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.”

With well over 200 booksto his name, including Caldecott honor book Strega Nona and Newbery honor book 26 Fairmount Avenue, DePaola is certainly deserving of the award.

DePaola, although gay, has not written books with overt LGBT content. In fact, many (but not all) of his books have religious themes, including Patrick: Patron Saint of Ireland and his latest, Let The Whole Earth Sing Praise. DePaola left the Catholic Church in the 1960’s, concerned that the Church was becoming more conservative—but he almost became a monk earlier in his life, according to a 2009 interview in the New England Journal of Aesthetic Research. Personally, I love that a gay author is producing children’s books with religious content. It puts lie to the claim that there is a battle between the LGBT community and religion, or that one can’t identify with both.

While his books may not have clear LGBT content, it doesn’t take a big leap to see that his 1979 book, Oliver Button Is a Sissy, has definite resonance for the LGBT community.  It should be a required purchase for schools, libraries, and parents dealing with the issue of bullying or gender difference.

DePaola is only one of many LGBT children’s authors whose mainstream fame is for other than LGBT material. Others include James Howe (best known for the Bunnicula series, as I wrote recently, but who also inspired GLSEN’s No Name-Calling Week), Louise Fitzhugh (Harriet the Spy—whose tomboy heroine pinged all of our gaydars but was not out), and of course children’s literature icon Maurice Sendak, who came out at age 80.

DePaola told the New England Journal of Aesthetic Research that children’s literature is “probably one of the best fields to be gay in. . . . there’s so many gay and lesbian people in the field that it’s sort of a moot point.”

Much as I want more children’s literature with LGBT characters, I’m also pleased that LGBT authors are making an impact on the field more broadly. I have this dream that someday, all of the teachers and parents and librarians who have been less than accepting of LGBT people will realize this impact and decide that maybe LGBT people and children are not such a bad mix.

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