More than 100 books made the American Library Association’s annual Rainbow Book List of librarian-approved titles with “significant and authentic” LGBTQIA+ content for children and teens. Let’s look more closely at the books, why they matter, and at some exclusive charts showing trends over the years.
The Rainbow Book List
This year, the Rainbow Book List Committee of the American Library Association’s (ALA’s) Rainbow Round Table reviewed more than 450 books published between July 1, 2022 and December 31, 2023, and selected 111 fiction and non-fiction titles for toddlers through young adults, down from last year’s record of 190, but still more than double what it was just a few years ago in 2018. (See charts below.) Unlike the recently announced Stonewall Awards, 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 and authentic LGBTQIA+ content.”
As they have done in previous years, the committee chose Top 10 Titles for Young Readers and Top 10 Titles for Teen Readers from the full list of 111. Here are the ones for young readers (through middle grade)—click the images to read my own reviews:
Check out the complete list of titles to see the ones for teens (which I love but don’t typically cover here) and the full lists for all ages.
Why This Matters
The Rainbow List can help librarians advise readers, add to their collections, and ensure children and youth of all ages have access to quality, inclusive 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 ongoing attempts to ban or restrict LGBTQ-inclusive books, that is more important than ever. As the committee noted in its post yesterday:
As attacks against LGBTQIA+ books have become upsettingly frequent, it is important to fight for the inclusion of all stories in community libraries and schools. Our youth deserve to see themselves reflected in their literature. Unfortunately, this list will undoubtedly be misused by some to target, censor, and ban LGBTQIA+ stories. It is therefore up to all of us to rally behind the authors on this list and support, read, share, and discuss their books.
Nevertheless, the committee said, “Despite facing a significant surge in book challenges and censorship attempts over the past year, it is heartening to note that the availability of queer literature for youth is on a continuous rise.”
The Big Picture
Below are updated versions of two charts I created several years ago. The first shows the number of Rainbow Book List titles since the list’s founding in 2008. (The 2008 list covered books published between 2005-2007; each subsequent list covered the year and a half before the list’s publication.) 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 covered 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 they began regularly reporting this data. Again, the past few years have seen a significant jump, although this year is down from last year’s record.
The fact that the committee still evaluates so many titles and selects a much smaller number, however (averaging 23 percent since 2013), 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 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 their own efforts.
Notes on method:
- The most recent Rainbow Lists separate Preschool and Early Elementary; I’ve counted them all as Picture Books to keep the chart consistent with previous years.
- In 2021, the Rainbow List broke out “Juvenile Fiction” into its own category; for the past two years, they’ve call it “Upper Elementary.” I’ve kept these books with Middle Grade, again to keep the chart consistent across all years.
- Graphic/Manga includes both middle grade and YA titles, since the Rainbow List used to break both out into their own Graphic category but now doesn’t. I’ve done so to keep the chart consistent. I also counted Graphic/Manga series of more than one book as one, since this is how the Committee lists them.
- Slight differences in counting shouldn’t obscure the fact that the overall number of LGBTQ-inclusive books for kids and youth has skyrocketed in the past few years.
- I’ve hand counted the number of titles from the Rainbow Book List website; I am not affiliated with the Committee and all errors in tabulation and charting are my own.
My own Mombian Database of LGBTQ Family Books 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.) I’d like to think there’s a need for both approaches. My database also only includes children’s books up through middle grade (and books for LGBTQ parents); it doesn’t cover YA since I’m only one person and need to sleep.
For a bit of history, here’s my interview with Nel Ward, chair of the Rainbow Book List Committee when it 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. Thanks, too, to the authors, illustrators, and publishers creating these books for the readers who need them.
Please also check out my earlier post about this year’s ALA Youth Media Awards, which honored LGBTQ-inclusive kids’ books (among others) in different ways.