LGBTQAI+ Books for Children and Teens: Providing a Window for All — help for librarians and teachers who want to include Queer books for their students and young patrons

LGBTQAI+ Books for Children and Teens: Providing a Window for All by Christina Dorr and Liz Deskins

Created by two Allies to the LGBTQ community, and with a foreword by openly Gay Dr. Jamie Campbell Naidoo, this excellent resource from the American Library Association's ALA Editions imprint empowers librarians and teachers to frame the inclusion of books with LGBTQAI+ characters and themes for children, tweens, and teens as a human rights issue.

The book is structured in three sections (lists of recommended picture books, middle grade titles, and YA books with LGBTQAI+ characters and themes), and each title includes its "awards and honors," "conversation starter" questions, and resource links.

The book also includes suggestions on how to best deal with stakeholders who disagree with the idea of including books for LGBTQAI+, and the authors make the very accurate distinction of how children's books with LGBTQAI+ characters aren't necessarily about sex, any more than children's books about cisgendered and heterosexual characters are!

From an interview with the authors:

Q: What advice can you offer libraries that are dealing with community objections to LGBTQAI+ books or outreach? Or who may be self-censoring to avoid potential conflicts?

A: Our job is not to only promote those books we like or find interesting; our job is to present a whole and balanced curated collection of materials. In this case, the issue is respect and basic human rights for everyone. Sexuality and gender identity are types of diversity, among many, but neither of these are the impetus of for this book, or the books we suggest. Everyone has a right to see themselves in a book, or their family, or their friends. And everyone has the right to be treated with understanding, empathy, and respect. Our book shares quality titles, conversation starters, and other resources that could assist in the defense of the book, if you should need it.

The book also has a resource list of five blogs with more information about LGBTQAI+ books for children and teens that includes this blog—thanks, Christina and Liz!

"LGBTQAI+ Books for Children and Teens" is a title I highly recommend, especially if you're trying to figure out how to best include queer books for your young readers.

Learn more about the book in this full interview with the authors here.

Add your review of "LGBTQAI+ Books for Children and Teens" in comments!

My ALA Annual Conference 2018 #ALAAC2018

I love librarians!

Clark Kent job: from this

To this

and this.

Superhero job: first book signed for a teen reader (!)

Signing "Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill" for Alex Gino, the very first person in line! (Alex wrote the amazing "George" and I'm a huge fan!)

Me signing ARCs of my book for librarians!

And more librarians...

and more librarians...

Librarians, who will hopefully love the book and buy copies to share with their teen and adult patrons!

Meeting Eti Berland, the librarian who tweeted about my signing the day before, saying "This is super happy making news! Just listened to Children's Book podcast w/ @MatthewWinner and I can't wait to read Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill and more importantly, share it with young ppl at my library! #aalac18"

And the capper was Saturday night's award ceremony where I got to cheer on my friend Jacqueline Woodson as she accepted the American Library Association ALSC Children’s Literature Legacy Award!

So many wonderful people met, so many great conversations had with friends existing and new, so much new knowledge to process and learn and move forward with on the adventure ahead... But first, one more day of repping all 200 Indie Books in the IBPA booth (3548.)

Thank you all!

And thanks for checking out this blog post about my #alaac18 experience!

The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,
Lee

LGBT Characters and Their Place In Schools - A Guest Post by Johanna Parkhurst

Johanna's Gay Teen Novel

Johanna Parkhurst

Guess what? My YA book Here’s to You, Zeb Pike is out from Harmony Ink Press. The main characters, Dusty and Emmitt, are pretty excited.

This blog post actually isn’t going to be about Dusty and Emmitt, though. They’re great guys, and I think you’ll like them a lot. But this post is going to be about something Dusty and Emmitt deal with in Here’s to You, Zeb Pike: the belief that no one in the world is like them. And this post is going to be about why, if Dusty and Emmitt had just a better selection of books in their schools, they might not have ended up with that belief.

Don’t tell anyone, but “YA author” is actually my secret identity. I’m also a middle school teacher and curriculum writer.

