• Age: 12 to 18
• Grade: 7 to 12
• Reading age: 12 to 18

“Poignant and important.” —Refinery29
“A bright and sparkly celebration of love and self-acceptance.” —Kirkus Reviews

Judy Blume meets RuPaul’s Drag Race in this funny, feel-good debut novel about a queer teen who navigates questions of identity and self-acceptance while discovering the magical world of drag.

Perpetually awkward Nima Kumara-Clark is bored with her insular community of Bridgeton, in love with her straight girlfriend, and trying to move past her mother’s unexpected departure. After a bewildering encounter at a local festival, Nima finds herself suddenly immersed in the drag scene on the other side of town.

Macho drag kings, magical queens, new love interests, and surprising allies propel Nima both painfully and hilariously closer to a self she never knew she could be—one that can confidently express and accept love. But she’ll have to learn to accept lost love to get there.

From debut author Tanya Boteju comes a poignant, laugh-out-loud tale of acceptance, self-expression, and the colorful worlds that await when we’re brave enough to look.

Tanya Boteju is a teacher and writer living on unceded territories of the Musqueam, Squamish, and Tsleil-Waututh First Nations (Vancouver, British Columbia). Part-time, she teaches English to clever and sassy young people. The rest of her time, she writes and procrastinates from writing. Her novel, Kings, Queens, and In-Betweens was named a Top Ten Indie Next Pick by the American Booksellers Association, as well as selected for the American Librarian Association 2020 Rainbow List. Her work appears in the anthology Out Now and her latest young adult novel, Bruised, has been selected as a Gold Standard book by the Junior Library Guild. In both teaching and writing, she is committed to positive, diverse representation. Visit her at TanyaBoteju.com.

Tanya Boteju's profile page

A Spring 2019 Indies Introduce Selection
A 2020 ALA Rainbow List Selection
A Summer 2019 Top Ten Kids’ Indie Next Pick
Book Riot’s 2019 YA Books about Queer Girls to Look Out For
Book Riot’s 25 Awesome 2019 Queer YA Books
B&N Teen Blog’s 48 Best YA Books of May

“Poignant and important” —Refinery29

“A story filled with glitter, feather boas, lip-syncing and dancing, where gender identity is flexible and performance is the embodiment of joy.” —BookPage, starred review

“A bright and sparkly celebration of love and self-acceptance.” —Kirkus Reviews

“A successful presentation of the highs, lows, and midways of a teen finding her place in queer culture.” —School Library Journal

“Satisfying . . . Who doesn’t need a glamorous drag queen fairy godmother?” —Publishers Weekly