Beautiful Music for Ugly Children is a young adult novel by Kirstin Cronn-Mills, published October 8, 2012, by North Star Editions.

When Cronn-Mills was writing the book, she frequently visited RECLAIM, "a Twin Cities-based organization that offers counseling and other services to transsexual [sic] and LGBT youth."

[4] Michael Cart, writing for Booklist, highlighted the "nuggets of humor in an otherwise serious story", noting that "Cronn-Mills' thoughtful book joins a small but growing body of literature that gives faces to this traditionally invisible minority" of transgender youth.

[6]Multiple reviews mentioned that readers may have to suspend disbelief a bit while reading,[5] including how "Gabe's radio show becomes an underground hit, generating a difficult-to-believe-but-pleasing-to-imagine cadre of fans calling themselves the Ugly Children Brigade".

"[4] Evans similarly found that "he quirky relationship between Gabe and John and their shared music obsession elevates this story above the average problem novel.