Shhh.

So I spend a lot of time thinking about what reading materials kids in grades 6-8 should be reading. A LOT. I study the reading material being used in other curriculum maps around the country. I think a lot about the influence the reading material kids see in schools has on their developing psyches, their opinions of the world, and their opinions of themselves.

When I found this book was going to finally be published (and I can’t thank the fine people at Harmony Ink Press enough for that opportunity), I thought a lot about whether or not I should use a pen name. For a variety of reasons. But one of the biggest was this: I knew that if I published a LGBT book under my name, any future school districts I applied to could decide not to hire me because I had published an LGBT book.

I thought a lot about that, but in the end, my husband pretty well summarized why I finally decided I didn’t care: “You wouldn’t want to work for a district that would do that.”

True enough.

I’ve been lucky enough to work for a few schools that have been incredibly supportive of making sure our students have access to all different types of literature. Even LGBT lit. Especially LGBT lit. Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher, Breaking Boxes by A.M. Jenkins, The God Box by Alex Sanchez, Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan. All of these books have either been part of a curriculum or a library in a school I’ve worked for at one time or another.

I very firmly believe that these books and other books like them have to be part of a school’s curriculum and library. There shouldn’t even be a discussion of whether or not they are. Kids’ understanding of what they think about themselves and others is formed just as much by the books that aren’t put in front of them as the books that are. If you never give kids exposure to books featuring LGBT characters, you are inherently sending the message that it is not okay, or normal, to be questioning or lesbian or gay. Whether you meant to send that message or not.

Of course, all this is very easy to say. It’s really easy to say that you, as a teacher, want to provide your students with books that show them insights and ideas from all types of people. It can be a lot harder to do that. Teachers so often have to fight pushback from board members, parents, and administration when they get books with LGBT characters into students’ hands—because there are so many people out there who still do want to send the message that it’s not okay to be questioning, gay, bisexual, or a lesbian. Sometimes well-meaning adults have this idea that kids are too young to be exposed to thinking about things like that; you have to wait until they’re older, they say. The problem with that thinking is that we form ideas and opinions of the world pretty young. So if nobody ever exposes you to LGBT characters before you’re, say, 16, by the time you hit 16, the lack of those characters in your reading life has probably already embedded within you some beliefs that there is something abnormal about people who identify as LGBT.

It doesn’t help that people like to inherently connect sexual identity with sex. I don’t know why people believe that the only way to expose teenagers to LGBT characters in books is to expose them to books with lots of sex in it. It’s just not true. There are so many amazing teen and middle grade novels, and even picture books, that feature LGBT characters without even touching on anything sexual. And if we’re going to listen to the argument that even non-explicit homosexual romance is inappropriate for teenagers, I’d like to point out that almost no school library is making that argument about heterosexual romance. You’ve all heard of Sarah Dessen, right?

Anyhoo, I’ve already lost track of where I am on my soapbox. What was I talking about? That’s right! Why it’s important for LGBT literature to exist in middle school curriculum and schools. Well, for my final argument, I’d like to ask you this: would you ever consider not having a book about a Black, or Jewish, or Asian character in a school because of the characters the book featured? Would you ever say, “Well, I don’t want parents or the board members to be concerned that their students are being exposed to books about Asian characters, so I guess the students in that school shouldn’t read that book.” I certainly hope not. At least not in this day and age.

I’m not trying to downplay the hard conversations and very real-world difficulties teachers open themselves up to when they stock a curriculum or school library with books featuring LGBT characters. I’m just saying that if we don’t have those conversations, if we don’t take those real-world difficulties head on, we do a huge disservice to our students.

Because if you tell students that something shouldn’t exist for them, you tell them that something is somehow wrong or not okay. And that message is not okay.

