The Shapeshifter's Guide to Gym Class

For fans of Judy Blume and Lee Knox Ostertag, a heartfelt and hilarious middle grade debut from Kai Cheng Thom about learning to listen to that quiet, bold voice in your heart.

In every generation, a special few of Nor Numinem are born shapeshifters. Unfortunately, being one of the “special few” does not get you out of gym class.

Nor Numinem. A town of hope and beauty. A place where freedom for all blooms as abundantly as the flowering vines that cover the buildings on every street. Yet even in this beautiful town, a kid like Maia’s got problems.

Maia is a shapeshifter.

And worse, she’s starting middle school.

In every generation, a special few of Nor Numinem are born shapeshifters: children who develop the mysterious ability to transform into a part-animal shape. Unfortunately for Maia, her ability is merely this: to grow giant moth wings that grow uncontrollably out of her back whenever she’s excited, or upset, or for some reason, whenever her new classmate Luke looks at her in a particular way. Worse than worse? Maia’s wings are useless. Weak and fragile--unlike her talented friends.

But Maia’s problems are about get much harder than even she knows. A strange illness is spreading through the gardens of Nor Numinem. The very gardens that feed and sustain this once-perfect town. Worse still, some of the adults think the shapeshifter children are to blame. As rumors turn into hate, life gets tougher for those who aren't seen as "normal". Maia and her friends will soon discover that there is a dark rift in Nor Numinem, one that will take all their talents, known and unknown, to heal.

Kai Cheng Thom is a Chinese-Canadian writer, performance artist, mental health community worker, youth counsellor, and former social worker. Thom, a non-binary transgender woman, has published five books, including the novel Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars: A Dangerous Trans Girl's Confabulous Memoir (2016), the poetry collection a place called No Homeland (2017), a children's book, From the Stars in The Sky to the Fish in the Sea (2017), I Hope We Choose Love: A Trans Girl's Notes from the End of the World (2019), a book of essays centered on transformative justice, and Falling Back in Love With Being Human: Letters to Lost Souls (2023).

She won the 2017 Dayne Ogilvie Prize for LGBTQ2S+ Emerging Writers and was a finalist for a Lambda Literary Prize both in 2016 for Transgender Fiction and in 2017 for Transgender Poetry. In 2019, actress Emma Watson chose Fierce Femmes as the March/April pick for the international feminist book club, Our Shared Shelf. In April 2024, her most recent book Falling Back in Love With Being Human was nominated for Pat Lowther Memorial Award.

Most recently, Kai Cheng added “advice columnist” to her repertoire with her new column for Xtra, “Ask Kai: Advice for the Apocalypse”. Kai Cheng Thom lives in Toronto.