2026 Pride Month Book Recommendations from Girls Write Now
Girls Write Now’s Pride Month Book Recommendations
June 9, 2026
We asked our community for their top reading picks this Pride Month. Enjoy these incredible reads!
Salt Lakes: An Unnatural History
By Caroline Eaton Tracey
W.W. Norton
An acclaimed nature writer’s dazzling love letter to a strange ecosystem and a moving odyssey into her own identity.
Call Your Boyfriend
By Olivia E. Cole & Ashley Woodfolk
Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers
She Gets the Girl meets Bottoms in this “thoroughly charming and entertaining” (Kirkus Reviews) young adult sapphic rom-com about two teens who want revenge on the flaky popular girl they’re both crushing on.
Maybe Tomorrow I’ll Know
By Alex Ritany
Norton Young Readers
A boy is trapped in a time loop—and in a girl’s body—in this heartfelt and wryly humorous love story.
Maybe Tomorrow I’ll Know is a funny, deeply felt exploration of love, identity, and what it means to move through the world in a body that is truly yours.
Sunburn
By Chloe Michelle Howarth
Melville House Publishing
For fans of Normal People, a queer, coming-of-age debut of impossible first love, first loss, and first heartbreak…
Tender and heartbreaking, Sunburn portrays the realities of growing up in a small rural town–from the long, hot summers, to the pressures of a conservative, traditional community where everyone knows each other’s business. It’ll leave you aching for your own first love.
The Chronology of Water
By Lidia Yuknavitch
Hawthorne Books
THIS IS NOT YOUR MOTHER’S MEMOIR. In The Chronology of Water, Lidia Yuknavitch, a lifelong swimmer and Olympic hopeful, escapes her raging father and alcoholic and suicidal mother when she accepts a swimming scholarship which drug and alcohol addiction eventually cause her to lose.
Date Me, Bryson Keller
By Kevin Van Whye
Random House Books for Young Readers
What If It’s Us meets To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before in this upbeat and heartfelt boy-meets-boy romance that feels like a modern twist on a ’90s rom-com!
Everyone knows about the dare: Each week, Bryson Keller must date someone new–the first person to ask him out on Monday morning. Few think Bryson can do it. He may be the king of Fairvale Academy, but he’s never really dated before.
Until a boy asks him out, and everything changes.
Girl Made of Stars
By Ashley Herring Blake
Houghton Mifflin Harcourt
Mara and Owen are as close as twins can get, so when Mara’s friend Hannah accuses Owen of rape, Mara doesn’t know what to think. Can her brother really be guilty of such a violent act? Torn between her family and her sense of right and wrong, Mara feels lost, and it doesn’t help that things are strained with her ex-girlfriend, Charlie. As Mara, Hannah, and Charlie come together in the aftermath of this terrible crime, Mara must face a trauma from her own past and decide where Charlie fits into her future.
Confronting difficult questions surrounding consent, victim blaming, and sexual assault, Girl Made of Stars is a timely, emotionally gripping novel that shines a light on the story of a survivor with sensitivity and hope.
Laura Dean Keeps Breaking Up with Me
By Mariko Tamaki
First Second Books
Laura Dean is the most popular girl in school—funny, confident, and impossible for Freddy Riley to let go of. Being chosen by Laura Dean feels like a dream, but staying with her is another story.
After another painful breakup, Freddy’s best friend Doodle takes her to a psychic, who gives one piece of advice: end things for good. But no matter how much Laura Dean hurts her, Freddy keeps getting pulled back in. As the relationship begins to cost her friendships—especially with Doodle—Freddy starts to question what love should really look like and whether she’s brave enough to choose herself.
Kindling
By Traci Chee
Clarion Books
Once, the war was fought with kindlings—elite, magic-wielding warriors whose devastating power comes at the cost of their own young lives. Now the war is over, and kindlings have been cast adrift.
Traci Chee brilliantly crafts a gut-wrenching, introspective fantasy about seven lost soldiers searching for the peace they once fought for and the future in which they’re finally daring to believe.
The Girl from the Sea
By Lee Knox Ostertag
Graphix
Once, the war Fifteen-year-old Morgan has a secret: She can’t wait to escape the perfect little island where she lives. She’s desperate to finish high school and escape her sad divorced mom, her volatile little brother, and worst of all, her great group of friends…who don’t understand Morgan at all. Because really, Morgan’s biggest secret is that she has a lot of secrets, including the one about wanting to kiss another girl.