans on enrolling in a local black college. However, an accident leads to Elwood being sent to the “Nickel Academy”, where he meets his fellow inmate Turner. At […]

This novel explores the history of sexual abuse in connection to the catholic church that was uncovered in Ireland. Odran Yates has dedicated his life to priesthood and the church. His devotion is challenged however, when revelations about child abuse emerge that destroy the church’s public image. And although he is at first reluctant to […]

“I love you,” I say to him, only it comes out “Hey.” – “So damn much,” he says back, only it comes out “Dude.” This novel uses vivid imagery and poetic language, embedded in a story full of love and loss. Jude and Noah were incredibly close growing up, they are twins after all. Both […]

This heart-warming picture book explores family relations, gender-nonconformity, identity construction, and understanding. Young Julian is out with his grandma called ‘Nana’ in town when he spots three women in spectacular mermaid costumes. Their colourful dresses let him daydream and rise his desire to dress as the most exotic mermaid ever seen. He gets home and […]

This award-winning children’s book is narrated from the perspective of a young Ojibwe girl, who speaks up to defend her people’s land from the black snake (representing oil pipelines). Threatening to pollute and destroy planet earth, the black snake must be stopped, before it eventually poisons the life-giving water. Will the voice of the young […]

This coming-of-age autobiography by award-winning author Maya Angelou features a memoir of racism, trauma, identity and hope. The title refers to the first line of the third stanza of Paul Laurence Dunbar’s poem “Sympathy” (1899), which reflected the perspective of a caged bird’s longing for freedom and its wish to escape its prison. As Dunbar’s […]

This inspiring picture book illustrates the real-life story of Jadav Payeng, who grew 1,300 acres of forest to protect the environment. “In India, on a large river island, among farms and families hard at work, there lived a boy who loved trees.” Jadav becomes alerted when he finds out that animals are dying around his […]

This empowering picture book calls the readers attention to environmental pollution and eco-activism. In the second volume of the series, Rocket, a young girl, who loves science and astronomy, visits her grandparents who live on a Caribbean island. When she stumbles upon a baby turtle, who is trapped in a plastic bag, she discovers that […]