A beautiful coming of age middle grade novels! This story is so important to tell and have available for tweens, seeing a trans character develop and step into who they are. It is great to have skating as a sport in the book as I don’t see a lot of it in middle grade books.

Thank you to Netgalley and the publishers for giving me a free advanced copy of this book to read and review.

This is really cute and a very important read!
I loved the main character and their passion for ice skating.
It's not the type of book that I usually reach out to read, but I would recommend/gift it to children!

This is such a genuine book. The way Ana discovers their gender and how it interacts with their love of figure skating almost brought tears to my eyes. I wish I had a book like this growing up.

Debut novelist AJ Sass has carved out a piece of his soul to write Ana on the Edge, and I'm urging you to run, not walk, to pre-order this incredibly moving book. Ana is a highly accomplished, award-winning figure skater growing up in the heavily gendered world of the sport but doesn't identify as a boy or girl. Ana learns what non-binary means in the course of the story, which is a super believable tale of coming out to her friends, family, coach and fellow athletes. I kept highlighting passages and flat out wept when Ana and mom have The Talk. Do yourself a favor and walk a mile in the shoes... skates...of a non-binary 12-year old: you need this one on your bookshelf

I don’t even know where to begin with how much I loved this book. Firstly, it’s so amazing to see non-binary rep in middle grade and I think it will be so life changing for so many kids. I’ve read a few books featuring non-binary characters by cis authors in middle grade recently and was very disappointed by the rep. It’s so wonderful to then have this amazing book that shows the diversity and complexity of non-binary identities. Too often I see cis authors only define non-binary as “I feel like both a girl and boy at the same time” and only using they/them pronouns, and while this may be the lived experience for some folks, it’s not for all and I really was hesitant to read more works that might feed into this singular narrative of non-binary identities. This book does not feed into that and really shows how unique and varied non-binary experiences can be. Ana is a wonderful protagonist and I felt that this book showcased information about gender identities without being too “this is education for cis people” which I also feel like a lot of queer stories can fall into. I absolutely loved this and can’t wait to recommend it now and forever!! I hope this leads to many more own voices non-binary stories! I always wonder how much sooner I would have discovered myself if I’d had books like this as a tween.

What a beautiful book. If I was still a library selector, I would definitely order this. It provides such a great lens into an #ownvoices experience, and it's great for those who either grew up in or love the Bay Area.

I think what I like about this book is Ana's uncertainty. Often in books about kids discovering their sexuality or gender identity its very concrete. These young people are instantly completely confident in their identity. Their conflict comes from other people. But Ana is still trying to figure things out. It's more about discovering what identities feel wrong than becoming certain about the one that is right.

I really enjoyed the glimpse into the world ice skating and I liked how well the depiction of a non-binary main character was done.

I was recommended this book and read it in one night! Ana's journey through understanding her gender was realistic, and I loved seeing how it affected her friendships and the resolutions Sass gave them.

This book is such a gentle exploration of gender and gender presentation through an 8th-grade ice skater. I know nothing about skating but I could tell the author knew what he was talking about and not just regurgitating a quick glance of a Wikipedia page the way some niche setting books feel. I can't wait to help get this book into the hands of young, exploring library users. Thanks to Little, Brown Books for Young Readers for the advance copy, I loved getting lost in this complex and ultimately hopeful story.

This is an engaging story about Ana, a Chinese-American and Jewish 12-year-old who ice skates competitively. When she meets a trans boy, Hayden, at the rink, she lets him assume she is a boy too. Between being seen as a boy by Hayden and his family and the extremely girly costume and choreography she has been assigned for her free skating program, she begins to question her own identity and learns about what it means to be nonbinary. It is bound to be a great resource for other questioning kids who don’t feel like they are either a boy or a girl. One thing I wish was included was an explanation of using they/them as a gender neutral pronoun, but it's also a totally valid choice for Ana to keep using she/her with most people and he/him at times.

A wonderful middle grade book about a young person figuring out what non-binary means and how it applies to them. When a boy in skating school assumes Ana is a boy, she goes along with it because she likes the way it feels. Through spending time with Hayden, Ana learns about gender neutral pronouns and being non-binary. A must read for young people dealing with this and anyone looking to learn more. A sensitive and realistic portrayal of non-binary youth.

Twelve-year-old Ana is on a journey of self discovery and gender exploration. She does not understand why she is becoming increasingly uncomfortable with her skating choreography and costumes. It’s not until she meets a transgender boy named Hayden, who mistakes Ana for a boy, that Ana learns the term non-binary and what that can mean for her. She finally has a term that makes sense and decides that she/her pronouns work for now.

The only thing keeping this from 5 stars is it was a little slow in the beginning, and I felt like there was too much detail about the skating. I understand that skating is a big part of Ana’s identity, but I think some of the detail could have been cut out to make room for more of Ana’s process. That being said, I would love to read more about Ana and how she navigates her friendships as well as the figure skating world, which is a very binary sport. I hope there will be a sequel.

