History, biography, family formation, health, and more—these LGBTQ-inclusive middle grade nonfiction books from 2023 cover a range of topics for tweens. Share them with the inquisitive youth in your life!
Click images or titles for full reviews—and check out my roundups of 2023’s LGBTQ-inclusive picture books, middle grade fiction, early reader/chapter book/early middle grade, especially the latter, which has some overlap with the age range covered below.
History and Biography
A Child’s Introduction to Pride: The Inspirational History and Culture of the LGBTQIA+ Community, by Sarah Prager, illustrated by Caitlin O’Dwyer (Black Dog & Leventhal). Prager is the author of several excellent collective biographies of LGBTQ people throughout history, for elementary, middle grade, and teen readers. In this book, however, she takes a broader, more systematic approach to LGBTQ history and concepts for middle grades. Through her usual clear and engaging prose, Prager offers us thoughtful takes on LGBTQ people, cultures, and communities. There’s also a fun pull-out poster with a timeline of important events. This is bound to be a go-to volume for schools and libraries, but should find a welcome place on many home bookshelves as well.
Pride and Persistence: Stories of Queer Activism, by Mary Fairhurst Breen (Second Story Press). The 14 American and Canadian women (cis and trans) and nonbinary people profiled in this volume are not as famous as those in many collective biographies or compilations about queer people. Instead, the people here have created (and are still creating) change for the queer community on a smaller but no less important scale—they are known in their communities and areas of direct impact, but not always beyond. This volume offers important representation and engaging profiles of people who just might motivate readers to make their own significant contributions, no matter the scale or scope.
Rebel Girls Celebrate Pride: 25 Tales of Self-Love and Community, by Rebel Girls. This bright and inspiring collection of one-page biographies from the Rebel Girls media company includes not just girls/women, but also nonbinary people. They range from well-known older figures like Marsha Johnson, Sylvia Rivera, and Billie Jean King, to younger ones such as singer Janelle Monáe, writer and performance artist Alok Vaid-Menon, and soccer star Quinn, as well as scientists, activists, and others who have made an impact on the world but are less widely known. The book highlights a diverse collection of careers and places of impact. Bright illustrations by female and nonbinary artists from around the world add color and interest.
Dear Rebel: 125+ Women Share Their Secrets to Taking on the World, by Rebel Girls. An anthology of advice and experiences from teen and older women of many identities and origins. The contributors use a variety of forms—letters, poems, essays, self-portraits, and more—to share their thoughts on topics like finding your voice, being resilient, overcoming challenges, and following your passion. Queer women are unsurprisingly included, including teen queer activist Molly Pinta, teen trans activist Stella Keating, mountaineer and social entrepreneur Silvia Vasquez-Lavado, Olympians and spouses Helen and Kate Richardson-Walsh, software engineer and social influencer Miriam Haart (who was featured on Netflix’s My Unorthodox Life), and model and skateboarder Brooklinn Khoury.
Hispanic Star: Sylvia Rivera, by Claudia Romo Edelman and J. Gia Loving, illustrated by Cheyne Gallarde (Roaring Brook Press). Transgender icon Sylvia Rivera is the focus of this readable volume that looks at her life from her birth to immigrant, migrant parents to her involvement at Stonewall and activism in helping trans youth. A welcome middle-grade biography of a figure who has long been due one.
Content warning: Mention of her mother’s death after poisoning herself; mention of the anger and threatening behavior of her half-sister’s father and of other bullying.
Also available in Spanish.
Health and Reproduction
Roads to Family: All the Ways We Come to Be, by Rachel HS Ginocchio (Twenty-First Century Books), is the first middle-grade book that delves deeply into the many ways of family creation and gives youth of all genders, sexualities, and family origins a detailed look at the ways they may have been created or might someday use to create their own families. There is one major error, however (which I believe will be fixed for the paperback edition next year), when Ginocchio incorrectly says that “a birth certificate establishes parentage.” (See my full review for more details.) That aside, middle-graders whose families were created via assisted reproduction (including surrogacy), foster care, or adoption, or youth who may feel that one of these paths might be theirs in the future, should find much value here.
Period: The Quick Guide to Every Uterus, by Ruth Redford and illustrated by Aitana Giráldez (Mayo Clinic Press). This thorough, graphic-style guide to menstruation is fully inclusive of people of all genders who get periods. With the authority of the Mayo Clinic behind it and an accessible but not patronizing tone, this is bound to be a go-to choice for families, health ed instructors, and medical professionals looking to recommend a title to young people. (See my full review for how this compares to some other recent, LGBTQ-inclusive books about puberty.)
