Ollie In Between

Name: Ollie In Between
Brand: Recorded Books
Availability: InStock
Author: Jess Callans
ISBN: 9798894869629

Author: Jess Callans

Narrator: Vico Ortiz

Unabridged: 8 hr 33 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Publisher: Recorded Books

Published: 04/08/2025

Categories: Children's Fiction, Children's Lifestyles, Children's Social Themes

Synopsis

As endearing as it is humorous, this debut middle grade novel by Jess Callans is a tender, queer coming of age story about the courage it takes to find your own voice and choosing to just be. Puberty, AKA the ultimate biological predator, is driving a wedge between soon-to-be 13 year old Ollie Thompson and their lifelong friends. Too much of a girl for their neighborhood hockey team, but not girly enough for their boy-crazed BFF, Ollie doesn’t know where they fit. And their usual ability to camouflage? Woefully disrupted. When a school project asks them to write an essay on what it means to be a woman (if anyone’s got an answer, that’d be great), and one of their new friends is the target of bullying, Ollie is caught between the safety of fleeing from their own differences or confronting the risks of fighting to take their own path forward. "Debut author Callans’ confiding tone leans into Ollie’s flummoxed first-person ruminations with rhetorical questions that probe moments of deep vulnerability and hope. … Clear echoes of Judy Blume couple with themes of social adaptation that rely a bit heavily on analogies to the animal kingdom, but a range of readers should relate to Ollie’s sense of otherness. As Ollie puts it, 'Being yourself can hurt,' but awkward and self-aware stories like Ollie’s can help more tweens 'just be.'"—Booklist, starred review

Reviews

Goodreads review by Anna on April 15, 2025

I really felt like had I been more self-aware as a child I would have been Ollie. Everything about them is so relatable and how they experience gender and sexuality and friendships and hobbies is so similar to me that I really felt right at home with this book. It absolutely wrenched my heart string......more

Goodreads review by Annine on April 19, 2025

Thanks to RBMedia and Recorded Books for the audioARC. 🩵 trans, non-binary and queer kids 🩷 figuring out who you are 🤍 being brave enough to be who you are 🩷 queer kids gravitating towards eachother 🩵 autism rep, anxiety/panic attacks, half-Iranian non-binary MC I just loved this. So many relatable thin......more

Goodreads review by Rapunzel on March 14, 2025

I really wanted to love Ollie In Between, but it consistently fell somewhat short of my expectations. I’m always seeking out new middle-grade stories of nonbinary and trans self-discovery, and based on the description, I was hoping Ollie In Between would find its place among my favorites. Unfortunat......more

Goodreads review by Winnie on October 31, 2024

Thank you NetGalley for the ARC!! I had the biggest smile on my face after completing this wholesome novel. Ollie's journey discovering their gender identity mirrored so many of my own moments growing up as a confused, scared, and most definitely not cis girl. Jess Callans wrote this book with the pr......more

Goodreads review by Karly on April 18, 2025

This is the book I needed growing up 😭 I relate so much to Ollie, from being obsessed with National Geographic magazines as a kid to experiencing anxiety/panic attacks to feeling not quite like a woman but not quite like a man. I wish I had the same level of self-awareness and access to resources Oll......more