Small Town Pride by Phil Stamper is a delightful middle grade to young adult read. Small Town Pride follows A young gay teen with supportive parents struggle to feel accepted in his homophobic town. I really enjoyed the family dynamic and would definitely recommend this book to all young readers.

This was a really sweet book! I teach middle school and help run our Safe Space club, so I know how much this book will mean to young queer kids everywhere! Jake is such an easy character to identify with, and I loved that the conflict was not focused on him coming out to his family which is something we often see. I will certainly be adding this to our Safe Space bookshelf!

Set in a small midwest village, Jack is the first openly gay kid at his school. Upon receiving a grand gesture of support from his family, he decides to fight the homophobia of his village and throw their first Pride.

This book means so much to me because I grew up not far from places like Jake's village. I've had friends who are from cities just like his. But it also means so much because the support Jake receives from his family and friends is what I wish every queer kid had.

Jake is a wonderful kid and we get to see the very real emotions that go through a young kid's head when facing homophobia. Stamper wrote in such an honest way but at the same time keeps the details to a minimum so as to not make it such a heavy story, because overall, it's much more about hope and community. I really appreciated all of this because it makes for a very immersive and engaging story. And we get to see that Jake isn't perfect, which I love in fiction. We see him realize mistakes and correct them and approach his friendships with care and compassion and a willingness to apologize. Much of the same can be said for Jake's friends as well.

We also see what it's like for one of the side characters to watch everything in the village go down from inside the closet. It's such an honest portrayal as well, and one that will resonate with many queer kids because most of us have been there too.

There is just so much packed into this story that is so comforting despite it being a story of fighting homophobia within a community. I was drawn in from the start, loving the writing, the setting, the characters, and the plot. I honestly don't have a bad word to say about it. Reading this book filled me with a lot of hope, inspiration, and most of all, pride.

Rep: gay MC, bi SC with anxiety

CW: homophobia

Rating system:
5 - absolutely love, little-to-no dislikes that did not impact my reading experience

4 - great book, minor dislikes that did have an impact on my reading experience

3 - good/decent book but for some reason did not hook me or there were some problematic things that just were not addressed or greatly impacted my reading experience

2 - is either a book I did not click with and did not enjoy, problematic aspects are not addressed and severely impacted my reading experience, or I DNF'd but think it has potential for others

1 - is very problematic, I would not recommend the book to anyone

This book belongs in every single small town in America! Excellent story line and the characters are relatable. Libraries need more books like this for inclusion. Great read.

A positive message about being gay and being accepted in small town. Plus this is written at the middle school level, which is the perfect time for kids that are getting into puberty and wondering what it is they are feeling and if they should let others know. Of course, it is different for everyone, and some kids know right away, when they are quite young.

So, seeing that this is a positive message, there are of course the haters, but Jake works past them, and has his pride celebration, not exactly the way he planned, but the way it is.

And as he points out, he doesn't want to move away to be accepted by the community. The cool thing about this novel, is that he finds there are far more supporters then he thought.

So, highly recommended.


<em>Thanks to Netgalley for making this book available for an honest review. </em>

Look at the cover! Sweet, cute, and vivid at the same time. Just like Phil Stamper’s first middle-grade story. Small Town Pride is filled with so much queer love!

I’m incredibly happy that there are more and more queer stories for middle-grade kids. Because in the age of 10-14, so many things change. School, your body, being aware of your sexuality, and maybe even falling in love for the first time. And Small Town Pride just shows us all the feelings you can have as a thirteen-year-old queer teen.

This story is like a warm blanket wrapping itself around you to make you feel safe and loved. Phil Stamper pulled me into the story, and I couldn’t hold back, and without being aware of it, I had already read a quarter of the story. The writing is effortlessly flowing, and the characters are incredibly lovable. I sympathized so much with Jake, and Jenna and Brett are fantastic side characters.

This is a story to cherish if you’re a queer kid, a parent of a (queer) kid, or a queer adult, even if you usually don’t read MG stories. I loved your young adult stories Phil, especially Golden Boys, but this story has a special place in my heart!

THANK YOU to NetGalley for this eArc. I am avid fan of Phil Stamper and have read each book as it's been released and was over the moon that I received a digital eARC of his middle grade debut! Highly recommend this heartwarming tale of a young boy learning to find his pride. There are more and more YA books for teens seeking LGBTQ fiction; however, there is such a high demand now for Middle Grade books as well and Stamper has knocked it out of the part in both categories!

This is a Middle Grade book with a Wonderful message. I really enjoyed it and loved this book so much. I love the characters in this book. I loved the parents of the main character in this book, and I loved how much they support him. Great Read with more than one message hidden inside. I was kindly provided an e-copy of this book by the publisher (HarperCollins) or author (Phil Stamper) via NetGalley, so I can give an honest review about how I feel about this book. I want to send a big Thank you to them for that.

Thank you, NetGalley and the publisher for an eARC of this book.

This was so cute! I love middle-grade LGBTQIA+ books and this one does not disappoint. Jake is gay and lives in a small town (technically a village) in Ohio. After coming out to his family, Jake's dad puts up a progress pride flag on the front lawn and the small-town drama begins! I loved how the kids were such great role models for the young people reading this book. They were activists in the right way and overcame realistic challenges in a meaningful way. I appreciated how the adults were also very real and not goofy caricatures like adults usually are in middle-grade books.

Definitely a book I would recommend to LGBTQIA+ middle schoolers.

I really loved this book. All the characters are so fun and interesting and so is the plot. I really loved the story line and the way that we get to see so many plot points.

