New Guide to LGBTQAI+ Kids’/YA Books Offers Lists, Advice, Discussion
A new guide to LGBTQAI+ children’s and young adult books should become a go-to resource for librarians, teachers, and parents—although it needs to clean up a few errors.
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Writing Our Stories: Memoirs of Queer Parents
Looking for good reads from other LGBTQ parents? Want something book-length to really dig your teeth into? Check out nearly two dozen memoirs!
5 of 10 Most Challenged Books in U.S. Include LGBTQ Content
Once again, five of the top 10 books in the American Library Association’s (ALA’s) annual list of the most challenged books in the U.S. are there because of their LGBTQ content, among other reasons.
Family Equality’s Hostetter-Habib Family Award: I’m Honored–but You Deserve Credit
I’m humbled and proud to share that Family Equality Council is honoring me with the 2018 Hostetter-Habib Family Award, given in honor of Alex Habib, Mark Hostetter, and their entire family to “an individual who has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to our core values of love, justice, family, and equality.” If I’ve been unwavering, though, it’s because my family—and all of you, readers—have been right there with me.
Cricket Media Expands LGBTQAI+ Content and Community for Kids, Teens
Cricket Media, “the world’s most awarded children’s magazine publisher” (per its website) is adding to the queer content in its publications. This April, its Spider magazine, for ages six to nine, will feature its first full-length story with LGBTQAI+ characters—but that’s just one piece of the company’s already inclusive content. Two Cricket Media editors and the story’s author, who all identify on the LGBTQAI+ spectrum, spoke with me about what the publisher is offering and why they feel it is important.
Lesbian Tour Guide — A Guest Post
Today’s piece is a guest post by Lara Lillibridge, whose memoir Girlish: Growing Up in a Lesbian Home, I reviewed yesterday. Here, she offers her thoughts on growing up with two moms and being a “lesbian tour guide” to the outside world. She reminds me, once again, that we parents have as much to learn from our children as they from us (maybe more), and we LGBTQ parents are wise to listen to the voices of those who grew up with LGBTQ parents. We and our own children will be better for it.
A Book Birthday for “Girlish: Growing Up in a Lesbian Home”
I’m always excited by the publication of memoirs about LGBTQ families, and I’m happy to be part of the blog tour for Lara Lillibridge’s memoir Girlish: Growing Up in a Lesbian Home (Skyhorse Publishing), on its launch date and book birthday. Girlish is not a comfortable tale. It is, however, a reminder that we LGBTQ parents are as flawed as any others, and we should not let some ideal of perfection force us or our children into hiding their stories.
Two New Books Show Two Ways to Include LGBTQ Characters
It’s going to be a book-focused week here at Mombian. Let’s get started with two new books—one for middle grades and one for young adults—that show two different ways of incorporating LGBTQ characters and themes into a story.
Faith and Family in New Memoir of Queer Motherhood
The tension between religion and LGBTQ identities is often portrayed in black and white—but a new memoir shows us the many nuances in one woman’s journey to reconcile her Catholic faith with her love for another woman as they fall in love, have children, and navigate parenthood.
14 LGBTQ-Inclusive Kids’ Books Featuring Animals to Read After Marlon Bundo
Comedian John Oliver made headlines this week with a new children’s book, A Day in the Life of Marlon Bundo, released in response to A Day in the Life of the Vice President by Charlotte Pence, daughter of Vice President Mike Pence, and illustrated by his wife Karen. In Oliver’s version, Marlon falls in love with another boy bunny. But it’s hardly the only LGBTQ-inclusive children’s book starring animal characters.