When I first started writing Here’s to You, Zeb Pike a whole lotta years ago, Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez was about the only YA LGBT lit I could find on the local shelves of my bookstore, and I had to hunt for that. The teens I teach now are so much luckier. They have a myriad of books featuring LGBT characters available to them. When I finally got my act together and finished Zeb Pike, I discovered that not only were there publishing companies willing to publish it—there were actually companies dedicated to publishing nothing but LGBT YA lit. Pretty amazing, if you think about it.
So here’s the general point of this blog post: if you’re a student reading this, and your school isn’t a place where LGBT characters are represented in your library or classrooms, say something. It’s worth it. Because maybe you’ve figured out how to get your hands on literature that represents lots of different types of people, but that doesn’t mean all your other classmates have.

And if you’re one of those teachers or librarians who shies away from letting LGBT YA lit into your classrooms or libraries because you’re worried about having to have conversations about religion and sexuality and difficult things like that with parents and administrators, or you just don’t want to rock the boat, try to remember that some hard conversations are really worth having. Remember all the kids who need you to be willing to have those conversations.

Here’s to You, Zeb Pike features two teenagers who don’t really know how to be who they are, and the main reason for that is because nobody else they know is like them. Books are our windows into the worlds of new people and ideas and concepts. We have to give windows into the world of LGBT characters to all our students—gay or straight. That’s how you promote critical thinking and identity exploration. That’s how you promote tolerance and acceptance.

And there you have it: why LGBT characters should be more prevalent in middle school libraries and classrooms. Written by a middle school educator who isn’t using a pen name. Written for two fictional characters who could use a few more characters like them in their school libraries.

by Johanna Parkhurst
M.A. of English Education
Teachers College, Columbia University
Author, Here's To You, Zeb Pike

Rainbow Family Collections: Selecting And Using Children's Books with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Content - A New Resource!

"Rainbow Family Collections: Selecting And Using Children's Books with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender and Queer Content" by Jaime Campbell Naidoo

From the back cover:

Research shows that an estimated 2 million children are being raised in lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender (LGBT) families in the United States; that the number of same-sex couples adopting children is at an all-time high; and that lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, and queer/questioning (LGBTQ) couples raising children live in 96 percent of all counties in the United States.  Today's educators and youth librarians therefore need guidance in choosing, evaluating, and selecting high-quality children's books with LGBTQ content.

Highlighting titles for children from infancy to age 11, Rainbow Family Collections examines over 250 children's picture books, informational books, and chapter books with LGBTQ content from around the world.  Each entry in Rainbow Family Collections supplies a synopsis of the title's content, lists awards it has received, cites professional reviews, and provides suggestions for librarians considering acquisition.

The book also provides a brief historical overview of LGBTQ children's literature along with the major book awards for this genre, tips on planning welcoming spaces and offering effective library service to this population, and a list of criteria for selecting the best book with this content.  Interviews with authors and key individuals in LGBTQ children's book publishing are also featured.

I know I've found some titles new to me in this - look for a blog post on "Gender Now Coloring Book: A Learning Adventure for Children and Adults" by Maya Christina Gonzalez soon!

Have you used this book as a resource?  Add your take on it in comments.

Namaste,
Lee

PS - my thanks to Yapha and Robin, two awesome librarians, who both made sure I knew about this one!

Why Saving the Los Angeles Public Library Matters to LGBT Writers & Readers: A Guest Post By Henry Gambill

Henry's presence in the library and his words really explain why I love public libraries so much... and why they are so worth fighting for! Here's Henry's guest post, for which I'm truly grateful:

“The Los Angeles Public Library provides free and easy access to information, ideas, books and technology that enrich, educate and empower every individual in our city's diverse communities.”

As a Young Adult Librarian, I love this mission statement. It’s got “free and easy” in there, which I think all of us can agree is a good thing. It says that our library is not just a book warehouse, but that we offer technology and support to percolate ideas (hey we have DVDs and music, too). And then we get to the last, most important, part: we collect and make available materials for EVERYONE.

Once in a while, even in a great metropolitan city like Los Angeles, a patron approaches one of our reference desks holding a book/DVD/Compact Disk/Graphic Novel as if it were Exhibit A in a trial. They protest that the item is offensive or inappropriate or trash (or all three) and insist that it be taken off the shelves. We respond by sharing our mission statement, which sometimes works. If not, the patron fills out a form challenging the particular item’s inclusion in the library collection, and we send the form up the chain of command. In turn, someone in library management composes a thoughtful response that highlights our mission statement, usually points out the item’s artistic and cultural value and/or general popularity and respectfully declines to yank the item from the shelves.

