Dactyl Hill Squad - Dinosaurs and Race in a reimagined 1863 New York (with a Trans Hero!)

Dactyl Hill Squad by Daniel José Older

It's 1863 and dinosaurs roam the streets of New York as the Civil War rages between raptor-mounted armies down South. Magdalys Roca and her friends from the Colored Orphan Asylum are on a field trip when the Draft Riots break out, and a number of their fellow orphans are kidnapped by an evil magistrate, Richard Riker.

Magdalys and her friends flee to Brooklyn and settle in the Dactyl Hill neighborhood, where black and brown New Yorkers have set up an independent community--a safe haven from the threats of Manhattan. Together with the Vigilance Committee, they train to fly on dactylback, discover new friends and amazing dinosaurs, and plot to take down Riker. Can Magdalys and the squad rescue the rest of their friends before it's too late?

What's Queer about it? One of the heroes of this story is the pirate Redd, a trans man.

This Middle Grade title has won a LOT of praise, including being named A New York Times Notable Book, An NPR Best Book of the Year, A School Library Journal Best Book of the Year, A New York Public Library Best Book of the Year, A Washington Post Best Book of the Year, and A Publishers Weekly Best Book of the Year. 

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The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue - A 1700s Gay Teen Romp Through Europe

The Gentleman's Guide to Vice and Virtue by Mackenzi Lee

Henry “Monty” Montague was born and bred to be a gentleman, but he was never one to be tamed. The finest boarding schools in England and the constant disapproval of his father haven’t been able to curb any of his roguish passions—not for gambling halls, late nights spent with a bottle of spirits, or waking up in the arms of women or men.

But as Monty embarks on his grand tour of Europe, his quest for a life filled with pleasure and vice is in danger of coming to an end. Not only does his father expect him to take over the family’s estate upon his return, but Monty is also nursing an impossible crush on his best friend and traveling companion, Percy.

Still it isn’t in Monty’s nature to give up. Even with his younger sister, Felicity, in tow, he vows to make this yearlong escapade one last hedonistic hurrah and flirt with Percy from Paris to Rome. But when one of Monty’s reckless decisions turns their trip abroad into a harrowing manhunt that spans across Europe, it calls into question everything he knows, including his relationship with the boy he adores.

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Secret City - A Teen Girl faces coming of age and coming out in a World War II-era Secret Town Where They're Building The Atomic Bomb

Secret City by Julia Watts

Ruby Pickett didn't have any say about the family move to Tennessee. Her daddy's new job will help the war effort, though no one has told her exactly how. Brand new, government-built Oak Ridge quickly proves a curious and intriguing place for the sixteen-year-old's rampant curiosity.
A voracious reader, Ruby wonders at mysteries in books and sees possible mysteries in the secrecy that surrounds Oak Ridge. She finds a kindred spirit in Iris, a young wife and mother who has moved to Oak Ridge with her scientist husband, and who chafes at the intellectual emptiness of her new home and life.
Faraway events don't seem likely to answer any of Ruby's questions, but as the war grows more destructive Ruby begins to realize that her curiosity--like her deepening feelings for Iris--may be more dangerous than she could possibly imagine.

A finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, you can add your review of "Secret City" in comments!

Train - Over ten days in 1943 Berlin, six teenagers witness and try to escape the Nazi round-ups, Including the gay teen couple Alex (who is Jewish) and Marko (who is Roma)

Train by Danny M. Cohen

Marko screwed up. But he's good at swallowing his fear.
By now, the 17-year-old 'Gypsy' should be far from Nazi Germany. By now, he should be with Alex. That's how they planned it. But while Marko has managed to escape the Gestapo, Alex has been arrested in the final round-ups of Berlin's Jews. Even worse, Marko’s little cousin Kizzy is missing. And Marko knows he’s to blame.
Yet the tides of war are turning. With hundreds of Christian women gathered in the streets to protest the round-ups, the Nazis have suspended the trains to the camps. But for how long? Marko must act now. Against time, and with British warplanes bombing Berlin, Marko hatches a dangerous plan to rescue Alex and find Kizzy.
There are three people who can help: Marko’s sister with her connections to the Resistance, Alex’s Catholic stepsister, and a mysterious Nazi girl with a deadly secret.
But will Marko own up to how Kizzy disappeared? And then there’s the truth about Alex — they just wouldn’t understand.

In 2017 this title was selected as the inaugural text of the Museum Teacher Fellows national book club of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Add your review of the author-published (in conjunction with the UnSilence Project) "Train" in comments!

Riptide Summer - A Vintage 1970's Bi Teen Surfer Girl Novel

Riptide Summer by Lisa Freeman

The year is 1973, and sixteen-year-old Nani is firmly established as one of the top girls in the State Beach lineup. She’s looking forward to a long, relaxing summer of days spent in the sun with her surfer boyfriend, and to secret nights with Rox, the lineup’s queen supreme.

