• Age: 10 to 14
• Grade: 5 to 9

A powerful novel that challenges the limitations and pressures placed on boys today.

London feels stuck. His school friends think he’s this confident kid who likes video games and will kick your butt if you get on his bad side. His high-achieving parents think he’s a genius coder and are pushing him to pursue that as a future career. None of this is true. London feels anxiety in crowds, and what he really wants to do is be by himself and read books. Not knowing what else to do, London starts an anonymous online comic called “Is There A Boy Like Me,” where he expresses his true feelings and explores what his life would be like if he could just be who he wanted to be. When the comic goes viral, it starts a global conversation about what being a boy really means, with London directly in the middle of it all.

KERN CARTER is a full-time freelance writer and author who has written and self-published two novels — Thoughts of a Fractured Soul (novella) and Beauty Scars. His YA novel Boys and Girls Screaming released in April 2022, published by DCB, an imprint of Cormorant Books. Kern is also a ghostwriter with credits in Forbes, the New York Times, Global Citizen, Elle Magazine and Fatherly.com, and has ghostwritten several books. When he’s not penning novels or ghostwriting, Kern is curating stories through CRY, his online publication that creates space for artists to navigate through the emotions of their creative journey. He lives in downtown Toronto with his daughter.

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Praise for Kern Carter

“The characters are honest and authentic, their voices wavering between childhood and maturity, their emotions alternating between feeling shattered and pretending to be whole.” (Boys and Girls Screaming) — Quill & Quire

“A thought-provoking read about the pain involved in healing childhood trauma.” (Boys and Girls Screaming) — Kirkus Reviews