I enjoyed this YA coming-of-age novel. What I loved about it was how it centered the narrative around teen characters with real intersectional identities. No one is one-dimentional or stereotypical. Black, Asian, mixed-race, female, bi-sexual, lesbian, bipolar and Jewish. This book was written for a younger audience than me, but it was still welcome to read Colbert's representation of the teen angst, joy and anxiety. It felt more honest in approach than other YA novels I've read recently where the characters felt overly confident or adult in the way they interacted with the world. I'm not sure how old Colbert is but she captured that life stage well. She weaved together how each one of us felt insecure in our own self, and the compounding issues faced by a young queer woman of color and her white Jewish brother suffering from mental illness.

I remember what it felt like growing up to find even one book in the library that had positive or realistic portrayals of gay teens. The feeling of joy on reading characters like me, of how much more I could relate to the story, even if it took place far from my daily reality. So I can only imagine what this book has meant to young women of color or a young person living with bipolar at the same time they're coming into their adulthood.

Little & Lion is well-deserving of the awards it received (ALA’s 2018 Stonewall Book Award, listed to ALA’s 2018 Best Fiction for Young Adults, among others). This one would be a great, meaningful gift for any young adult in your life - no matter who they are, they'll either see themselves represented in some way or learn from the stories of others.