Children's Book World

Katherine Locke and Nicole Melleby at Children’s Book World on May 13th at 7pm

Children’s Book World is so excited to celebrate the launch of Katherine Locke and Nicole Melleby’s new anthology, ATHLETE IS AGENDER: True Stories of LGBTQ+ People in Sports. This new book is a nonfiction middle grade anthology featuring both famous athletes (Adam Rippon! Karina Manta! Cece Telfer!) and kidlit authors, including several Philly area folks like Erik J. Brown and Vincent Tirado. It was already selected for Junior Library Guild and just received a glowing Kirkus review as well as a starred review from Publisher’s Weekly. We hope you can come out on May 13th at 7:00pm and celebrate with us.

About ATHLETE IS AGENDER

Athlete is agender. Athlete can mean anyone.

★ ‘This affirming sports assemblage’ (PW, starred review) revels in the achievements of strong, passionate, and determined LGBTQ+ athletes across every age, level, and field of sports.

Find your strength in: 

Adam Rippon’s unbelievable journey from figure-skating Olympic alternate to the first openly gay Olympic medalist in his sport; CeCé Telfer’s career as a trans track star and her unwavering commitment to run for the future freedom of trans athletes; em dickson’s relationship to eir gender identity and how sailing, a sport that doesn’t categorize athletes by gender, helped em embrace eir power and identity, and many other invaluable true stories. Featuring testimonies by world-class athletes and award-winning children’s book authors, as well as profiles on culture-defining figures like Megan Rapinoe and Billie Jean King, Athlete Is Agender is a lifesaving book not to be missed. 

This book is for:

·         LGBTQIA+ kids, teens, tweens, and adults

·         Athletes and sports fans

·         Readers looking to learn more about the LGBTQIA+ community

·         Parents of gay kids and other LGBTQIA+ youth

·         Educators looking for advice about the LGBTQIA+ community

Katherine Locke lives and writes in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, with their feisty felines. They are the award-winning author of many books for kids and teens, including Gender Rebels and What Are Your Words?; they are also the co-editor and contributor of This Is Our Rainbow: 16 Stories of Her, Him, Them and Us. They can be found online at KatherineLockeBooks.com and @bibliogato on X and Instagram.

Nicole Melleby, a Jersey native, is the author of highly praised middle-grade books, including the Lambda Literary finalist Hurricane Season and ALA Notable Children’s book How to Become a Planet. She is currently on the faculty of the Hamline University MFA for Writing for Children and Young Adults, and lives with her wife and their cats, whose needs for attention oddly align with Nicole’s writing schedule.