(First line: “It’s strange living in our old house, now that Uncle Roderick is dead.”) Bug’s relationship with his bff seems to be on the rocks once again. Bug’s uncle, who shone brightly in Bug’s life, has just died young. Too Bright to See starts off pretty dreary. Trying to picture myself as a teenage girl is like staring at the sun, too bright to see, and it hurts. He nails the landing of that jump with this story about Bug, a kid working through grief, friendship pains, and gender identity. Kyle Lukoff, well known for his picture books about trans kids (including the Stonewall Book Award winning When Aiden Became a Brother), makes the jump to middle grade with Too Bright to See. As Bug begins to untangle the mystery of who this ghost is and what they’re trying to say, an altogether different truth comes to light–Bug is transgender. Besides, there’s something more important to worry about: A ghost is haunting Bug’s eerie old house in rural Vermont…and maybe haunting Bug in particular. But none of this is all that appealing to Bug, who doesn’t particularly want to spend more time trying to understand how to be a girl. For Moira, this means figuring out the right clothes to wear, learning how to put on makeup, and deciding which boys are cuter in their yearbook photos than in real life. It’s the summer before middle school and eleven-year-old Bug’s best friend Moira has decided the two of them need to use the next few months to prepare.
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