But when surf god Nigel breaks her heart, and Rox reveals a secret that tears their friendship—and the lineup—apart, Nani is left to pick up the pieces. If she can’t recruit new Honey Girls to the lineup, the friends will lose their reputation as the beach’s top babes. With the summer spiraling out of control, Nani starts to question everything she’s always believed about how to rule the beach. Maybe it’s time to leave the rules behind, starting with the most important one: Girls don’t surf.

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The Persecution Of Mildred Dunlap - YA Historical Fiction that's been called "a Women's Brokeback Mountain"

The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap by Paulette Mahurin

The year 1895 was filled with memorable historical events: the Dreyfus Affair divided France; Booker T. Washington gave his Atlanta address; the United States expanded the effects of the Monroe Doctrine to cover South America; and Oscar Wilde was tried and convicted for gross indecency under Britain's recently passed law that made sex between males a criminal offense.

When news of Wilde's conviction went out over telegraphs worldwide, it threw a small Nevada town into chaos - in particular, Mildred and Edra, two women who lived together and loved each other.

As the author says, "This is the story of what happened when the lives of its citizens were impacted by the news of Oscar Wilde's imprisonment. It is a chronicle of hatred and prejudice with all its unintended and devastating consequences, and how love and friendship bring strength and healing."

"The Persecution of Mildred Dunlap" was nominated for the ALA's 2014 Rainbow List, and you can add your review in comments!

Riding Freedom - Middle Grade Historical Fiction About Charlie "One Eyed Charlie" Parkhurst, A Famous Stagecoach Driver In the California Gold Rush Who Lived As A Man And Had A Female Body

Riding Freedom by Pam Muñoz Ryan, illustrated by Brian Selznick

Charlotte Parkhurst was raised in an orphanage for boys, which suited her just fine. She didn't like playing with dolls, she could hold her own in a fight, and she loved to work in the stable. Charlotte had a special way with horses and wanted to spend her life training and riding them on a ranch of her own.

The problem was, as a girl in the mid-1800s, Charlotte was expected to live a much different life -- one without the freedoms she dreamed of. But Charlotte was smart and determined, and she figured out a way to live her life the way she wanted.

Charlotte became an expert horse rider, a legendary stagecoach driver, and the first woman ever to vote. And she did these things at a time when they were outlawed for women. How? With a plan so clever and so secret - almost no one figured it out.

My note: This is a well-written fictionalized story about real-life One-Eyed Charlie, though by keeping the feminine pronoun throughout, the author never lets you forget that Charlie is "really" "Charlotte." But were they? Isn't it possible that Charlie was the more "true" identity for this historical figure?

While clearly a story of gender non-conformity, the question of Was Charlie transgender? is challenging, as these identities are self-defined. We don't know how Charlie/Charlotte felt about living their life as a man - was it solely to have a better life than they could have had as a woman? Or was it also because they authentically felt they were a man? From my perspective, if someone presents as a man, it's polite to refer to them as such. Thus, every time the author kept referring to the main character as "Charlotte," I chaffed.

But clearly, no disrespect was meant by the author, and this book makes you really like the main character. I enjoyed it.

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Tyler Buckspan - A Gay Teen in 1960s Florida Tries to Figure out If the Guy He's Crushing On Is Clairvoyant Or A Con Aritst

Tyler Buckspan by Jere Fishback

Fifteen-year-old Tyler Buckspan lives with his mom and grandmother in 1960s Cassadaga, a Florida community where spiritual “mediums” ply their trade. The mediums--Tyler’s grandmother among them--read palms and tarot cards, conduct seances and speak with the dead. Tyler’s a loner, a bookish boy with few interests, until his half-brother Devin, nineteen and a convicted arsonist, comes to live in Tyler’s home.

For years, Tyler has ignored his attraction to other boys. But with Devin in the house, Tyler can't deny his urges any longer. He falls hopelessly in love with his miscreant half-brother, and with the sport of basketball, once Devin teaches Tyler the finer points of the game. In a time when love between men was forbidden, even criminalized, can Tyler find the love he needs from another boy? And is Devin a person to be trusted? Is he truly clairvoyant, or simply a con artist playing Tyler and others for fools? What does Devin really know about a local murder? And can Tyler trust his own psychic twinges?

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The Sin Warriors - Historical Fiction Based On The 1950s purge of Gay people from Florida's Universities

The Sin Warriors by Julian E. Farris

Fifty years ago, three hundred teachers and students in Florida vanished. No storm troopers. No mass graves. Who were they? Just wasted lives from blackmail, coercion, entrapment--tactics of state senator Charlie Johns and his covert investigations of homosexuals in Florida's universities. The Sin Warriors is a novel inspired by those actual events.

David Ashton has struggled for self-acceptance and identity his entire life. David's estrangement from a dysfunctional family childhood, his sexual awakening and bonding with his gay professor places them in the crosshairs of state senator Billy Sloat, an ambitious, country politician obsessed with ridding the university of subversives--homosexuals, blacks, alleged communists--on the heels of the McCarthy hearings during the mid-fifties. But who is Sloat actually, and where does his hatred and contempt come from? From a backwoods childhood in North Florida to his reign as a powerful senator, Sloat intends to destroy the new life David has built for himself in college, and questions are raised: What is family? Whom should we love? What price do we pay to defend our country and our integrity? Which is more enduring fear or love? 

