A few weeks ago, I wrote of the American Library Association’s new Rainbow List of LGBT-themed children’s books. School Library Journal this week has an interview with retired school librarian Nel Ward, the Rainbow Project’s chair. She talks about the process of choosing books for the list, how LGBT books have changed over the past two decades, the effects of censorship, and what the future may hold for LGBT-inclusive children’s literature. Worth a read.
Here’s the full Rainbow List, including four young adult titles starred for extra recognition: Peter Cameron, Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You; Julie Anne Peters, grl2grl: Short fictions (which I reviewed last October); James St. James, Freak Show; and Lu Vickers, Breathing Underwater.
(Thanks to Erica Perl for the tip about the SLJ article. Erica also points out that her upcoming book, You Know What? Chicken Butt! (Abrams: Spring 2009), is illustrated by Henry Cole, who did the charming drawings for And Tango Makes Three Her book isn’t, alas, also about gay birds, but if her past ones are any indication, it should be a lot of fun.)