Looking for a list of librarian-approved LGBTQ-inclusive children’s and young adult books to recommend to your local school or library? Want some great books to add to your personal collection? The just-announced 2020 Rainbow Book List from the American Library Association has what you need!
Unlike the recently announced Stonewall Awards for children’s and young adult books, which recognize only a very few titles at the peak of excellence, the Rainbow Book List is a larger selection, intended to help young people find “quality books with significant and authentic GLBTQ content” and assist librarians in developing their collections and advising readers. It’s also a great resource for parents and teachers.
This year, the Rainbow Book List Committee of the American Library Association’s (ALA’s) Rainbow Round Table evaluated over 550 books (a record number!) and selected 92 titles. The list contains both fiction and non-fiction books for toddlers through young adults, including 10 picks “of exceptional merit.” These Top 10 Titles are:
- A Plan for Pops
, Heather Smith and Brooke Kerrigan (Orca). Ages 3-6. (My review.)
- When Aidan Became a Brother
, Kyle Lukoff and Kaylani Juanita (Lee & Low). Ages 4-8. (My review.)
- Stonewall: A Building. An Uprising. A Revolution
, by Rob Sanders and Jamey Christoph (Random House). Ages 5-9. (My review.)
- The Music of What Happens
, Bill Konigsberg (Scholastic/Arthur A. Levine Books). Ages 9+.
- Pet
, Akwaeke Emezi (Random House Children’s Books/Make Me A World). Grades 7+.
- Mooncakes
, Suzanne Walker and Wendy Xu (Oni/Lion Forge). Grades 8+.
- On a Sunbeam
, Tillie Walden (Macmillan), Grades 8+.
- The Love & Lies of Rukhsana Ali
, Sabina Khan (Scholastic). Grades 9+.
- We Set the Dark on Fire
, Tehlor Kay Mejia (HarperCollins/Katherine Tegen Books). Grades 9+.
- Brave Face: A Memoir
, Shaun David Hutchinson (Simon & Schuster/Simon Pulse). Grades 10+.
I hope you’ll go check out the full list of 92 books for all ages. Overall this year, the committee noted “an abundance of genre fiction” and in a particularly positive trend, “books whose plots do not revolve around anxiety concerning a queer character’s identity.” They also saw an “increase in books with non-binary, asexual-spectrum, and bisexual characters”—all good things. Additionally, they observed the “micro-trends” of “books about birds or with birds in the title, and books about queer witches,” which you can make of what you will. (Personally, I love me some queer witches.)
Many of the books are also ones on my own Holiday Gift Guide to LGBTQ Children’s Books for last year, though my focus was on picture books (with just a few middle grade titles) since I’m only one person and can’t do everything. Among just the picture books, my list includes a few titles published in Canada that aren’t eligible for the U.S.-only Rainbow Book List. I’m probably also a little more willing to include some titles simply to show the range of LGBTQ-inclusive children’s books today, even if they don’t rise to quite the level of quality needed to make them library recommendations (though I do try to give an indication of quality in my reviews). The Rainbow List, conversely, has two that I simply missed: I Am Billie Jean King
The fact that the committee evaluated a record 550 titles and selected only 92 speaks both to the growing number of LGBTQ-inclusive books that are being published and the fact that many of them still have a ways to go in terms of quality and “significant and authentic” LGBTQ content. Let’s hope that budding authors find ways of improving their skills and getting feedback on their drafts—say, through more workshops like this one sponsored by the Highlights Foundation last fall. I’ll also suggest that prospective authors read widely among existing LGBTQ-inclusive books and other diverse, top-rated children’s titles before embarking on efforts of their own. (I’m not surprised that Kyle Lukoff, author of the Stonewall-winning When Aidan Became a Brother, is a school librarian and worked as a bookseller for many years. He knows his genre and it shows.)
For a bit of history, here’s my interview with Nel Ward, chair of the Rainbow Book List Committee when the list first launched in 2008. It’s been a pleasure watching the number of titles grow and diversify over the years.
As always, many thanks to the librarians who put together the Rainbow Book List and to all of the librarians everywhere whose recommendations and support continue to positively impact the lives of so many young people.
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