Every Bird a Prince, by Jenn Reese, is a middle-grade book that follows Eren Evers, a girl who finds racing on her bike through the woods much more manageable than handling the world of middle school crushes. Her two best friends are determined that all three of them should have dates to the upcoming dance and pressure Eren to give them the name of somebody she has a crush on. Never having had a crush, she randomly names a boy in their grade, Alex. When she discovers a magical bird and an evil force threatening her world in the woods, she and Alex get thrown into defending their town while still navigating the middle school social world.

I really enjoyed this book. Eren is trying so hard to keep everybody in her life happy but herself. Her experiences with being pressured by her friends to act interested in relationships that she doesn’t want to have are portrayed really well, and are a very important idea to be introduced to the middle school audience of this book. Eren is brave and caring and I thoroughly enjoyed reading about her.

Alex is the secondary protagonist, drawn together with Eren through their friends pressuring the two to hang out together, and I liked him too. He provides a nice foil to Eren in many ways, although I do wish that he’d been given the opportunity to be fleshed out more.

The magical aspect of the book is quite interesting, even if it is just a thinly veiled metaphor for self-esteem in middle schoolers. Essentially, the magical bird that Eren finds is one of many in a kingdom that helps to defend the world against Frostfangs, which whisper horrible things to you and make you lose yourself, and Eren and Alex are selected by the birds as champions to help defeat them. I enjoyed it, and I think it will definitely speak to the target audience; I just wish there had been a bit more nuance or depth to the magic and worldbuilding.

The side characters were all only okay. Luisa, who is Alex’s sister, is the only standout one; she’s basically raising him after their mom died, and she’s openly queer, giving Eren some much-needed explanations about aspects of the LGBTQIA* community. I really loved having an openly panromantic asexual character in a middle-grade book, particularly one who’s seen as a role model for the younger characters. All of the other side characters were forgettable at best and horrible at worst, particularly Eren’s friends.

One thing I did really enjoy about this book was its introduction of queer issues to a young audience. Eren is aromantic (and I’m guessing asexual, though that isn’t discussed), and as an aspec (asexuality spectrum) person it felt so amazing to see aromanticism representation in the main character of a book, particularly one for middle-grade readers. This is important for a lot of reasons, namely the fact that asexuality and aromanticism are critically underrepresented in books (this might be the first I’ve ever read with a confirmed aromantic protagonist), but particularly because people of those two identities are frequently told that they’re too young to identify as such, and dismissed as being late bloomers or simply immature. Having this book available to young people is so crucial as affirmation for young asexual and aromantic people who likely never see themselves in media, particularly because it is such an affirming work.

Every Bird a Prince is an incredible step forward for aromantic and asexual representation. If you’re looking for a middle-grade story that openly discusses and affirms queer issues, then absolutely pick it up. In addition to that, though, it also has really important points about peer pressure and the dynamics of middle-school friend groups that would be important for middle schoolers to read. I can’t recommend this book enough, particularly for fantasy fans. I’m giving it 5 stars.

Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for providing me with a free eARC in exchange for a fair and honest review.