One of the Boys

After coming out as trans-gender at her Buffalo high school, Grace Woodhouse struggled to manage the loss of her girlfriend, her tight-knit social circle, and her place on her high school’s Division I football team. As a star kicker and top National Collegiate Athletic Association recruit, football had been everything to Grace. Then team captain Kaeden, her former best friend, asks her to come back for their senior season. As Grace juggles the scheduling demands of training and games alongside hormone therapy and the physical effects of her transition, she nurtures friendships old and new and reexamines her relationship with her ex-girlfriend. Through Grace’s internal monologue and developing relationships, Zeller artfully exposes the tender underbelly of locker room posturing, presenting a subversive, experience-informed interpretation of toxic masculinity. Chapters titled “Before” and “After” include text exchanges, social media transcripts, and excerpts from in-world articles embedded throughout; flashback interstitials written in second person contextualize Grace’s personal history and enrich her perceptive narration. An intersectionally diverse cast—which includes Grace’s taciturn yet supportive single father—helps the protagonist forge her own path and blaze a trail for others in this necessary debut. Ages 12–up. Agent: Jordan Hamessley, JABberwocky Literary. (May)