The first picture book featuring someone with HIV or AIDS came out in 1989. It was followed by many other picture and middle grade books in the decades since, including these LGBTQ-inclusive titles. On World AIDS Day and beyond, may they offer insight into both history and a disease still with us.
Before I jump to the books, however, I want to stress that HIV and AIDS are not just diseases of books and history. Nearly 40.8 million people worldwide were living with HIV in 2024, including 1.3 million who were newly infected, per UNAIDS. Of those living with HIV, 1.4 million were children (0 to 14 years), and 53% were women and girls. Around 120,000 children aged 0 to 14 were newly infected, 86% of whom live in sub-Saharan Africa. In the U.S., approximately 1.2 million people were living with HIV in 2022 (the last year for which I could find data), with 31,800 new infections that year, per KFF. While my focus below is on LGBTQ-inclusive titles published in the U.S., because that’s where my expertise is, we should remember that the impact of AIDS goes far beyond the LGBTQ community and around the world.
As I have done before, I highly recommend fellow blogger and journalist Mark King’s 2022 piece, “Once, When We Were Heroes” for a first-person look at the early days of AIDS. This year, I also have to note his recent piece on how the current federal administration’s policies are creating a “catastrophe” that will lead to a resurgence of infections and death. The disease is still with us. The need to fight it is still here. This World AIDS Day, may we recommit to supporting efforts, policies, and people who will help to end the disease and support those living with it, not those that will let it flourish.
Picture Books: Recent Titles
Click titles or images for full reviews.
Hope for Ryan White, by Dano Moreno, illustrated by Hannah Abbo (Albert Whitman). White was diagnosed with AIDS in 1994, at age 13, after contracting it via a blood transfusion that he needed to treat his hemophilia. He was then kicked out of school for having the disease, and he and his mother had to fight in court for his right to return. Although he was not gay, he was the victim of anti-gay prejudice since many thought that only gay men got AIDS. While this book deals with some difficult subjects, it frames them clearly and with an eye towards its younger audience.
Stitch by Stitch: Cleve Jones and the AIDS Memorial Quilt, by Rob Sanders, illustrated by Jamey Cristoph (Magination Press). Rob Sanders shows why he’s one of the leading authors of children’s books about LGBTQ history, with a lyrical and moving book that conveys a life, an era, and a somber topic in a way both informative and age appropriate. Sanders does not talk down to his young audience but also manages to make the story accessible, clear, and respectful of its subject, giving us a story of pandemic and prejudice but also of empowerment and hope.
Glenn Burke, Game Changer, by Phil Bildner, illustrated by Daniel J. O’Brien (Farrar, Straus and Giroux). Glenn Burke was the first openly gay player in Major League Baseball and the co-inventor of the high five. In this powerful picture-book biography, Bildner tells the story of Burke’s rise with the Los Angeles Dodgers, the homophobia he faced, the accident that ended his career, and his death from complications of AIDS. It’s a compelling biography that touches on some tough topics with age-appropriate thoughtfulness while celebrating the life of a changemaker.
Drawing on Walls: A Story of Keith Haring, by Matthew Burgess, illustrated by Josh Cochran (Enchanted Lion Books). Keith Haring always followed his own line, says this vibrant story of the artist’s life. His AIDS diagnosis is gently touched on; Burgess notes that although he was “overwhelmed with sadness” at first, it didn’t stop him from making and sharing his art. As sharp and vibrant as Burgess’s text is, equal weight must go to Cochran’s illustrations, which evoke Haring’s bold lines and bright colors without trying to fully copy it except in the representation of Haring’s own works. The book is a visual treat.
Sandor Katz and the Tiny Wild, by Jacqueline Briggs Martin and June Jo Lee, illustrated by Julie Wilson (Readers to Eaters). This zesty biography of food fermentation evangelist Sandor Katz is tasty from start to finish. As a child in New York City, Katz delighted in kosher dill pickles and sauerkraut on hot dogs. When he was later diagnosed as HIV positive, he moved to a queer farm in Tennessee to take better care of himself. An excess of cabbage led him to his own spin on sauerkraut, and soon to his lifetime mission to travel the world, sharing both his fermented creations and his view that fermentation reflects “how we are in the world: always changing, not just taking, but adding back.” Martin and Lee’s text is a particular delight, echoing the snap, crunch, and fizz of fermenting foods.
Freddie Mercury, by Maria Isabel Sanchez Vegara, illustrated by Ruby Taylor (Frances Lincoln). Part of the bestselling Little People, Big Dreams series, this picture book biography of musician Freddie Mercury is cheery and bright. It mentions that he had AIDS, “an illness that had taken many friends away.” He kept singing, however, the book notes, even recording “The Show Must Go On” to say goodbye.
Picture Books: Older Titles
These pre-2000 titles may feel dated in some ways, but may also provide a greater sense of immediacy to the height of the AIDS Crisis. They also show that picture books have for decades thoughtfully addressed the topic of loved ones with HIV or AIDS, offering information, compassion, and tools for resilience. All are available to read free online at Open Library; click through to the full reviews for specific links.
Losing Uncle Tim, by MaryKate Jordan, illustrated by Judith Friedman (Albert Whitman). This 1989 title is the very first picture book about a person with AIDS. Uncle Tim is not explicitly gay, but is unmarried and runs an antique store; it’s easy to assume he was imagined as a gay man. The book is told from the first-person perspective of his nephew. While the cautious approach to his queerness may feel dated to readers today, the book offers comfort to children dealing with a loved one who has a terminal illness, and importantly dispels the myth that one can “catch” AIDS by hugging or caring for someone with AIDS.
