Candy Bunny Reader

    Underrated middle grade contemporary fiction! Linus and Etta Could Use a Win by Caroline Huntoon is a dual POV book about two 13 year olds named Linus and Etta. Linus is a trans boy who just moved houses and starts going to a new school. Etta is an girl with an "alternative" fashion style who is rather cynical about everything, but especially middle school. Shortly after the two of them meet and befriend each other, student council elections are their school start up. Etta finds herself making a secret bet with her former best friend, Marigold, to get Linus to be student council president (they are mostly competing just to get into the same prestigious private high school). Etta really likes Linus and wants to be best friends with him, but she is worried that her ulterior motives as his campaign manager will ruin everything between them. She also genuinely thinks Linus could make the school a more inclusive, safe place. The whole secret bet is also a problem because Linu...

A short story collection!  Transmogrify contains short stories written by the following authors: Saundra Mitchell, Sonora Reyes, Renee Reynolds, AR Capetta, Cory McCarthy, Francesca Tacchi, Ayida Shonibar, Nik Traxler, g haron davis, Jonathan Kastin, Mason Deaver, Ash Noveau, Cam Montgomery, Dove Salvatierra, and Emerly Lee.  Each short story features trans characters in a magical setting, whether contemporary or high fantasy, and they all use magic to empower themselves.  I gave this book 4.5 stars , but that was just because I liked some of the short stories more than others. Most of them were really good, but there were a few I couldn't get into or I thought were just okay.   My favorite short stories from this book are: Verity (a story about a magic mirror), Dragons Name Themselves (about two friends and a pet dragon), The Hallow King (a revenge story on Halloween), Genderella, and Espijimos (has folk magic and magical realism). 

Trigger Warnings: child dying, family members dying, toxic relationships, body horror The Deep Dark by Lee Ostertag  is a YA graphic novel set in southern California. It is a mixture of different genres: urban fantasy, mystery, and horror. The story follows Magdelena (or "Mags" for short) as she struggles dealing with her mental health after an incident that ended with a childhood friend dying. Mags felt that it was all her fault. She also is trying to rekindle her friendship with her other childhood friend, Nessa. Nessa also seems to be harboring some struggles of her own. The characters' struggles seem to mostly come from an unusual creature that lives in Mags's basement... I gave this book 4 stars . It was a great book, but surprisingly darker than the previous books of the author's that I have read before. All of the trigger warnings are listed above. I think the mental health rep, Latine rep, and queer rep were done really well!

  Happy Trans Day of Visibility!  Here are some of my favorite books featuring trans characters in them, whether they are the main or side characters. Either way, they are all great stories with great representation. Links to their Goodreads pages are provided! 1. Snapdragon by Kat Leyh 2. Loveless by Alice Oseman 3. Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender 4. Speak Up! by Rebecca Burgess 5. Cheer Up! Love and Pompoms by Crystal Frasier 6. Magical Boy duology by The Kao (links to the first book) 7. Bianca Torre is Afraid of Everything by Justine Winans 8. Stars in their Eyes by Jessica Walton 9. Monk and Robot duology by Becky Chambers (links to the first book) 10. I Wish You All the Best by Mason Deaver 11. Basil and Oregano by Melissa Capriglione 12. The Baker and the Bard by Fern Haught

  My second book from Jen Wang ! The first book I read from her was The Prince and the Dressmaker , a long time ago. You can read that review here . Ash's Cabin follows Ash, a transgender mixed-race teenager who wants to find and restore their eccentric grandfather's old cabin, which is very isolated from the world. Ash gets a bunch of books from the library and watches a bunch of YouTube videos to learn how to survive in the wild. They also raise money through dog walking so they can buy supplies for camping and food. They are finally able to go on the trip when the rest of their family goes to Disneyland. Ash stays with their aunt and uncle and cousin first (who have their own house out in the country) before going to the cabin. When the aunt, uncle and cousin go on their own trip later, Ash lies about staying in their house so they can go find their grandfather's cabin. Camping out and restoring an old cabin isn't easy! But Ash and their dog Chase find surprises alon...