Phil Stamper has become an auto-read author for me as all 3 of his previously published YA novels have been 4 stars and above for me. I was curious to see how his debut Middle Grade novel would stack up against his previous novels, and I was pleasantly surprised by how smooth the transition from YA to MG suited him!

Small Town Pride is about a middle schooler who comes out as gay, then quickly becomes a more public topic of conversation when his dad hangs up a huge pride flag right outside his house. Living in a town so small its legally considered a village, the main character decides to seize this opportunity to become more politically active by standing up for the queer community against the Mayor and other small-minded citizens and founding the first pride parade in his village.

I thought the voice for Middle Grade was very flawless; it wasn't condescending as some authors can sometimes lean into, and fit the audience perfectly. I loved the characters in this book, loved the plot, how the development was handled, and I will be giving this to my younger sister to read.

Reading this after finishing Queer Country made for some perfect timing. In all fairness, when I got approved for an eARC for Phil Stamper’s new middle grade novel, I instantly bumped it to the top of my TBR list. Big thanks to Netgalley and HarperCollins for granting me this ARC in exchange for an honest review! Small Town Pride is out on May 31, 2022 and details can be found here on how to preorder it!

Once again, Stamper has delivered a book that fills my heart with joy. I can’t wait to put a copy of this book in the classroom my local LGBTQ+ club meets in at the high school. I have loved and recommended Stamper’s YA books but this one will be a must-read recommendation as well.

Jake is an eighth grader in Barton Springs, a small rural town in Ohio. This is a setting achingly familiar to me and one that my students will resonate with as well. We’re in small town Michigan, surrounded by similar cornfields and similar feelings of not being seen or accepted.

Every time I finish a middle grade novel, I find myself marveling at how the author can present such heavy ideas in such a reader-friendly way. When I was in eighth grade, I had Sarah Dessen novels. Not knocking Dessen, of course, but books like the ones I review for my students now would have been so nice to have when I was young. I was inundated with heterosexual books; if there were queer books, they were often about teens living in a larger city, escaping their small town woes.

That’s not what this book is. This middle grade novel challenges the very stereotypes discussed in the recently released Queer Country (which I reviewed just two posts ago). We have this notion that small, rural areas are inherently unsafe for queer folks. That big cities are where we can be safe. The reality is… bigotry exists everywhere. It’s not a small-town concept. There are people in every city, every town, every village that will lift you up or tear you down.

When Jake comes out to his parents, his father hangs a rather large pride flag from the pole outside of their home, sparking controversy in their small town. A few folks even begin to worry about a pride parade being held in town. And one night, when Jake is sitting and playing a cleverly renamed version of Stardew Valley, he realizes it might not be such a bad idea. The book follows Jake, his best friend, and their unlikely new ally as they fight to quiet down the town bigots and hold their very own small town pride.

I encourage all middle school teachers, especially those in rural areas, to purchase this book for their classroom. As they talk about in the book… sometimes people just need their community to show their support before they’re ready to come out.

Don’t forget to preorder Small Town Pride, out May 31st! And to Phil Stamper: thank you, again, for writing a book that I know will help people I love feel seen.

A wonderful middle-grade novel about fighting for what is right and being yourself. I really enjoyed the emphasis on not leaving the place you grew up; small towns can be suffocating, but they can also be an amazing refuge. The characters are in the 8th grade but aren’t written above their age. I would wholeheartedly recommend this for upper elementary and middle school readers, and even young or reluctant high school readers. I mean, I’m an adult and found the book very relatable. Good for libraries, teachers with classroom libraries, or any middle schooler you know!

This book was beautiful. As a lesbian newspaper reporter living in my small hometown (but moving with my partner next week to a bigger town in the same state), this book wholly resonated with me. (My hometown mascot is also a Bulldog, btw. Also, I was a huge band nerd. So, yeah. Consider all my boxes checked.)

I cried many happy tears. I loved how the resolution didn't just get wrapped up in a neat little bow. Homophobia didn't just go away. But a supportive community overshadowed it. A beautiful message in a beautifully written book. Thank you.

What a delightful MG novel! I'm coming fresh to Stamper's work, but I'm excited to pick up some of his YA novels, as I really enjoyed reading about Jake and his friends' attempts to throw a Pride festival in their small Ohio village. I loved that queerness itself wasn't the issue at stake--at no point is Jake uncertain or ashamed of his sexuality--but rather the question of pride and the ability to feel safe and supported is really what Jake is striving toward. I particularly appreciated that Jake comes from a blue collar family: so often, the supportive queer-friendly parents in YA and MG novels are marked as highly educated and very wealthy, and it's important to see Jake find nothing but joy and love in his mom, who works as the school janitor, and to see his dad get off second shift at a factory to help plan Pride events. Too often, working-class / rural characters are used as easy ultra-conservative villains, and it's great to see a MG novel demonstrate that acceptance (and intolerance, for that matter!) runs across class lines. Similarly, it's a smart move to have the antagonist (the town mayor) be not a raging homophobe but a status quo 'keep-the-peace' 'let's-leave-politics-out-of-it' person afraid to take a stand if it means losing votes. Having Jake realize that many people will support him face-to-face or in theory but have a hard time actually showing up for him is an important lesson for kids to learn! A really charming, heartwarming novel, perfect for any tween reader!

I’m a big fan of all of Stamper’s books so far and this one doesn’t disappoint. I’m very comfortable recommending them to my middle schoolers who are hungry for queer romance and his books always hit the mark. “Small Town Pride” works on so many levels from friendship, dating, tolerance, etc. And it is a truly fun and engaging read. What I really appreciated was how the author drove home the message of inclusion and acceptance by having a pastor and Methodist congregation come to the rescue at the end rather than the church being the enemy.