Today is Multicultural Children’s Book Day, so I’m showcasing 6 recent children’s books with LGBTQ or gender creative characters that also celebrate a diversity of cultures!
In compiling this list, I’ve abided by the Multicultural Children’s Book Day site’s definition of multicultural children’s books as:
- Books that contain characters of color as well as main characters that represent a marginalized point of view.
- Books that are written by an author of diversity or marginalized from their perspective.
- Books that share ideas, stories, and information about cultures, race, religion, language, and traditions.
- Books that embrace disability including “hidden disabilities” such as ADHD, ADD, and anxiety.
- Books that show readers what is POSSIBLE — such as a book that shows an Asian child as an astronaut, a child from Sudan as an actress, or a biracial child as a world leader.
The titles below are happily not the only LGBTQ-inclusive books that meet this definition, but they’re some of my favorites that have been published since my list for this event last year. For even more, search my database and use the various tags to filter by different racial, religious, and cultural identities!
Click the images or titles below for my full reviews of each book, purchase links, and more. I’m particularly thrilled that Jovita Wore Pants just won a Caldecott Honor and Desert Queen just won a Stonewall Honor at the American Library Association’s Youth Media Awards.
Jovita Wore Pants: The Story of a Mexican Freedom Fighter, by Aida Salazar, illustrated by Molly Mendoza (Scholastic). A vibrant biography of Mexican revolutionary Jovita Valdovinos, who took the name “Juan” and led 80 soldiers into battle during the Cristero War for religious freedom. Salazar, Jovita’s distant great-niece, brings an often lyrical turn of phrase and the right amount of descriptive detail to the story. Just as spectacular are Mendoza’s illustrations. While the book covers some somber subjects, like murder and oppression, it also offers the inspiring model of a young hero who wasn’t afraid to break gender rules to fight for her people’s freedom. Jovita’s gender identity and sexual orientation are unstated (and to the best of my knowledge, unknown), but I am choosing to include the book because she was clearly gender creative for her time. Also available in Spanish.
Desert Queen, by Jyoti Rajan Gopal, illustrated by Svabhu Kohli (Levine Querido). A dazzling biography in verse of drag performer Queen Harish (Harish Kumar), known as the Whirling Desert Queen of Rajasthan. Gopal’s words are spare and evocative, while Rajasthan artist Kohli’s illustrations are rich in detail, texture, and bold colors. Rhythmic and inspiring, just like Queen Harish, and highly recommended.
Mehndi Boy, by Zain Bandali, illustrated by Jani Balakumar (Annick Press). An early chapter book about a Muslim-Canadian boy whose gender-atypical love of mehndi (skin decorating with henna) is at first frowned upon and then encouraged.
Fluffy and the Stars, by T’áncháy Redvers, illustrated by Roza Nozari (Orca), is a simple but thoughtfully done book about coping with grief after the death of a pet. Redvers, a Dene & Métis two-spirit writer and performer, gives us a nonbinary protagonist (and one who could also be read as indigenous) without making the story “about” those identities. The message is universal even as the book offers important representation.
My Culture, My Gender, Me, by Cassandra Jules Corrigan, illustrated by Moe Butterfly (Jessica Kingsley). The variations of gender go far beyond man and woman, and even beyond nonbinary, as we learn in this book that introduces young readers to a range of genders from numerous cultures around the world.
Can We Please Give the Police Department to the Grandmothers? by Junauda Petrus, illustrated by Kristen Uroda (Dutton). This picture book in verse has its origins in the viral poem Petrus first performed after the shooting of Michael Brown in 2014. In it, she envisions a world remade, with police salaries given to grandmothers who cruise the streets in “badass” vintage automobiles, offering help and hope. Two of the “grandmas” are depicted with beards, though whether they are trans men who transitioned late in life and retained the “grandma” appellation, nonbinary people who feel “grandma” fits them best, cisgender men who have taken on a grandmotherly role, or otherwise, is for readers to decide.