Many of you reading this are nodding in assent and thinking, “But of course. This is America. We value free expression and all that.” But every year across the country—in our cities, small towns and schools—library materials are, in fact, successfully challenged and pulled from the shelves (or banished to hard-to-find areas in the library). Typically, the authors of these offending materials are high-profile suspects (troublemakers going by the names of Rowling, Vonnegut, Blume and Walker, to name but a few), but also a legion of unsung heroes who write about issues of sexuality and sexual identity.

It’s funny that we never hear about people storming into a bookstore and demanding that the owners pull books from their shelves. As members of a consumer society we seem to innately appreciate that bookstore owners only stock their shelves with materials that sell and we have no right, or little recourse, to tell these owners that they can’t make money off titles that we find distasteful. The bottom line is bookstores will offer Rowling, Vonnegut, Blume, Walker and others as long as people buy them, and they usually won’t offer them if they don’t.

Which brings me to my main point: the difference between libraries and bookstores and why it’s crucial to do everything we can do preserve the Los Angeles Public Library (and other libraries across the country) in what is now our darkest hour. As a Young Adult Librarian, I am charged with building and maintaining a collection of print and audiovisual materials to meet the needs of diverse patrons from grades 6-12. At my high point, my branch manager (at the time) awarded me $12,000/yr to accomplish this, but my current budget (due to harsh economic times) has been reduced to $8,000/yr. Be that as it may, I keep firm sight of our mission statement, and I stock the shelves with books to enrich, educate and empower all the teens from all walks of life who have access to our library. So I’ve got books for jocks, skateboarders, cheerleaders, actors and actresses, awkward kids, misunderstood kids, abused kids, computer geeks, rappers, rockers, black kids, white kids, Asian kids, Hispanic kids, Jewish kids, Catholic kids, Muslim kids and, yes, LGBT kids, to name but a few.

Just like a bookstore, I routinely do inventory, except that librarians call the exercise “weeding.” We’re supposed to go through the collection, scan the barcodes and check each item’s “CIRC” (circulation), which is the amount of times the thing has actually been checked out with a library card and brought home. In my branch, a smash-hit like Stephenie Meyer’s Twilight, will CIRC 25-45 times per year. A respectable CIRC for everyone else is 8-12. A real dud is 0-4, and these books are usually weeded from the shelves.

However, a seasoned librarian knows that CIRC is deceiving. Why is it that certain books are dog-eared and falling apart, yet have a 0-4 CIRC? Hmmm…many of these titles have LGBT themes. So I should do the proper thing and weed these titles out because they have lousy CIRC, right? If I’m a bookstore owner, I’m yanking them because the bottom line is sales. No sales, no bookstore.

But that’s the great thing. The library isn’t a business—it’s a service. I know these books are being read. I know that kids are discretely devouring them in the library because they probably are too embarrassed to check them out or risk being questioned by their parents at home. I know that LGBT teens are probably in the midst of the most vulnerable period in their lives, and they need resources and support to help them navigate their way through an already inherently challenging adolescence.

I also know that if these young adults can’t find these books in their local library, they probably are not going to find them anywhere else. So, these “certain” books remain on my shelves—CIRC or no CIRC. And when they finally fall apart (read to death, I like to say) I replace them with new copies and then I replace them again. So if anyone reading this on Lee’s site is glad I’m doing this, then please take action and help me and others fight Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa’s proposed budget cuts to the Los Angeles Public Library—cuts that will so devastate our great library that we will be rendered virtually inoperable. Please go to www.savethelibrary.org to learn more and find ways to help. Join our Facebook page. Sign up for our Twitter feed. Print our petitions and get them signed. Most importantly, call, write and email your local city councilman or councilwoman and tell them how important libraries are to our young people (And tell them I sent you).