Product details
- ISBN 9781419773662
- Dimensions: 140 x 203mm
- Publication Date: 03 Dec 2026
- Publisher: Abrams
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Paperback
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From drag superstar Eureka O’Hara and bestselling author Dan Poblocki comes a beautiful, buoyant middle-grade novel about a boy who enters a local pageant—as a drag queen
When Jackson Bright wears a dress to school, he expects to be complimented on the fabulous polka dot design. Instead, he gets bullied by his classmates, called to the principal’s office, and sent home.
Jackson doesn’t know why people are saying that he needs to “dress like a boy.” And with all the discussions of how boys and girls should dress, he wonders where people like his best friend, Eva, who’s nonbinary, fit into all of this. Or why he felt so confident and happy while wearing that dress.
So when Jackson sees a flyer for the town’s beloved Little Miss pageant, he comes up with a plan to dress in drag in order to compete and show the town just how fabulous he can be. Before he knows it, he’s thrust into a world of rhinestone gowns and fiercely applied makeup. With the help of Eva and Jackson’s Uncle Aaron, he scrambles to come up with an array of dazzling costumes, a killer talent act, and a crowd-winning speech. As he navigates the ups and downs of the competition—while keeping the secret of who he really is and hiding a growing crush on his rival’s brother—Jackson learns the importance of staying true to yourself in a world that may not always accept you.
Eureka O’Hara started out as a small country child in the heart of East Tennessee. She is known for competing on RuPaul’s Drag Race and as the cohost of We’re Here on HBO. One of O’Hara’s goals is to give people of difference around the world the confidence to go out and live their dreams. O’Hara wrote Jackson Bright in the Spotlight, her debut novel, because she wanted to create something that could have inspired her when she was growing up. As a self-proclaimed Elephant Queen to her fans, O’Hara’s passion for elephants reflects how she perceives herself: a large, majestic, big mama. She regards those family-oriented and brilliant pachyderms as the best representation of size-positivity, kindness, and love, and she fights to protect those traits in all of us. She lives in Los Angeles. New York–based Dan Poblocki is an author of mystery, horror, and adventure novels for young people. He is the coauthor with Neil Patrick Harris of the #1 New York Times bestselling series The Magic Misfits (writing under the pen name Alec Azam). He’s also the author of Tales to Keep You Up at Night, The Stone Child, The Nightmarys, the Mysterious Four series, and many more. His books The Ghost of Graylock and The Haunting of Gabriel Ashe were JLG selections and made the American Library Association’s Best Fiction for Young Adults list.