This is such an important book. It’s awesome to have an own voices story for young children to find representation as they may be going through similar journeys. It is also important that other children have a window into the journey of others so they may become more empathic and understanding.

A competitive juniors figure skater struggles with gender identity. She grows increasingly uncomfortable with being called a "girl" and other words implying that (e.g. princess); this is exacerbated when her new choreographer assigns her gentle, graceful music and a dress for a costume. Alongside her frustrations with her new skating program, she meets a trans boy who mistakes her for a boy. (FYI, she uses she/her pronouns for the entirety of the book, and at the end asks for those pronouns to be used until she decides otherwise.) She spends more and more time with him, causing problems with her best friend. All in all a good tale of identity, honesty, communication, love, and self-examination. Plus, a ton of figure skating!

I found the pacing slow and the level of detail provided about the topic of skating to be well beyond my own interest level (hence the low rating, which reflects only my own personal enjoyment). That being said, I think this is nonetheless an important book. While there is a very small but growing market for children's and middle grade texts that focus on transgender issues, this is the first book that I am familiar with that deals specifically with non-binary identity for this age group. School and public librarians should absolutely purchase the title on the understanding that while it might not particularly appeal to you, it is very likely to be critical and life changing to one or more of your patrons.

I love this book so much! As a nonbinary person, I really appreciated the nuanced view of trying to figure out what words apply to that feeling of in-between-ness. Once I saw down to read I did nothing else until it was finished. I felt the trepidation and tension, cried a bit on one section, and soared at the ending. Highly recommend to youth and adults.

Ana on the Edge is a heartfelt book with a very important side to it, a middle grade that discusses gender in a way that children will understand and hopefully learn.

4.5 Stars

CWs: Misgendering, misnaming, allusions to transphobia and bullying, and contains multiple coming out scenes

Rep: Ana is non-binary, Chinese-American (with possibly some Hawaiian heritage as well), and Jewish

I'm so glad this book exists. It's overwhelming to think about how this story is going to affirm so many things for so many young readers, in ways we can't even imagine.

(First of all, Ana is trying out multiple pronouns by the end of this story, she/her being some of them, and those are what I'll be using to refer to her in this review.)

This is a masterfully told story of self-discovery on and off the ice. Ana's questioning of her gender is shown so organically, whether it be the mental double-take she does when her mom full-names her, or the way she hates wearing skirts during practice, or how she's intimidated by other skaters' ease in showcasing their femininity. She doesn't have the vocabulary to describe it, she doesn't know about labels or inclusive terminology, she doesn't know where to begin questioning it, but she knows enough to know that femininity doesn't quite fit.

There's also a nuanced distinction about how Ana doesn't "hate" femininity, she just doesn't claim femininity for herself. It doesn't mean "girly" things are bad or that they're not a part of her in some ways, it just means they don't define her. Ana is realizing that, yes, there are boys who like to sew and craft just like there are girls who love sports and video games. So why do we all put so much stock in "boy things" versus "girl things" when there are literally no rules?

These questions occur naturally in the story, which makes sense for a character so strongly questioning their gender. When Ana meets Hayden and realizes that it's possible for people to change their names and pronouns, she become fascinated by the implications of that and begins making space for herself to experiment with different expressions. When she realizes that her body and her personhood doesn't tell the story she always thought it would, that's huge for her.

Another aspect I love about the story is how it parallels skating performance against gender performance. There's this idea that when you get on the ice, you're "portraying a character," and then the more you lean into that role, the higher points you receive. And that's exactly how gender works as well. So Ana is wondering if she can disassociate from her performance in that way, but also questioning where the line is between acting and expressing, both on and off the ice.

My only note, if anything, is that I wish Ana got to take all those deeply internal thoughts about gender and put them into conversation outside of the coming out scenes. Most people, especially parents, have absolutely now knowledge of what non-binary even MEANS, which naturally leads to a lot of questions. (Keep in mind, I say this from my own experience.) But we don't really get to see that side of the conversation. Part of me is glad it's that way because I wouldn't want readers to conflate Ana's non-binary experience with "THE Non-Binary Experience" (whatever that is). But the other part of me sees it as ever so slightly idealistic.

There's just so much to love about this story. It's incredibly rich and layered, and Ana's character progression is so well done. A.J. Sass does such a good job of building a safe, supportive environment for Ana to explore herself and express herself, and though we don't get all the answers, we are given every reason to hope for her.

Very eager for this one to come out in the fall and I highly recommend it for readers of all ages!

This is definitely one of my new FAVORITE middle grade books. This is one of those contemporary coming-of-age stories that feels absolutely timeless. I'd been anticipating this one for a while, but holy smokes, it completely blew my socks off. For kids questioning their identities, this book is a necessary mirror. For kids who want to understand better, a window. And for adults, a guide: it models how to respond with compassion and love, even through confusion. And it's simply a fabulous story. Now excuse me while I go spend hours on YouTube watching figure skating competitions....