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What Are Your Kids Reading?
Let’s talk about books. Not just LGBT books, but kids and young adult books in general. What are your kids reading now? Please share in the comments (along with their ages and/or grades, as a guide for others). My second-grade son is very into the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series by Jeff Kinney. I’m [...]
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Say Uncle! My Uncle’s Wedding Is Cute But Redundant
There’s a new children’s book out featuring a same-sex couple getting married: Eric Ross’ My Uncle’s Wedding. “Wait a minute,” some of you may say. “Wasn’t that book published a while back?” No, but a similar one about a same-sex couple getting married, Sarah Brannen’s Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, came out from Penguin Book in 2008. Therein lies the problem.
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Happy Birthday, Dr. Seuss: or Why Burping Turtles Are Like LGBT Kids’ Books
Happy birthday to the good doctor, who was born Theodor Seuss Geisel on this date in 1904. While we may not be able to celebrate quite like they do in Katroo, we can celebrate Read Across America Day, an annual “reading motivation and awareness program” run by the National Education Association (NEA). I feel obliged to point [...]
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Oy, Gay: LGBT Jewish Children’s Book Writing Contest
Passing along this information from Keshet, the national organization for GLTBQ Jews: Keshet, a national nonprofit that works for the full inclusion of GLBTQ Jews, just launched a Jewish Children’s Book Writing Contest. While there are many great Jewish books for kids, Jewish children’s books that feature GLBTQ families or characters are extremely rare. The winner [...]
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Gay Author Wins Prestigious Children’s Literature Award
In all my excitement over the latest Rainbow Bibliography and Stonewall Children’s and Young Adult Literature Award, I neglected to mention that prolific children’s author and illustrator Tomie DePaola–who happens to be gay–won this year’s Laura Ingalls Wilder Award from the American Library Association. The award “honors an author or illustrator whose books, published in the United States, have made, over a period of years, a substantial and lasting contribution to literature for children.”
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The Trojan Guinea Pig?
OK, no Trojan guinea pigs here really, but Sarah Brannen, author and illustrator of Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, about two gay guinea pigs and their niece (see my longer piece on it here), has illustrated a new book, Digging for Troy: From Homer to Hisarlik. Brannen didn’t write this one—the authors are Jill Rubalcaba and Eric H. Cline—and [...]
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Rainbow Bibliography Helps Librarians Help LGBTQ Youth
The American Library Association (ALA) has published its fourth annual Rainbow Bibliography, a list of recommended children’s and young adult books with significant LGBTQ content. The list is a yet another arrow in the quiver of those looking to support LGBTQ youth and children of LGBTQ parents—and I don’t need to tell you how important that is these days.
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Of Bullies and Bunnies
Sometimes parts of my life collide in unexpected ways. My sister-in-law gave my seven-year-old son a copy of Bunnicula: A Rabbit-Tale of Mystery for the holidays, and he’s been enjoying it thoroughly. It’s the first of the delightful series by James Howe about a vampire bunny who sucks juice from vegetables. I highly recommend it. [...]
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Stonewall Children’s and Young Adult Literature Award Winners Announced
Congratulations to Brian Katcher, whose young adult novel Almost Perfect won the inaugural Stonewall Children’s and Young Adult Literature Award from the American Library Association (ALA). The award, which honors children’s and young adult books “of exceptional merit” related to the LGBT experience, was announced this morning at the ALA’s annual Youth Media Awards, which also [...]
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“She Got Me Pregnant”: Episode 119
After a few weeks hiatus, I’m back with a new vlog about LGBT parenting books and videos of 2010—great for holiday gifts! (Those of you who prefer your gifts guides in text could try my earlier written post.) Mombian: She Got Me Pregnant, 12-16-2010 Uploaded by drudolph. – Watch more LGBT videos. (If the embedded [...]
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My Princess Boy Book Gets Mainstream Publisher
Remember the news story that broke a couple of months ago about the mom who wrote the book My Princess Boy for her five-year-old son, who loved to dress up in princess clothes? The mom, Cheryl Kilodavis, began selling it locally and directly through Amazon. Her son’s school began using it as an anti-bullying tool. Now, Simon and Schuster–a major mainstream publisher–has picked it up and will begin selling it on December 21. You can pre-order it through Amazon.