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Whistle Pass - The 1950s, Homophobia, and Gay Romance

Whistle Pass by KevaD (a.k.a. David Kentner)

On the battlefields of WWII Europe, Charlie Harris fell in love, and after the war, Roger marched home without a glance back. Ten years later, Charlie receives a cryptic summons and quickly departs for his former lover’s hometown of Whistle Pass.

But Roger Black isn’t the lover of Charlie’s dreams anymore. He’s a married, hard-bitten political schemer who wants to secure his future by destroying evidence of his indiscreet past. Open homosexuality is practically a death sentence, and that photo would ruin Roger and all his wife’s nefarious plans.

Caught up in foggy, tangled events, Charlie turns to hotel manager Gabe Kasper for help, and Gabe is intrigued by the haunted soldier who so desperately desires peace. When helping his new lover places Gabe in danger, the old warrior in Charlie will have to take drastic action to protect him... or condemn them both.

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Tiger Lily - A Transgender Teen Historical Supernatural Novel

Tiger Lily by K. Bird Lincoln

Lily isn't supposed to hunt game in the Daimyo's woods. It isn't her place to talk to nobility, and she definitely isn't supposed to sing forbidden Jindo songs.

But Lily was born in the year of the Tiger, and can't ever be like other village girls. In the woods snaring rabbits one day, she finds instead the Daimyo's son, Ashikaga, wounded. When the Pretender Emperor's men arrive to kill Ashikaga, Lily, desperate, sings a forbidden song.

The song wakes a powerful spirit - as well as Ashikaga's interest. The prickly lord has hidden secrets of his own and a burning desire to prove himself to his father. He will stop at nothing to defeat his father's greatest enemy.

All Lily wants to do is take care of her sisters. But the Pretender-Emperor's forces are drawing near, and now the Daimyo's son knows she communes with Jindo gods. Lily's heart is leading her down a dangerous path. She may have to defy her father, Ashikaga, and even the spirits themselves in order to defeat the Pretender-Emperor's magic and keep safe all that she loves.

What's queer about it?  There is a transgender twist in "Tiger Lily" - but I can't tell you exactly what it is without spoiling it!

This novel was published by the author.  Add your review of "Tiger Lily" in comments!

Silhouette of a Sparrow - A Teen Comes of Age (and Falls in love with Another Girl) in 1926

Silhouette of a Sparrow by Molly Beth Griffin

Sent to spend the summer with distant relatives at a resort hotel in Excelsior, Minnesota, sixteen-year-old Garnet Richardson—budding ornithologist; reluctant troublemaker; adventurous spirit—quickly compiles a list of all the things she wants to do: sneak into the new amusement park, wander the countryside looking for new birds, and somehow convince her mother to let her attend college. It’s 1926 and Garnet is well aware of the world’s expectations of her: after this summer with her relatives, she is to marry, settle down, and become a housewife. But what no one expects—least of all Garnet—is that she’ll fall in love with the beautiful and daring Isabella, a flapper at the local dance hall. It is she who will give Garnet the courage to take control of her own life and pursue her dreams.

This is the author's debut novel.  Add your review of "Silhouette of a Sparrow" in comments!

The FitzOsbornes in Exile. Book Two of The Montmaray Journals - Historical Teen Fiction with Gay and Bisexual characters!

The FitzOsbornes in Exile, book two of The Montmaray Journals by Michelle Cooper

Sophia FitzOsborne and the royal family of Montmaray escaped their remote island home when the Germans attacked, and now find themselves in the lap of luxury. Sophie's journal fills us in on the social whirl of London's 1937 season, but even a princess in lovely new gowns finds it hard to fit in. Is there no other debutante who reads?!

And while the balls and house parties go on, newspaper headlines scream of war in Spain and threats from Germany. No one wants a second world war. Especially not the Montmaravians—with all Europe under attack, who will care about the fate of their tiny island kingdom?

Will the FitzOsbornes ever be able to go home again? Could Montmaray be lost forever?

There are gay and bisexual characters in this - but you'll have to read it to find out who!

And here's the synopsis of the first book in the series, A Brief History of Montmaray

Sophie Fitzosborne lives in a crumbling castle in the tiny island kingdom of Montmaray with her eccentric and impoverished royal family. When she receives a journal for her sixteenth birthday, Sophie decides to chronicle day-to-day life on the island. But this is 1936, and the news that trickles in from the mainland reveals a world on the brink of war. The politics of Europe seem far away from their remote islanduntil two German officers land a boat on Montmaray. And then suddenly politics become very personal indeed.

Add your review of or book one,"A Brief History of Montmaray" and/or book two, "The FitzOsbornes in Exile," in comments!