A children’s book with a transgender protagonist and a transgender author earned a Newbery Honor for the first time ever, and other queer-inclusive children’s and young adult books—and their queer authors—also won big at this year’s American Library Association (ALA) Youth Media Awards.
Kyle Lukoff’s middle grade novel Too Bright to See (Dial/Penguin Random House), a coming-of-age story and mystery/ghost story with a trans boy protagonist, today won the Stonewall Book Award—Mike Morgan and Larry Romans Children’s Literature Award for a book of “exceptional merit relating to the LGBTQIA+ experience.” It was also named a Newbery Honor Book. The Newbery Award, for “the year’s most outstanding contribution to children’s literature,” is arguably the most well-known and prestigious award in children’s literature. One winner and four honor books were selected this year. This is the first time (to the best of my knowledge) that a book centering a trans character or a book with a trans author has won any Newbery recognition, and the first time a book has won the Stonewall plus a Newbery.
Too Bright to See was also shortlisted for the National Book Award in Children’s Literature last year. Lukoff previously won the Stonewall Award in 2020 for his picture book When Aidan Became a Brother.
Malinda Lo’s Last Night at the Telegraph Club (Dutton), a lesbian love story set in San Francisco’s Chinatown in 1954, won the Stonewall Book Award—Mike Morgan and Larry Romans Young Adult Literature Award. It also won the Asian Pacific American Award for Youth Literature and was an Honor book for the Michael L. Printz Award for “excellence in young adult literature.” Last November, it won the National Book Award for Children’s Literature.
Three honor books were also named for the Stonewall:
- Grandad’s Camper, by Harry Woodgate (Little Bee), a picture book about a girl and her queer grandfather.
- Almost Flying, by Jake Maia Arlow (Dial/Penguin Random House), a middle grade book about a girl with her first crush (on another girl), with multiple queer characters.
- The Darkness Outside Us, (Bookshop; Amazon) by Eliot Schaefer (Katherine Tegen Books), a young adult science fiction tale about two boys from opposing nations sent on the same rescue mission.
All of the Stonewall Awards and Honors are hugely well-deserved. I would love to see a third category for the winners next year, however, splitting out picture books from middle grade. As my own database shows, there are now dozens of books in each age range every year—enough, I believe, to support awards in each.
Awards in other categories also went to a number of LGBTQIA-inclusive books:
- A Snake Falls to Earth, by Darcie Little Badger (Levine Querido – Bookshop; Amazon), also received a Newbery Honor. The protagonist is asexual and another character uses they/them pronouns.
- Elatsoe, by Darcie Little Badger and illustrated by Rovina Cai (Levine Querido – Bookshop; Amazon) received a AIYLA Young Adult Honor. The protagonist is asexual.
- Apple: Skin to the Core, by Eric Gansworth, (Levine Querido – Bookshop; Amazon), won the American Indian Youth Literature Award (AIYLA) for YA books. The author of this memoir in verse is a gay man.
- Fifteen Hundred Miles from the Sun, by Jonny Garza Villa (Skyscape – Bookshop; Amazon), won a Pura Belpré Honor, presented “to a Latino/Latina writer and illustrator whose work best portrays, affirms, and celebrates the Latino cultural experience.” The protagonist is gay.
- Ace of Spades, by Faridah Àbíké-Íyímídé, (Feiwel & Friends – Bookshop; Amazon), was a finalist for the Morris Award, given to “a first-time author writing for teens.” One protagonist is gay and the other is bisexual.
Four LGBTQ-inclusive books won Alex Awards, given each year to 10 books written for adults that have “special appeal to young adults:
- Light from Uncommon Stars, by Ryka Aoki (Tor – Bookshop; Amazon), includes a two-woman crush and a significant transgender woman character.
- Malice, by Heather Walter (Del Rey – Bookshop; Amazon), is a retelling of Sleeping Beauty in which the sorceress falls in love with the princess.
- Winter’s Orbit, by Everina Maxwell (Tor – Bookshop; Amazon), centers a two-man relationship.
- The Witch’s Heart, by Genevieve Gornichec (Ace – Bookshop; Amazon), includes a woman who has relationships with both a man and a woman.
(Thanks to the Medal On My Mind blog for confirming that list of additional books.)
As I’ve said before, banning LGBTQ-inclusive books for children and youth is now not only removing vital representation for LGBTQ children and youth and their peers, but also depriving them of some of the best literature around, bar none. One could say the same about books featuring protagonists from other marginalized groups, many of which have their own ALA award categories but also win in broader ones.
Congratulations to them all!
The full list of ALA Youth Media Award winners is here.
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