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A Gift Guide to Media for LGBT Families
2010 brought us a number of excellent films—and a few books—about LGBT families. Here are some you may want to add to your holiday list. Mom’s Apple Pie: The Heart of the Lesbian Mothers’ Custody Movement, a documentary by Jody Laine, Shan Ottey and Shad Reinstein, gives us a look at early custody cases involving [...]
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A Book for Siblings with Same-Sex Parents
A reader wrote to ask if I knew of any books for young children that discussed getting a new sibling—but which did not feature a mom and a dad for parents. Great question. The answer is that (to the best of my knowledge) there is one, And Baby Makes 4 by Judith Benjamin. (Don’t confuse [...]
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New Award for LGBT Children’s and Young Adult Books
Go librarians. The American Library Association (ALA) this week announced it will add an annual award for “English-language works for children and teens of exceptional merit relating to the gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgendered experience.”
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My Princess Boy and Family Acceptance at Its Finest
Via the Advocate comes a wonderful interview with the family of a gender variant child, five-year-old Dyson. (Video below.) Dyson’s mother even wrote a book, My Princess Boy: A mom’s story about a young boy who loves to dress up, for other families like theirs. I have not yet read the book myself, but the [...]
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New Book for Youth with LGBTQ Parents
I’m very excited to let you all know that Let’s Get This Straight: The Ultimate Handbook for Youth with LGBTQ Parents is hitting bookstores today. It’s a practical, inspirational, and forthright guide for pre-teens and teens with LGBTQ parents—and we parents could benefit from reading it as well. I had the pleasure of interviewing Tina [...]
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Happy Banned Book Week!
It’s Banned Book Week once again—the American Library Association’s annual celebration of the freedom to read. I’ll refer you back to the piece I wrote for Banned Books Week last year, “Penguins, Rabbits, and Guinea Pigs: In Celebration of Banned Books,” noting that LGBT-themed books continue to be banned or challenged, as a July case [...]
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Same-Sex Parents in Children’s Books: A Testing Ground
Jonathan Kemmerer-Scovner has a spot-on essay at Critical Masses Media about same-sex parents in children’s books. “Children’s literature,” he observes, “acts as a testing ground for the social mores of a society. You may think we’re all progressing along at a fine rate, but if you really want to see where we’re at, stick it in a children’s book and see what that gets you.”
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New Books and Media for LGBT Families
(Originally published in Bay Windows, July 23, 2010. Regular readers will recognize many of the items in this mid-year roundup from previous reviews I’ve done—but there’s one new item in there, so read on.) It’s been a good year so far for books and media about LGBT parenting—but not so much for items aimed at [...]
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New Guide Offers Insights for Donor-Conceived Children
(Originally published as my Mombian newspaper column.) A long-running study of lesbian families created through donor insemination made headlines June 7 when it published new results showing that teens from these families tend to do better than their peers socially and academically. While these findings from the National Longitudinal Lesbian Family Study are positive, they [...]
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“She Got Me Pregnant”: Episode 107
I’m vlogging solo this week—Helen is away on business again, but I’ll carry on without her. Because the 5th Annual Blogging for LGBT Families Day is coming up on June 1, and I’m all about getting the word out, I invite viewers to participate. I also share brand new works by authors of some of [...]
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Milk Is Good for Kids
It’s the first annual Harvey Milk Day in California, an official state holiday signed into law by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger. The Kern High School District Board of Trustees in Bakersfield, California, however, voted to not observe the holiday. Several speakers at a board meeting said they don’t think Milk is a good role model for [...]
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Tango Authors Discuss Their New Children’s Book
Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, authors of the famed LGBT children’s book And Tango Makes Three (and gay dads themselves), were kind enough to answer some questions about their latest book, Christian, the Hugging Lion, about which I posted more yesterday. What attracted you to Christian’s story? Justin: First there was that extremely moving video. [...]
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Tango and Heather Authors Bring Us Two New Books
(Originally published as my Mombian newspaper column. Stay tuned for tomorrow when I’ll share Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell’s answers to a few questions about their new book. Click image to enlarge.) The authors of two of the most famous LGBT children’s books have two new books out this month. Neither work has an overt [...]
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