Inform and inspire with a brand-new picture-book biography of a legendary gay fashion icon, plus nine other picture-book biographies published this year that showcase LGBTQ writers, performers, activists, and an astronaut.
Click images for my full reviews, and filter my Database of LGBTQ Family Books by the “Biographies” tag to see titles from this and previous years (and for ages up through middle grade).
Brand New
Award-winning authors Carole Boston Weatherford and Rob Sanders, who teamed up for the terrific 2022 biography of Bayard Rustin, A Song for the Unsung, have partnered again to great effect on André: André Leon Talley—A Fabulously Fashionable Fairy Tale (Henry Holt), a biography of fashion editor and icon André Leon Talley.
It’s a bold biography for a bold man, with bright illustrations by Lamont O’Neal complementing the evocative text and adding quotes from Talley himself on many pages. Although the book mentions some difficult topics, it may also open up opportunities for important conversations about them between young people and their adults. The highly recommended title should find a welcome place on many bookshelves.
Content warning: The book mentions that Talley endured “unwanted touches from grown-ups,” which adult readers (and perhaps some younger ones) will understand as sexual abuse.
Writers
Performers
Activists and an Astronaut
