Lambda Award Finalists: Children’s/Young Adult

• Books for Kids • american library association, children's books, rainbow list, transgender, young adult books

The 21st Lambda Literary Award finalists were announced this week. The six finalists for the LGBT Children’s/Young Adult category are fine books all, although I’m a little disappointed none of them show LGBT parents—as important as it also is to show LGBT kids. Actually, Hit the Road, Manny, is about a gay male nanny, so I’ll give half credit for that.

With only two LGBT-related books published this year for younger children, I’m not surprised that all of the Children’s/Young Adult finalists are for young adults. Marcus Ewert’s picture book about a transgender boy 10,000 Dresses (review and author interview here) is, however, a finalist in the Transgender category. I wish they’d found room for Sarah Brannen’s Uncle Bobby’s Wedding (review and author interview here), not only because it was the only book published last year for the younger age that features LGBT parents, but because I think it holds its own in terms of art and story.

For a more extensive (yet still selective) list of recent LGBT-related children’s and YA titles, see the American Library Association’s 2009 Rainbow List (and my interview with the chair of the Rainbow List committee).

I suppose it’s a good problem to have, though, when there are more books to choose from than there are finalist spots. Winners will be announced Thursday, May 28, at a ceremony in New York.

Full list of Children’s/Young Adult finalists after the jump:

Scroll to Top