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Kirstin Cronn-Mills

Beautiful Music for Ugly Children Paperback – October 8, 2012

by Kirstin Cronn-Mills (Author)

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"This is Beautiful Music for Ugly Children, on community radio 90.3, KZUK. I’m Gabe. Welcome to my show."

My birth name is Elizabeth, but I’m a guy. Gabe. My parents think I’ve gone crazy and the rest of the world is happy to agree with them, but I know I’m right. I’ve been a boy my whole life.

When you think about it, I’m like a record. Elizabeth is my A side, the song everybody knows, and Gabe is my B side―not heard as often, but just as good.

It’s time to let my B side play.

Winner of the 2014 Stonewall Book Award for Children's and Young Adult Literature.

Praise:
“Every so often a book comes along that is so sharp, so moving, so real, and so good, you want to press it into everyone’s hands and say, Read this! READ THIS!”―Courtney Summers, author of Cracked Up to Be and This is Not a Test

Print length

271 pages
Language

English
Publisher

Flux
Publication date

October 8, 2012
Grade level

10 - 12
Dimensions

5.25 x 0.75 x 7.75 inches
ISBN-10

0738732516
ISBN-13

978-0738732510
Lexile measure

HL600L
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Editorial Reviews

From School Library Journal

Gr 8 Up-Elizabeth Williams knows he has always been a guy, and if he can only get through graduation in a few weeks, he can begin his new life as Gabe. He is transitioning, but his family refuses to acknowledge him, and his classmates bully him. The only person who supports him is his BFF, Paige, and, predictably, he has a crush on her but can't take a chance on ruining their friendship. Gabe is a music geek, and his ultra-cool, grandfatherly neighbor John, a former DJ, lands him a community radio show, Beautiful Music for Ugly Children. Gabe DJs as himself, and after working up the courage to tell John, who is fine with him being a "triangle," they put together a show about A sides and B sides, which becomes popular with the Ugly Children Brigade fan club and a running theme in the book. But when Gabe has a date with one of his fans, and she recognizes him as Liz, word spreads and some fans drop out of the Facebook club, while others get violent. When John is critically hurt defending Gabe at an Ugly Children event, the offenders are arrested, John's long-lost daughter shows up, Gabe's parents have a change of heart, and Paige and Gabe may have a chance together. While this transgender coming-of-age tale wraps up a bit too quickly, the quirky relationship between Gabe and John and their shared music obsession elevates this story above the average problem novel.-Betty S. Evans, Missouri State University, Springfieldα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

From Booklist

Gabe has a secret. He is really Liz. Born a female, he is cautiously beginning his transition to male. Only his parents and his lifelong best friend, Paige, know. But when a girl at school, where he is callously called “that lesbo chick,” discovers the truth and outs Gabe, things become difficult, if not downright dangerous. In the meantime, Gabe is a part-time DJ on the local community radio station, where his show, “Beautiful Music for Ugly Children,” is fast becoming an underground hit. Will his fans reject him when they, too, discover the truth? What, as Gabe thinks in difficult circumstances, would Elvis do? Obviously, there are nuggets of humor in an otherwise serious story. Cronn-Mills’ thoughtful book joins a small but growing body of literature that gives faces to this traditionally invisible minority. Despite a few incidents that require a willing suspension of disbelief, the story is a model of integrity, and Gabe is an always appealing character. Grades 9-12. --Michael Cart

Review

Gr 8 Up-Elizabeth Williams knows he has always been a guy, and if he can only get through graduation in a few weeks, he can begin his new life as Gabe. He is transitioning, but his family refuses to acknowledge him, and his classmates bully him. The only person who supports him is his BFF, Paige, and, predictably, he has a crush on her but can't take a chance on ruining their friendship. Gabe is a music geek, and his ultra-cool, grandfatherly neighbor John, a former DJ, lands him a community radio show, Beautiful Music for Ugly Children. Gabe DJs as himself, and after working up the courage to tell John, who is fine with him being a "triangle," they put together a show about A sides and B sides, which becomes popular with the Ugly Children Brigade fan club and a running theme in the book. But when Gabe has a date with one of his fans, and she recognizes him as Liz, word spreads and some fans drop out of the Facebook club, while others get violent. When John is critically hurt defending Gabe at an Ugly Children event, the offenders are arrested, John's long-lost daughter shows up, Gabe's parents have a change of heart, and Paige and Gabe may have a chance together. While this transgender coming-of-age tale wraps up a bit too quickly, the quirky relationship between Gabe and John and their shared music obsession elevates this story above the average problem novel.-Betty S. Evans, Missouri State University, Springfieldα(c) Copyright 2011. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted. --From School Library Journal

