This project explores how contemporary and speculative fiction for middle-grade readers (ages 8–12) can foster belonging and community for gender-complex children. Building on queer theory, with a focus on Sara Ahmed’s work on orientation and Jack Halberstam’s notion of queer temporal and spatial practices, the study investigates how literary and creative spaces can become “homes” for young readers whose identities sit outside cisnormative categories. Drawing on Mikhail Bakhtin’s and Maria Nikolajeva’s theories of the carnivalesque and aetonormativity, the research examines how the playful, disordered worlds in children’s fiction allow hierarchies to be overturned and new social possibilities imagined.

In dialogue with sj Miller’s framework of gender identity justice, the project brings together literary criticism, creative practice, and pedagogical application. Through close analysis of realist and speculative works such as Ana on the Edge, Jamie, Alice Austen Lived Here, The Fabulous Zed Watson, and Tiger Honor, alongside my own creative work exploring gender complexity, it asks how fantasy and realism differently stage inclusive communities and how such texts can be discussed in classroom settings to support gender-complex children.

The study contributes to literary and educational scholarship by reframing children’s fiction as a transformative queer space that models relationality, empathy, and social belonging. It also generates a set of creative writing and curriculum resources for educators seeking to include nonbinary and gender-diverse representation in reading programs.