LGBTQ-inclusive Kids’ and YA Books Honored in 2019 Youth Media Awards and Rainbow Book List

• Books for Kids • children's books, rainbow list

It’s one of my favorite days of the year! The American Library Association has given its 2019 Stonewall Awards and several other key awards to some of the best LGBTQ-inclusive children’s and young adult books out there—and announced the top picks from its 2019 Rainbow Book List of librarian-recommended, LGBTQ-inclusive children’s and YA titles.

2019 Rainbow List, Stonewall Award, and other ALA Award Winners

The Stonewall Book Awards — Mike Morgan & Larry Romans Children’s & Young Adult Literature Award (to distinguish them from the Stonewall Book Awards for adult books) are part of the American Library Association’s (ALA’s) Youth Media Awards that also include the prestigious Newbery and Caldecott Medals. This year’s winners are:

Two honor books (runners up) were also named:

Additionally, several other LGBTQ-inclusive children’s and YA books won other Youth Media Awards or were named honor books:

  • Darius the Great is Not Okay, by Adib Khorram (Dial Books), won the Asian/Pacific American Award for Young Adult Literature and the William C. Morris YA Debut Award, which honors a book published by a first-time author writing for teens.
  • Jerome By Heart, by Thomas Scotto (Enchanted Lion Books), about one boy expressing his (maybe romantic, maybe not) love for another, was an honor book for the Mildred L. Batchelder Award, given to “an outstanding children’s book originally published in a language other than English in a country other than the United States, and subsequently translated into English for publication in the United States.”
  • All Three Stooges, by Erica S. Perl (Alfred A. Knopf), was an honor book for the Sydney Taylor Book Award, which recognizes books for children and teens that “exemplify high literary standards while authentically portraying the Jewish experience.” It also recently won the National Jewish Book Award. My review here.
  • Anger Is a Gift, by Mark Oshiro (Tor Teen), won the Schneider Family Book Award for “books that embody an artistic expression of the disability experience.”

The broader Rainbow Book List, whose top 10 picks were announced yesterday, includes dozens of fiction and non-fiction books from board and picture books through young adult titles, selected by the Rainbow Book List Committee of the ALA’s GLBT Round Table. More extensive than the Stonewall Awards, the list is intended to help young people find “quality books with significant and authentic GLBTQ content.” Additionally, it is meant to assist librarians in developing their collections and advising readers—and is a great resource for parents and teachers.

I had the honor of interviewing Nel Ward, the librarian who headed the first-ever Rainbow Book List Committee, way back in 2008 when the Rainbow List first launched. It’s been a pleasure following it every year since and watching the number of titles grow and address gaps (such as titles about gender identity). We have more work to do, to be sure (and I outlined several tasks in my longer piece last year), but the Rainbow List is a thoughtful, authoritative guide that can help us get there.

The full Rainbow List is here. The Rainbow List Committee selected 107 titles from over two dozen different publishers out of more than 400 titles they evaluated. They said they were “overwhelmed by the explosion of content in all age groups” and observed, “Realistic fiction dominated this year, as well as #ownvoices titles.” I encourage you to go revel in the number of quality titles—and #ownvoices ones—on the list. Below are the alphabetical Top 10 Titles—most are young adult books that I typically don’t review (they’re important, but I’ve decided to focus on young children’s and middle grade books since I can’t do everything), but there are two picture books and one middle grade title:

I hope you’ll also check out my own list of LGBTQ-inclusive children’s and middle grade books from the past year as well.

As always, a hearty thanks to the librarians serving on the ALA committees that selected these books, and to all of the librarians everywhere who use both quiet recommendations and loud defenses of books to positively impact the lives of so many young people.

(I am a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program that provides a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.)

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