We’re just a few weeks away from the Pride Month that marks the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Uprising, and children’s book authors are stepping up to offer age-appropriate histories of this pivotal event and its impact.
Sometimes a picture book knocks everything out of the park. Evocative prose, whimsical illustrations, a sweet storyline that deals with sensitive topics by applying a big dose of family love—plus a gender ambiguous protagonist with two grandfathers who are a couple. I almost missed this book because the grandfathers’ relationship is so seamlessly woven into the story that the cataloging information has no indication there are LGBTQ characters. This is one picture book that shouldn’t be skipped, however.
When my spouse and I first tried to start our family 17 years ago, we searched vainly for a book on assisted reproduction that was both authoritative and inclusive. There were queer parenting books, to be sure, but they covered such a range of topics that details of the actual babymaking processes and procedures were somewhat scanty. There were more detailed guides, but they omitted families like ours. A new book by a fertility expert—who also happens to be a lesbian mom herself—is just the book we would have hoped to have.
It’s Children’s Book Week, an annual celebration of books for children and teens that launched in 1919. Not only is 2019 a milestone anniversary for that event, however; it’s also a milestone anniversary year for queer-inclusive children’s books, too: ones for teens have been around since 1969; picture books since 1979. Let’s mark the occasion with a look at some of the LGBTQ children’s books published so far in 2019.
A trailer for the upcoming Addams Family movie starts with images of what an “average American family” can look like—including ones with two moms and two dads. “Every family is different,” the voiceover says. “But some families are more different than others,” it concludes, as the images change to show the Addams.
A majority of titles in the American Library Association’s (ALA’s) latest annual list of the Top 11 Most Challenged Books were challenged or banned because of their LGBTQ content. Two of the books were also burned.
Not only has the number of LGBTQ-inclusive picture books increased greatly over the past few years, but more and more are being published even for the very youngest children. Here are some new ones (board books and otherwise) aimed at babies, toddlers, and preschoolers.
A maiden falls in love with a princess at a multiracial royal court in a delightful new children’s book that adds to the growing collection of LGBTQ fairy tales.
Maybe it’s the hint of real spring in the air, but I’ve had music in my head lately, so I thought it would be a good time to recap some of the great music that now exists for and about LGBTQ parents, LGBTQ kids, and different types of families in general.
Moms Stef and Lena of Freeform’s The Fosters make their second guest appearance in spinoff show Good Trouble, in an episode that raises the question: What’s more awkward, bringing your lesbian moms to your conservative boss’ house for drinks or having dinner with your new girlfriend, your ex, and the ex’s new girlfriend? And what happened to Lena’s hair? It’s now rather … straight.
