Jude Saves The World

Jude Saves The World
Ronnie Riley

The joyful and heartwarming story of Jude, a nonbinary kid who knows exactly who they are and decides to create a safe space in their community.

Twelve-year-old Jude struggles with some things: focusing at school, feeling like everything rests on their shoulders, not being able to come out as nonbinary to their old-fashioned grandparents. But Jude doesn’t struggle with Dallas, their best friend in the whole world. Their person.

Jude and Dallas’s world changes when they learn Stevie, a girl in their class, has been ousted from the popular clique at school. Worried it had something to do with Stevie’s rumoured crush on another girl, Jude reaches out to see if Stevie is okay. Stevie quickly becomes an important friend to Jude and Dallas, whose unwavering acceptance of her is a stark contrast to the tests and dysfunction she experienced with her former friend group.

As their friendship deepens and the three open up to each other, Stevie’s unconditional acceptance when Jude comes out to her motivates Jude to create a queer safe space in their community. After Jude is rebuffed by school administration, they take their idea to the public library, where they find a librarian ally who agrees to help them start the Rosedeen Safe Space — finally, a place where all people in the community can belong!