about the book
Elizabeth Williams is just a few weeks away from graduation. Just a few weeks away from moving to the Twin Cities and beginning the process of becoming a boy. See, Elizabeth has called herself Gabe for a long time, knowing she is a boy trapped in a girl’s body—transsexual.
Her parents think she has gone crazy when she tells them, and her brother no longer speaks to her. Her classmates bully her as “that lesbian chick,” and her only friend in the world, Paige, her BFF, is the girl she—he, Gabe—is crushing on. But he cannot tell her. What if he loses her as a friend?
Gabe is a huge music geek, and when he finds out his neighbor, John, used to be a radio DJ, he convinces John to mentor him in becoming a DJ himself. John sets Elizabeth-Gabe up with a late-night community radio show, which he calls “Beautiful Music for Ugly Children.” He calls himself Gabe on the air, hiding his Elizabeth identity. Unexpectedly, BMUC gains a large following in Gabe’s high school. An Ugly Children Brigade fan club even starts!
Then Gabe lets his-her old name slip out. Elizabeth. How will her classmates react?
about the author
Since geographers define the eastern edge of the American West as the 100th longitudinal meridian, Kirstin Cronn-Mills grew up just six blocks east of the West in her hometown in Nebraska, whose main street was the 100th longitudinal meridian. In that location, Kirstin learned to read at about the age of three, and has not stopped since!
Writing came later, in sixth grade, when she discovered poetry and a love of writing poetry. Her love for words themselves comes from her father and grandfather.
Kirstin loves having purple hair. She likes using hyperbole and exaggerates a lot. She can’t help talking like a teenager. She doesn’t eat chocolate, but she wishes she could. She loves both football and soccer, and is totally a soccer mom. She has four tattoos, and she loves music like she loves water.
Sources:
Author website
Author interview : Gay YA
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