Gabe has a secret. He is really Liz. Born a female, he is cautiously beginning his transition to male. Only his parents and his lifelong best friend, Paige, know. But when a girl at school, where he is callously called “that lesbo chick,” discovers the truth and outs Gabe, things become difficult, if not downright dangerous. In the meantime, Gabe is a part-time DJ on the local community radio station, where his show, “Beautiful Music for Ugly Children,” is fast becoming an underground hit. Will his fans reject him when they, too, discover the truth? What, as Gabe thinks in difficult circumstances, would Elvis do? Obviously, there are nuggets of humor in an otherwise serious story. Cronn-Mills’ thoughtful book joins a small but growing body of literature that gives faces to this traditionally invisible minority. Despite a few incidents that require a willing suspension of disbelief, the story is a model of integrity, and Gabe is an always appealing character. Grades 9-12. --Michael Cart --From Booklist

A kind and satisfyingly executed portrait. --Kirkus Reviews

About the Author

Kirstin Cronn-Mills is the author of Minnesota Book Award finalist The Sky Always Hears Me And the Hills Don’t Mind and Beautiful Music for Ugly Children. Cronn-Mills received her doctorate degree from Iowa State University and currently teaches in North Mankato, Minnesota, where she lives with her husband and son.

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Product details

Publisher ‏ : ‎ Flux; Original edition (October 8, 2012)
Language ‏ : ‎ English
Paperback ‏ : ‎ 271 pages
ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 0738732516
ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-0738732510
Lexile measure ‏ : ‎ HL600L
Grade level ‏ : ‎ 10 - 12
Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 8.8 ounces
Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 5.25 x 0.75 x 7.75 inches

Best Sellers Rank: #794,823 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
- #1,099 in Teen & Young Adult Fiction on Dating & Sex (Books)
- #1,179 in Teen & Young Adult LGBTQ+ Fiction (Books)
- #3,888 in Teen & Young Adult Contemporary Romance

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Kirstin Cronn-Mills

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According to geographers, the American West begins at the 100th longitudinal meridian. Thanks to the fact that this meridian is the main street of her hometown in Nebraska, Kirstin Cronn-Mills grew up six blocks east of the West. Yes, there were cowboys around.

Kirstin is a self-proclaimed word nerd. She learned to read when she was three (according to her mother) and she hasn't stopped since. Her grandmother and her father passed on their love of language to her, and that love became a love affair when she started writing poems in the sixth grade. She still writes poems, but now she focuses on young adult novels. She's pretty sure that teenagers are the funniest, smartest, coolest people on the planet.

In 1992 Kirstin moved from Nebraska to southern Minnesota, where she lives now. She writes a lot, reads as much as she can, teaches at a two-year college, and goofs around with her son, Shae, and her husband, Dan. Her first novel, The Sky Always Hears Me and The Hills Don't Mind (Flux), was a 2010 Minnesota Book Award finalist in Young People's Literature. A short story epilogue to Sky, "The First Time I Got Stranded in the Big Empty," appears in the e-anthology The First Time (Verday and Stapleton, 2011). She also published a middle-grade science book in 2009: Collapse! The Science of Structural Engineering Failures (Compass Point Books). Her short story "Header" will appear on the Young Adult Review Network (YARN) website sometime in the fall of 2012, and a nonfiction book about the lives of transgendered Americans will appear from Lerner in 2014

Customer reviews

5 star		78%
4 star		11%
3 star		7%
2 star		2%
1 star		2%

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Top reviews from the United States

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Stoicstella

This a decent, if underwhelming, YA coming of age story

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 12, 2018

Verified Purchase

I purchased this book as part of a 30 Days of Pride Book Review project. This is that review:

“When 45s were around, most djs didn't care about B sides but some were big hits…” “when you think about it, I'm like a 45. Liz is my A side, the song everybody knows, and Gabe is my B side, not played as often but just as good.”

