Technolandy

Day 168b (of 2025/26)  Opting Out by Maia Kobabe and Swati “Lucky” Srikumar #pridemonth 

Maia’s ‘less likely to be challenged book of the year’ is Opting Out – a book that does a lot of important shares very well… and has quickly climbed my personal ‘best reads of 2026 list’.

What it takes on:

Menstruation and typical school reactions.

What transgender binary/non-binary means in a very informative, unbiased approach.

How confusing it can be to be a teen and trying to figure out where/if you “fit”

How cultural (mis)understandings happen

How “awful” parents can be 😇 in a loving way!

How challenging friendships can be when people evolve… and relationships become situationships… 

The “joys” (nightmare) of sex ed classes in school…

The reminders and information that growing up isn’t always an ‘as seen on tv’ highlight package.

As expected Maia and Lucky do not hold back and lean into some of the key topics I (as a principal librarian) hoped they would. Sexuality… gender orientation… fitting in… friendships… faith… taking chances… 

Even taking on the challenging “but we watched him grow up – we know him. He can’t just suddenly decide he’s a different person.”  “It’s “she” not “he”.” And the ongoing dialogue about “people are born boys for girls. I don’t see how they can change”… 

One of the passages I thought was very nicely illustrated (literally and metaphorically) when a relative admitted “…I just don’t get it.” with the response from another adult was “We don’t have to understand it. We just have to respect it.”

Growing up is hard. Growing up has always involved trying on identities, ideas, friendships, fashion, music, politics, values, and beliefs like jackets found in the lost-and-found bin of humanity. Some fit. Some don’t. Some change over time. Books like this don’t create confusion. They help kids survive it. This book will help. Looking forward to seeing it on library bookshelves and Scholastic book fairs everywhere! 

Can’t wait for it to be challenged and banned by people who haven’t read it yet…🙄 it’s an interesting trend that graphic novels in particular are being campaigned against disproportionately — maybe because comics elicit more of an emotional reaction than people would like to admit since for decades comics have been considered juvenile and ‘for kid s’ – forgetting that they’re written by adults and mirror a lot of world views to build understanding – though I am curious about how many people read X-men and cheer for the Sentinels in their quest to eliminate all mutants (fill-in for race/gender/etc)… 

Books like Opting Out and GenderQueer are not “instruction manuals”, rather mirrors of society – and important for kids to understand themselves… heck, adults too. I am a big fan of Maia’s books in particular even though I am not necessarily the audience they are intended for… but as an educator (and once a librarian, always a librarian) I like finding books that I know will click for the diverse audience within my school community. No reading list should ever be full exclusively of white males featuring white males… 

In advance of the challenges I anticipate, I note that the strange thing about book bans is that they often reveal more about adult discomfort than student readiness. Teens are already navigating identity, relationships, bodies, labels, loneliness, and belonging every single day. Books don’t invent those struggles. They simply give language to them. Or as I sometimes note: methinks thou doth protest too much. Sometimes the strongest reactions to books come from the discomfort of being asked to examine assumptions we have carried unquestioned for years. 

I had high expectations when Scholastic announced a ‘middle years’ graphic novel by Maia Kobabe and I was not disappointed. Highly recommend that this book get featured on your own ‘soon to read’ list whatever your age.