Did You Catch All the Queer Young Adult Books in RuPaul’s SNL Skit?

You may already have seen RuPaul’s skit on last week’s Saturday Night Live, in which he critiques children’s books like the drag queens critique each other on RuPaul’s Drag Race—but did you catch all of the real, contemporary LGBTQ-inclusive young adult books on the shelves of the set?

Some of the books on the shelves behind the actors were easy to identify; for others, I relied on tweets from various authors and publishers and the helpful booklist that librarian Paige McGee compiled of all the identifiable books on the shelves, not just the LGBTQ ones. (May I note just how much I love librarians?) Of all the books, here are the ones I know of—nearly two dozen—with LGBTQ characters:

• Leah on the Offbeat, Becky Albertalli (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins).
• The Upside of Unrequited, Becky Albertalli (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins).
• What If It’s Us, Becky Albertalli and Adam Silvera (HarperTeen).
• I Have Lost My Way, Gayle Forman (Viking).
• Tricks, Ellen Hopkins (Margaret K. McElderberry Books).
• The Past and Other Things That Should Stay Buried, Shaun David Hutchinson (Simon Pulse).
• The Storm Crow, Kalyn Josephson (Sourcebooks Fire).
• The Love and Lies of Rukhsana Ali, Sabina Khan (Scholastic).
• Catfishing on CatNet, Naomi Kritzer (Tor Teen).
• A Line in the Dark, Malinda Lo (Dutton).
• The Wise and the Wicked, Rebecca Podos (Balzer + Bray/HarperCollins).
• Juliet Takes A Breath, Gabby Rivera (Riverdale Avenue Books).
• Death Prefers Blondes, Caleb Roehrig (Square Fish/Feiwel & Friends).
• If I Was your Girl, Meredith Russo (Flatiron Books).
• Keep This to Yourself, Tom Ryan (Albert Whitman).
• Tell Me How You Really Feel, Aminah Mae Safi (Feiwel and Friends).
• The Infinite Noise, Lauren Shippen (Tor Teen).
• Infinity Son, Adam Silvera (HarperTeen).
• To Night Owl From Dogfish, by Holly Goldberg Sloan (Dial Books). (This one’s really a middle-grade read.)
• Exile From Eden: Or, After the Hole, Andrew Smith (Simon & Schuster).
• It’s A Whole Spiel: Love, Latkes, and Other Jewish Stories, Anthology (Alfred A. Knopf).
• My True Love Gave to Me: Twelve Holiday Stories, Anthology (St. Martin’s Griffin).
• Summer Days and Summer Nights: Twelve Love Stories, Anthology (St. Martin’s Griffin).

I’d like to imagine that some of the picture books on the shelves are LGBTQ-inclusive, too, but their smaller spines make it harder to read the titles.

Author and literary agent Rebecca Podos has also tweeted that she has discovered the books were provided by New York’s Strand Bookstore. I have no reason to doubt her, though I haven’t independently confirmed that. Kudos to them, the SNL set dressers, and anyone else involved in creating an appropriately inspiring and inclusive backdrop for RuPaul’s read!

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