Note: Please read the full list of trigger warnings at this link before proceeding:  https://booktriggerwarnings.com/Felix_Ever_After_by_Kacen_Callender Another popular book I was pleasantly surprised that I ended up liking! Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender is about Felix Love--a transgender teenage guy who's never fallen in love, but really wants to. He also is stressed out about putting together a good art portfolio in order to get a scholarship into the prestigious art program at Brown University. He believes if he gets into the program, it will be a ticket for a better future for him and his struggling single father.  Unfortunately, Felix is competing for the position with Declan Keene--who just so happens to be the rather toxic ex-boyfriend of his best friend, Ezra Patel.  But one day, somebody in Felix's school finds pictures of Felix before he transitioned--and they put them up all over the school where everyone can see them. Whoever did it also deadnamed him. ...

I saw a video a few months ago from the YouTube channel TTreadsYA of them doing the Ultimate Recs Tag. You can follow them on Instagram too: @ttreadsya Their video is here . Go subscribe to them, their channel needs more love!  The original creator of this tag and their video is here:  https://www.tiktok.com/@dreareads/video/7273524380557200673?lang=en As always, feel free to do this tag if you see this post! 1. A book that I will always recommend. Anything I consider underrated is fair game! The Witch's Boy by Kelly Barnhill, Flip the Script by Lyla Lee, and Frenchman's Creek by Daphne du Maurier are a few examples.  2. A book that I will recommend if I think we have similar tastes. Again, so many choices! Do you like stories that leave you feeling good and uplifted at the end? One great example would be You Should See Me in a Crown by Leah Johnson.  3. A book that I love, but I wouldn't recommend. Most classic books, since they tend to have things that don't a...

I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this! The first volume of Magical Boy by The Kao is about Max--a trans guy who is descended from a line of magical warriors who have to protect the earth from these giant bug monsters who feed off of peoples' negative feelings. The magical warriors of his family got their powers from the goddess Aurora. Max doesn't like this new magical warrior responsibility at first, as his outfit looks really feminine, and his mother (the previous magical warrior) expects him to do his magical duties the traditional way. That includes "acting" really feminine, something Max is obviously uncomfortable with. But with the help of his friend Jen, a new friend named Sean, and an enemy turned friend named Pyper, Max begins to do things his own way. They work together to try to stop the bug monsters from destroying the Earth. His magical outfit also looks less feminine over time.  This book was a blast! I loved this take on a magical warrior...

  Another graphic novel that I really like! I've been seeing this book floating around the bookish spaces I follow, but I didn't pick it up until just recently. But I am glad I finally did, as this book was a delight.  In Cheer Up: Love and Pompoms by Crystal Frasier , Val Wise , and Oscar O. Jupiter , we follow two characters: Annie and Bebe. Annie is very antisocial and would rather study, but her mother encourages her to join the school cheerleading team so she can have something else to do rather than studying and also to have some extracurriculars on her college applications. Anne is also a lesbian. Bebe is on the cheerleading team and is a huge people-pleaser. She is also transgender, and the first trans girl on the cheerleading squad. Annie and Bebe used to be friends, but after Annie joins the cheerleading squad, they rekindle their friendship.  The story is about the girls' and their cheerleading squad improving their cheer skills, gaining popularity, and also lo...

  So here's the thing: I have been reading the Heartstopper graphic novel series by Alice Oseman and I have been absolutely loving them! But I realize I can't talk about the rest of the series without getting into actual spoilers, so I've decided to make this review post very unorthodox and tell you what you will find in volumes 2 and 3 as vaguely as possible. You will find: Characters deepening their relationships Characters understanding themselves better More character backstories Friendship struggles A birthday party at a bowling alley Standing up to bullies A class trip to Paris, France A lot and a lot of communication...and healing Noticed how I didn't specify any character names. That's for you to find out! Feel free to discuss volumes 2 and 3 in the comments with me if you read them already.  Also, although I didn't get into detail here, there are MASSIVE trigger warnings for these two books which include: forced outing, homophobia, biphobia, bullying, ...