Opting Out

by Maia Kobabe, Lucky Srikumar (Illustrator)

From the award-winning author/illustrator of GENDER QUEER and a bright new talent, the story of a kid named Saachi, who is navigating friendship woes, sister issues, a new crush, and a resistance to blue-and-pink binaries.

Bodies are the worst. I wish I didn't have a body.

Saachi is a storyteller. At her small junior high, she's surrounded by kids she's known forever -- including her best friend, Lyla, who shares Saachi's love of fantasy novels and creating new worlds.

But as seventh grade starts, people are changing. Suddenly it matters who likes whom, and it seems like everyone is coupling up. Even Lyla seems more interested in hanging out with Brian than in writing and drawing with Saachi anymore. Saachi's not interested in any of that boy/girl stuff. Why can't things just stay the way they were? Saachi longs to have the freedom of her little sister Samaira, whose elaborate fantasy game with her friends feels safe and comfortable.

As Saachi starts her period and has to sit through the puberty lessons in school, she grows more and more detached from her physical self. She doesn't want her body to change. Why does she have to become more "girl"? What if she doesn't feel like a girl -- or quite like a boy, either? Couldn't she just opt out of both genders? Does such a thing even exist?

Opting Out is a thoughtful exploration of what it means to grow up, both physically and emotionally, with a diverse cast of characters and an honest assessment of the limitations of social and societal binaries. Maia Kobabe (Gender Queer) and Lucky Srikumar each bring pieces of their own stories into Saachi's explorations of identity and belonging.

Genres: Graphic Novels, Middle Grade, LGBT, Contemporary, Childrens, Juvenile, Comics

256 pages, Paperback

Expected publication May 5, 2026

About the author

Maia Kobabe is a trans author, a voracious reader, a kpop fan, and a daydreamer. You can learn an astonishing number of intimate details about em in GENDER QUEER: A MEMOIR and in eir short comics and writing published by The New Yorker, The Nib, NPR, Time Magazine, The Washington Post and in many print anthologies. GENDER QUEER won a Stonewall Honor and an Alex Award from the American Library Association in 2020. It was also the most challenged book in the United States in 2021, 2022, and 2023. Maia's second book is BREATHE: JOURNEYS TO HEALTHY BINDING written with Dr Sarah Peitzmeier (Dutton, 2024). Eir next book is OPTING OUT, a middle grade graphic novel with Swati Lucky Srikumar (Scholastic Graphix, 2026).

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Reviews

[Marisa · Rating 5 out of 5]

Arc provided from the publisher for an honest review.

Maia Kobabe and Swati Srikumar team up to tell the story of an Indian American girl, Saachi, going from 6th to 7th grade and facing a changing body, changing friendships, and beginning to question their gender and identity. With everything changing, she’d like to opt out please.

There are a lot of story tendrils that are presented, some early in the book, like the tension of getting your fist period, and some later in the book, like finding and developing new friendships and being true to your own creative interests. Some books like focus in on 1 storyline and come to completion at the end. This book is a bit like more life, where multiple things happen all at once. A great addition to a library collection.

[Ms. Yingling · Rating 3 out of 5]

E ARC provided by Edelweiss Plus

Saachi lives with her parents, Krishnan and Rukmani, and her younger sister, Samaira. Her parents are supportive, even is Saachi doesn't like that they occasionally make her take care of her sister. She spends a lot of time with her best friend Lyla, but as seventh grade starts, Saachi doesn't like the fact that many of the boys and girls in her class are pairing up and "going out". When she gets her period, she's even more miserable, since she refuses to tell her mother, who might help her get proper supplies. She and Lyla are big fans of a fantasy book series, but Lyla isn't as interested in it as she used to be, and Saachi is more comfortable playing with Samaira and her friends. Saachi fights twice with Isaac, a boy in her class whom she thinks bullies her, and is suspended for three days after stabbing him with a sword key chain. She would like to be a writer, and journals frequently. After her parents get her a subscription to a teens writing magazine, she even submits some poems, but gets rejected. Middle School is hard to navigate at the best of times, and since Saachi suspects she may be nonbinary, it's even harder. She fights with Lyla over a misunderstanding, comes to find that Isaac is someone with whom she actually gets along, and tells her parents about her gender identity journey only to find that they are still very supportive.

This is another middle grade graphic novel that has elements of a memoir, like Hale's Real Friends and Scrivan's Nat Enough books. I love the Hindu representation, but wish there had been a little more explanation about some aspects of it for my students who have never known anyone from that culture. This seems to be set in the modern day, but there are some things that seemed very 1990s to me, like Saachi sending in poem submissions and getting paper rejection letters mailed to her.

[Margaret · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is a great middle grade read about Indian American tween Saachi, who feels anxiety about her gender when starting eighth grade. Her period starts, and kids begin dating, and all of it makes her feel icky. She doesn't feel like a boy or a girl, but doesn't have the words to express that in-betweenness. My eight-year-old read this first and loved it, then I read it! So glad to read another book by Maia Kobabe, and I'd love if more books by co-creator Lucky Srikumar are published. I took a peak at their instagram, and love their art, and the disability + LGBTQ + cat themes.

[Christopher Weber · Rating 4 out of 5]

A strong read for middle schoolers who don’t feel like they fit the mold of boy or girl gender identities or families trying to get a better picture of the spectrum of gender. This also showcases a large variety of personal identities that middle schoolers begin to start finding out about themselves and the changes that those realizations may bring to their friendships and personal lives in a realistic and relatable way. Enjoyable, endearing, and enlightening; just a breath of fresh air that books like this are becoming available for the current and future generations.

[Nicole Stouffer · Rating 5 out of 5]

Absolutely thrilled that Kobabe wrote something geared towards a younger audience. While reading eir first novel for an educator book study nearly lost me my job, these are the kinds of books that need to exist. Dr. Rudine Sims Bishop suggested that books should act like mirrors or windows. If we had more windows, there may be more empathy in this world; we could all use a little more empathy right now.