Things are starting to come together for Gabe. Once he leaves high school, he vows to say goodbye to Liz, his A side, forever. Whether he actually lands his dream job of being a paid disc jockey, heads off to college, or just slaves away at minimum wage, he knows that he is finally going to be able to live as Gabe 24/7. It won't matter anymore if his parents continue to fail at ever making eye contact again, or if the kids at school forever have him pegged as a freak.

But being Gabe on the late night community radio station, and being Gabe in the same hometown where everyone still remembers him as Liz prove to be two completely different things. Gabe isn't always sure he's up to the challenge. Is being Gabe worth all the risk and pain?

This is a decent young adult - coming of age/ coming out story.

It has some good things going for it. I like seeing a trans guy as a protagonist. The running metaphor throughout, about living a B side life, ties into Gabe’s music obsession and is a successful way to relate that feeling of starting a new chapter in his life. The book also touches on some of the family struggles a person coming out as trans can face. His parents have a hard time embracing Gabe, thinking that it means letting go of Liz, and have a hard time comprehending that, really, he has been Gabe all along.

There isn't anything I really disliked about the novel. I just felt kind of underwhelmed, I guess. The story is very simple, the characters are pretty surface level, for the most part. Everything is pretty predictable and formulaic. Gabe and his mentor hung out listening to and talking about music, but their dialogue and banter didn't really have any chemistry. Gabe is having crushes on some girls, and may even be in love with a particular girl, and again… there just doesn't seem to be any real chemistry. I guess I wanted deeper characters with more authentic voices.

I can recommend it to fans of YA novels who are specifically looking for Trans coming out stories. It is a decent if not outstanding example of the genre.

On the project scales it fairs so-so.

Up first is The Queer Counterculture Visibility Scale, which I made up as a way to quantify how much a book showed the stories of less visible members of the community. It does okay on this scale. I liked that the POV character is a trans-guy. He's white and seems financially comfortable… though he does have to consider the financial aspect of any medical transition, and can't just take it as a given that it will happen for him. One side character had a pretty open sexuality, possibly bi or pan… but it wasn't really explored or viewed all that positively. Because trans stories are still underrepresented I'm going to peg this book at a:

3 out of 5 stars

The second scale, my Genre Expectation scale, rates about the same. This a perfectly acceptable example of a YA coming of age/ coming out story. It didn't really wow me, but it didn't bore or offend me.

3 out of 5 stars

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Kat

Musical references and gender issues

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on June 23, 2014

Verified Purchase

Beautiful Music for Ugly Children is full of musical references, has a main character that really stands out from the crowd and is a story about the difficulties of growing up and finding yourself when you are considered ‘different’.

Gabe is transgender and has always known he should have been born a boy. He’s also incredibly comfortable in his own skin and identity as a boy – something which I found really refreshing as a trans character. His parents and best friend know his ‘secret’ but to everyone else, including all the kids at his school, he is still Liz. Gabe is also incredibly passionate about music, a passion he shares with his next-door neighbour John.

Although BMfUG is at the core about Gabe’s need to belong and feel like himself in a society that isn’t particularly accepting of him, it also felt like a coming-of-age story that anyone could relate to. Gabe knows what his passions are and where he wants his life to lead, he’s just not exactly sure how to get there. He dejays a late night radio slot, and through his music he finds a place to belong – if only as a voice over the airwaves.

Gabe also has a crush on his childhood best friend, Paige. And whilst in theory it sounded like a great idea, Gabe’s a little flippy-floppy and alternates between crushing on Paige and crushing on other girls. Although that’s probably far more common in teenage boys than I would have imagined at that age, it made him feel a little flighty and at certain stages I did lose a little respect for him as a character.

