Ever since I started Mombian, I’ve been writing about the need for more LGBTQ-inclusive children’s books, including ones that don’t focus on the “issue” of being LGBTQ or part of an LGBTQ family. That’s why I’m very excited about a new initiative to take a headcount of everyone (including you, I hope!) who would value more of these books.Â
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
A new middle-grade book, just released today, is told through a series of letters from a 10-year-old girl with two moms to her soon-to-be-born sibling, during a momentous year for both marriage equality and her favorite basketball team.
Two of my favorite LGBTQ-inclusive kids’ books of recent years are Cory Silverberg and Fiona Smyth’s works on sexuality and reproduction, What Makes a Baby? and Sex Is a Funny Word. Now, the two want your input for their next volume.
Many of us queer parents (myself included) bemoan the lack of LGBTQ-inclusive children’s books, especially for younger tots. There’s one potential source for these books, however, that has not yet been fully tapped: tie-ins to the increasing (though still small) number of LGBTQ-inclusive kids’ television shows.
The first book for LGBTQ families in Eastern Europe is building on the success of a January giveaway and launching an Indiegogo campaign to get the book into the hands of more children.
