I was thrilled to see that the same book won the American Library Association’s top honors Monday for both the LGBT- and Latino-related children’s book awards, proving that one book can address multiple aspects of identity (and countering the prevalent media impression that the LGBT community is predominantly White). It just so happens, too, that the intersecting of identities is a major theme in LGBT politics this week.
LGBT-inclusive children’s and young adult books are hard to find. Good ones are even harder. I’m delighted, therefore, that the American Library Association has just honored a number of new ones in two ways, through their Stonewall Book Awards and their Rainbow List.
The year 2012 saw several notable books about LGBT parents and our children, including one for the often-ignored middle-grade readers, a young adult novel about two African American teens with a transgender dad, two memoirs (one by a gay dad, and another by the son of lesbian moms), and a fascinating history of LGBT family rights. They make better gifts than yet another “I Love My Mommies” t-shirt.
Congratulations to Roe, who won last week’s giveaway of Jennifer Gennari’s LGBT-inclusive middle-grade book My Mixed-Up Berry Blue Summer. (For details about the book, see my earlier post.) Even if you didn’t win, though, here’s one thing you can do to help authors of LGBT-inclusive kids’ books (and thus, indirectly, our kids).
Congratulations to Lydia, who won Tuesday’s giveaway of Jennifer Gennari’s LGBT-inclusive middle-grade book My Mixed-Up Berry Blue Summer. If you didn’t win (or didn’t enter), however, don’t despair. Here’s another chance to do so.
I’m so excited—a new, LGBT-inclusive book for middle-grade readers, and a delightful one, at that! Jennifer Gennari’s My Mixed-Up Berry Blue Summer is about coming-of-age, coming out about one’s family, and baking pies. I’m happy to be doing a giveaway of two copies of the book, courtesy of publisher Houghton Mifflin Harcourt: one today, and one later this week. Read on for details.
Just days after we learned of yet another pair of same-sex penguin dads, comes the news that the Austin Independent School District in Texas has cancelled the performances at local elementary schools of “And Then Came Tango,” a play based on the real-life story of two male penguins who parented together.
I’m having a feeling of déjà vu. Four years ago, I was waiting to see if Barack Obama would be elected president; waiting to see the outcome of a ballot measure in California that would decide the legality of marriage equality in that state; and baffled that a patron of a Colorado library had asked for the removal or reshelving of the children’s picture book Uncle Bobby’s Wedding, claiming it was “inappropriate for children” because it showed two anthropomorphic male guinea pigs getting married.
Since we’re talking more than usual about books this week (it being Banned Books Week), I wanted to expand the conversation beyond just LGBT-inclusive children’s books, and point out some very good posts about racial and ethnic diversity in children’s books—specifically related to the covers of such books. It’s easy to quote the proverbial lesson about books and covers, but the reality is a bit more complex.
This week marks the 30th anniversary of Banned Books Week, bringing issues of LGBT content in children’s books once again to the fore.