There were also a few unresolved plot lines, both of which were key parts of Gabe’s story and I found that really frustrating. I can deal with minor plot lines petering out, but major ones that affect key characters just kind of fizzling made it hard for me to completely fall in love with BMfUG.

Fresh, open and crammed with music references, Beautiful Music for Ugly Children is a book about trying to figure out where you belong, combined with some difficult situations that felt incredibly realistic and ultimately pretty satisfying.

Helpful

A MUST READ

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on December 22, 2013

Verified Purchase

Every so often, an opportunity comes along for me to review a book on NetGalley that I select because I'm not sure the author could really get it right. R.J. Palacio's Wonder was one of those books, and Kirstin Cronn-Mills' Beautiful Music for Ugly Children was another. Both succeeded, despite my initial doubts.

Beautiful Music for Ugly Children is Gabe's story. Gabe was born Elizabeth, and as the end of senior year approaches, Gabe has landed himself his own late-night show on the local community radio show, and begins his journey coming out as a transgendered male. The book isn't so much about that process as about Gabe himself: his interactions with his family, figuring out what he wants to do career-wise, and what he's going to do about his best friend... and the other girls he's interested in.

Beautiful Music for Ugly Children could have descended into so many of the expected tropes for a young adult novel about a transgendered main character, but it manages to take the unexpected path nearly every time, making the reader think about Gabe in terms of being Gabe, not in terms of being transgendered. His obsession with music -- particularly the oldies -- adds to the movement of the novel, and may cause younger readers to research some classic tunes, while giving older readers something to relate to.

I was able to read this book before its release, as an advanced copy. My purchase of it was for my teen.

One person found this helpful

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Becca

So Good!

Reviewed in the United States 🇺🇸 on November 29, 2021

Verified Purchase

I loved reading this book! I had to read it for a class but 10/10 would have read it for pleasure. The message is amazing and it does a great job of tugging at the heart strings. Highly recommend!

Helpful

Top reviews from other countries

Chanatkins

Brilliant soundtrack to a great book

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 8, 2019

Verified Purchase

As a music fan, it was the music that drew me to this book and it was the music that kept me reading. Born a girl, Liz, Gabe is struggling with his families reaction to revealing his true gender, and his feelings for his best friend. What I loved about this book was how music helped Gabe overcome his fears. His slot as a nighttime DJ on community radio allowed him to be who he wanted to be, say what he wanted to say and in the process he gained a huge and loyal following. Music really is powerful, and that was the message I took from this book. Gabe is s great character too, one you really root for. I almost feel like a sequel to this is needed though!

Lauren H

Just like Gabe.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 14, 2017

Verified Purchase

This book was so unbelievably normal. the characters were relatable and the story was written as if we have all experienced it. It was written from the perspective of a teenager and the issues that surround it are alarmingly accurate. Cronn-Mills writes this story for exactly what it is: every day life. The struggles that come with it, but the joys that follow also. Very entertaining. And I think it's safe to say: we all need a John in our lives. Just like Gabe.

Sarah Carter

Brilliant for many reasons

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on February 5, 2016

Verified Purchase

Absolutely loved this. I stated it at half past midnight and didn't stop til I'd finished it at after 2am. An excellent coming of age book, full of love for music, but most importantly a sensitive look at Gabe's coming out as a trans boy. This is sweet, funny and absolutely respectful.

Amazon Customer

Unnecessary misogyny

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on May 29, 2019

Verified Purchase

It was ok, I wasn't gripped but I was willing to give it a try. Ended up ditching it due to unnecessary intermittent misogyny.

FC

Great story, but lacking some realities that come with being trans

Reviewed in the United Kingdom 🇬🇧 on December 10, 2018

Verified Purchase

As a story, it's great. Loved the characters and plot. I also loved how the book wasn't exclusively about Gabe being trans.
The only thing about this book I didn't like was the fact that Dysphoria was never really addressed. In my opinion it shows that the author is not trans herself.
Other than that I'd say it's a great read, just lacking some realities that come with being trans

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