Tiger Flowers, by Patricia Quinlan, illustrated by Janet Wilson (Dial). A boy reminisces with his sister about their Uncle Michael, who has died from complications of AIDS, as has Michael’s “best friend,” who is clearly his partner. While the description of the men’s relationship in this 1994 title feels euphemistic by modern standards, the book nevertheless conveys Michael’s grief at losing Peter. It also shows a queer person who is an active part of the lives of children in his extended family, and loved by them in turn.
Too Far Away to Touch, by Lesléa Newman (Houghton Mifflin Harcourt). A comforting but honest story from 1995 about a girl and her Uncle Leonard, who has AIDS. Unlike Losing Uncle Tim, this story also shows the uncle’s partner, who is also part of the girl’s life, with the approval of her mother. Newman also leaves the ending open; Leonard thinks he may die, because there is no cure for AIDS yet, but he doesn’t know when. Nevertheless, the book offers a glimmer of hope that no matter what, he will not be forgotten.
A Name on the Quilt: A Story of Remembrance, by Jeannine Atkins, illustrated by Tad Hills (Atheneum). A girl helps her parents, younger brother, and her Uncle Ron’s partner Michael and other friends make an AIDS Quilt panel in honor of Ron. As they sew, they reminisce about all of the fun times they had with him—and they remember that Ron would have wanted them to keep dancing. Ron is not explicitly gay or queer in this 1999 book, but there is a mention of “Uncle Ron and Michael’s refrigerator,” a coy way of noting that they lived together. There is an equally coy hint that the children’s grandfather was homophobic. The book is clearly a product of its time (and feels a little wordy by modern picture-book standards), but is warm and full of love.
Middle Grade Books: Recent Titles
What Is the AIDS Crisis? by Nico Medina and Who HQ, illustrated by Tim Foley (Penguin Workshop). Part of Penguin Workshop’s popular Who HQ series, this short (112-page) volume offers tween readers a first look at this sobering subject. Despite a few issues that I detail in my full review, this is a solid, thoughtful book that doesn’t flinch from looking at the horrors of the disease, how the lack of government response cost lives, and the vital role of community activists. The emphasis on personal stories, not just facts and events, keep this history engaging and relevant to young readers.
World Made of Glass, by Ami Polonsky (Little, Brown). In 1987 at the height of the AIDS epidemic in the U.S., seventh-grader Iris Cohen’s dad is dying from complications of AIDS. When he dies, Iris grapples with grief and rage and a deepening awareness of the bias and fear surrounding the disease. Gradually, though, she learns of her dad’s activism and becomes similarly involved in ACT UP. Taking action and reflecting further on the acrostic poems she and her dad wrote help Iris process and channel her grief in a way that lets her move forward. Polonsky weaves in historical moments and figures, but keeps them from weighing down the story. The focus , however, is one girl’s response to a family tragedy, not a history of AIDS activism, even as it reminds us of the very personal reasons for such activism. An Author’s Note adds more details for those who want them.
Blood Brothers, by Rob Sanders (Reycraft). “Charlie is the best at dying,” begins this moving, powerful novel in verse also from Sanders. After the haunting beginning, set in 1987, we learn that Calvin and his brothers Charlie and Curtis have hemophilia, They then contract AIDS from the transfusions meant to heal them, and are shunned by their community. Inspired by real events and people (notably Ryan White (see above) and the Ray brothers), but fictionalized by Sanders to powerful, dramatic effect, this is a story about bias and narrow-mindedness, but also about hope, love, resilience, and the precious, rare power of allies.
Singled Out: The True Story of Glenn Burke, by Andrew Maraniss (Viking). Glenn Burke was the first out Major League Baseball player, a 1977 World Series center fielder, and the inventor of the high five. Maraniss weaves the details of Burke’s life into a picture of the wider social and political currents of the era, including Stonewall and the early LGBTQ rights movement, Anita Bryant’s anti-gay campaign, and the AIDS epidemic. The book looks candidly at Burke’s later years struggling with addiction, poverty, and AIDS, and how the forces around him, from MLB to the media, influenced and interpreted his life as a Black, gay man.
Content warning: Mention of domestic abuse by Burke’s father (whom his mother left just before he was born).
The Marvels, by Brian Selznick (Scholastic). Part graphic novel, part text, this is an enchanting story about a boy discovering his family history. The first part is told in pictures, the second in prose. The story begins in 1766, as a boy named Billy Marvel survives a shipwreck and finds work in a London theatre. Fast forward to 1900, when his descendant Leontes Marvel is banished from the stage. Zip ahead again to 1990 and start the prose, which tells of runaway Joseph Jervis seeking refuge in his uncle Albert Nightingale’s strange, beautiful London house. There, he is immersed in a search to discover more about the house, his family, and the past. At the risk of spoilers, I’ll simply say that gay dads and a character with AIDS are featured, although the book is not “about” their queerness or illness, per se.
Bonus Pick for Grown-ups
Alysia Abbott’s excellent Fairyland: A Memoir of My Father, is about being raised by her single gay father in 1970s and 80s San Francisco, and caring for him in turn when he was diagnosed with AIDS. It has also just been made into a feature film.