Stay Gold is a YA contemporary novel that follows Pony, a transgender teen, on his senior year at a new high school. McSmith tackles the topic of going stealth, something that I have not seen represented in many books before. Between this title and Act Cool, another book by this author, McSmith is certainly establishing himself as an essential YA author for library collections. I encourage educators and librarians to read, buy, and recommend his books to others as he is writing stories that are essential to understanding the experiences of transgender people.