Two new archives of LGBTQ-inclusive children’s books, one in Canada and one in the United States, showcase the history of such books over half a century, along with the vibrant, resilient lives of the children and families they represent.
These two new initiatives will be vital bulwarks against book bans, helping to ensure not only that these books survive, but that the long history they represent becomes better known. I’d like to think that my own Mombian Database of LGBTQ Family Books complements these other projects in ways that I explain below. LGBTQ-inclusive children’s books have never been easy to find, and the more ways we have to do so, the better.
Reading With Pride
In early August, at the annual World Congress of the International Board on Books for Young People (IBBY), Alberta Senator Kristopher Wells introduced “Reading with Pride: Stories for Everyone” (PDF)” a monograph documenting an archive of 350 LGBTQ-inclusive picture book titles from Canada, Australia, Netherlands, Sweden, the United Kingdom, and the United States.
Children’s books are particularly important because “that’s the way we transmit what our core beliefs and values are to our children, the next generation of citizens,” he told the CBC in an August interview.
Wells, who is also an educator with a doctoral degree focused on sexual and gender diversity in education, had collected the books and used them in the secondary school classrooms where he taught, then later when he trained other teachers at the university level, he said. When he was elected to the Alberta Senate, he wondered what to do with his collection, and reached out to the library and literary community. IBBY Canada then helped launch “Reading With Pride” as a new resource. Wells said the collection is particularly important because of the book banning in Alberta and other parts of the world.
Alberta has seen by far the most book challenges recently of any province in Canada, according to PEN International. Nearly 170 titles have been pulled from shelves following a 2025 provincial order, reports the CBC. People who have followed book banning in the U.S. will recognize the patterns: “parents’ rights” groups pushing for bans on sexual content and in the process removing books, many with LGBTQ characters, that not everyone would view as inappropriately explicit, as The Guardian explained.
Right now, Reading With Pride is still seeking a permanent home, but you can view the catalog as a PDF here. Wells said he is hoping to incorporate additional titles and to create a traveling exhibition; people are already reaching out asking to donate books and money to the project. (Stay tuned….) “We’re not just creating an archive of books here. We’re creating an archive of hope,” he said.
The Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children’s Book Special Collection
Randall Tarpey-Schwed began his collection when he and his husband read stories to their children, reported KQED. He amassed more than 200 titles, from picture books through young adult, published from 1969 to 2023. When his daughters grew up, he packed them away—until Myles Cooper, a library manager at the Mechanics’ Institute, a historical library in San Francisco, found out about the collection and gave it a home.
Now the collection can be viewed at the Mechanics’ Institute and searched online by various topics and identities. It is particularly notable for including some of the very first LGBTQ-inclusive books to be published. The library has done a nice job of grouping the books by themes such as “Families in Picture Books,” “Challenges and Public Debate,” and “Small Presses And Publishing Networks,” and offering some historical context about the importance of each title.
The collection also includes books that it considers “precursors” to LGBTQ-inclusive titles, such as early feminist works, and ones that are “adjacent visibility objects,” offering representation of other aspects of identity. Academic researchers in particular should appreciate what this collection has to offer—but it will also be fascinating to anyone with an interest in the subject.
The Mombian Database of LGBTQ Family Books
My own book initiative, the Mombian Database of LGBTQ Family Books, is purely virtual (although I also have a big collection of physical copies that I will donate somewhere, someday, once I stop referring to them regularly). The database contains 2,000+ items and counting, covering books for ages 0 to 12, including 1,000+ picture books. (It does not cover young adult books, since my site is aimed at parents; young adults are generally finding and choosing their own materials.) It includes books for adults about LGBTQ families, too, and there’s a sprinkling of LGBTQ-inclusive kids’ music and games. I strive to keep the database as current as possible. (Please let me know if I’ve missed something!)
The database is searchable and filterable by a range of identities and topics. I also offer reviews of each book with an eye towards how it might be perceived by children and by parents or other adults who wish to share it with children, in terms of both representation and the quality of the writing and illustrations. (I have omitted some titles whose quality I felt was exceptionally derivative or poor, although I am not as exclusive as the American Library Association’s Rainbow Book List; I want to cast a broad net while still believing that our children deserve books that aren’t strewn with typos.)
My focus has been on books easily available in the U.S., mostly published in the U.S. and Canada, though I am trying to include more Canada-only titles as well. Reading With Pride, as noted above, has more titles from around the world, and more titles in French, as befits a Canada-based collection.
Further Thoughts
No two lists or collections of LGBTQ-inclusive children’s books are going to be identical; I think we each have our own standards for how clear or vague the representation has to be, to what extent books about related subjects like gender stereotypes should be included, and where we draw the line in terms of quality.
It’s all good, though. We need different perspectives on these books because of the wide variety of readers who will seek them, and we need different touch points for engaging with these many stories. I am thrilled that there are physical collections of these books to offer tangible proof that they have existed for so many decades. As I’ve said about book bans, however, it’s not just about the books, but about the children and families whose lives they represent. The archives of books are proof not only of a literary tradition, but also of the fact that LGBTQ people and families have been out and proud, growing, resilient, and sharing our stories for longer than many people realize. I look forward to the stories yet to be written.