Rainbow Fair
by Diana Ma
Intermediate, Middle School    Clarion/HarperCollins    224 pp.
4/25    9780063339521    $19.99
e-book ed.  9780063339545    $9.99

Ma uses the plot device of a middle-school cultural fair to encourage tween readers to push their hesitations aside, explore all the different facets of their identities, and embrace new and changing friendships. Seattle seventh grader Sophie Hu enjoyed running the Chinese booth last year with her best friend, Katie Yang. This year, Katie, who is bisexual, creates a new LGBTQ+ booth, while Sophie is assigned the Muslim booth when her religion is accidentally revealed to her teacher. Sophie tries to figure out what being Chinese Muslim means while weathering some bullying and questioning why her parents, who aren’t publicly observant, keep their faith secret. She finds support in Anna, a new student whose parents are from Turkey and who is also Muslim, and they attend a local mosque’s neighborhood barbecue together. Sophie finds joy when she realizes there are different ways she and her friends can celebrate their respective backgrounds (trading calligraphy for Shakespeare and robotic remixes, for example) and they help each other with their various projects. Ma’s accessible, relatable novel is a breath of fresh air that promotes self-discovery and diversity in a positive light.

From the July/August 2025 issue of The Horn Book Magazine.