“These Necessary Stories” — 2022 Rainbow Book List Shows Increasing Diversity of Content and Authors

The 2022 Rainbow Book List is here! This annual list from the American Library Association contains 122 librarian-approved books with “significant and authentic” LGBTQIA+ content for children and teens.

The Books

This year, the Rainbow Book List Committee of the American Library Association’s Rainbow Round Table reviewed nearly 450 books published between July 1, 2020 and December 31, 2021, and selected 122 titles of fiction and non-fiction books for toddlers through young adults, down just a smidge from last year’s 129. The committee noted:

At a time when so many books are being challenged and banned, we are amazed and forever grateful to authors who continue to write these necessary stories. Each year, the committee notices that the level of diversity among book content and authorship is increasing, and this year was no different. We are thrilled to be able to provide a list of book titles that truly represents where LGBTQIA youth lives and literature are today. We hope that readers see reflections of themselves in these works and windows into the lives of others.

Unlike the recently announced Stonewall Awards for children’s and young adult books, which recognize only a very few titles at the peak of excellence, the Rainbow Book List is a larger selection, intended to help librarians, educators, parents and others find “quality books with significant content” regarding LGBTQIA+ identities. This can help them develop their collections, advise readers, and ensure children and youth of all ages have access to such books. It offers the imprimatur of the oldest and largest library association in the world, which can help convince communities to keep these books on the shelves. Given the surge of recent attempts to ban or restrict LGBTQ-inclusive books, that is more important than ever.

As they did last year, the committee chose 10 picks “of exceptional merit” in each of two age categories. Here are the Top 10 Titles for birth through middle grade—click the titles to read my own reviews:

1. Bodies Are Cool, by Tyler Feder. (Dial Books). Picture.
2. Calvin, by JR and Vanessa Ford, illustrated by Kayla Harren (G. P. Putnam’s Books for Young Readers). Picture.
3. Grandad’s Camper, by Harry Woodgate (Little Bee). Picture.
4. What Are Your Words? A Book About Pronouns, by Katherine Locke and illustrated by Anne Passchier (Little, Brown Books for Young Readers). Picture.
5. Both Can Be True, by Jules Machais (Quill Tree Books). Middle grade.
6. The Deepest Breath, by Meg Grehan (HarperCollins Clarion Books). Middle grade.
7. Frankie & Bug, by Gayle Forman (Aladdin). Middle grade.
8. Too Bright to See, by Kyle Lukoff (Dial). Middle grade.
9. The Insiders, by Mark Oshiro (HarperCollins). Middle grade.
10. Thanks a Lot, Universe, by Chad Lucas (Abrams). Middle grade.

Here’s a peek at the top YA titles (but you can also check out the complete list of titles for all ages):

The Bigger Picture

Below are updated versions of two charts I created last year to show visually how much the number of LGBTQ-inclusive kids’ books has increased. The first shows the number of Rainbow Book List titles since the List’s founding in 2008. Even this doesn’t fully show the sweeping change in LGBTQ-inclusive titles, though; several of the committee’s picture book picks in the earlier years, for example, had vague or allegorical queer content. Today’s books, on the whole, are more likely to show clearly queer characters. You’ll see the big leap starting with 2019’s list, which covers books published between July 2017 and December 2018.

The second chart shows the number of books the Committee evaluated each year before making their final selections. This chart starts in 2013, when the Committee began regularly reporting this data. Again, the past few years have seen a significant jump. The fact that the committee evaluates so many titles and selects a much smaller percentage (roughly 17 to 32 percent) speaks both to the growing number of LGBTQ-inclusive books being published and the fact that many of them still have a ways to go in terms of quality and “significant and authentic” LGBTQ content. Let’s hope that budding authors find ways of improving their skills and getting feedback on their drafts. I’ll also suggest that prospective authors read widely among existing LGBTQ-inclusive kids’ books and other diverse children’s titles before embarking on efforts of their own.

(Notes on method: In 2021, the Rainbow List broke out “Juvenile Fiction” into its own category for the first time; I’ve kept it with Middle Grade for the purpose of this chart. I’ve also counted Board Books as Picture Books, since they haven’t always been broken out. Graphic/Manga includes both middle grade and YA titles, since the Rainbow List used to break them out but now doesn’t. I’ve done so to keep the chart going. I’ve hand counted the number of titles from the Rainbow Book List website; all errors in tabulation and charting are my own.)

My own Mombian Database of LGBTQ Family Books, Media, and More, an ongoing endeavor, includes more titles with a wider range of quality, from excellent to less so (which I try to indicate), to help people who may come across any of the books and want some guidance, or be looking for representation that may only appear in a book whose literary or artistic quality doesn’t quite meet the Rainbow Book List’s standards. (I could debate a few titles I really liked that didn’t make their list, but I’m not going to argue about books with librarians.) My database also only includes children’s books up through middle grade, but doesn’t cover YA like the Rainbow list (since I’m only one person and have to sleep sometimes). I do, however, add in grown-up books for and about LGBTQ parents, my primary audience. The Rainbow List, though, offers the ALA’s imprimatur, valuable for librarians and teachers making the case to include these books in schools. I’d like to think there’s a need for both approaches.

For a bit of history, here’s my interview with Nel Ward, chair of the Rainbow Book List Committee when it first launched in 2008. It’s been a pleasure watching the number of titles grow and diversify over the years.

As always, many thanks to the librarians who put together the Rainbow Book List and to all of the librarians everywhere whose recommendations and support (often in the face of increasingly harsh opposition) continue to positively impact the lives of so many young people and families.