I asked my son to share some of his favorite books, in honor of this week’s Read Across America — the National Education Association’s annual celebration of Dr. Seuss’ birthday and the excitement of reading. Here’s what he picked, along with his reasons for doing so.
One of the more delightful recent picture books featuring a child with LGBT parents is Elisabeth Kushner’s The Purim Superhero, about a child with gay dads celebrating the Jewish holiday of Purim. I wrote about the book last year when it was first published — and am pleased to see that PJ Library, a project that sends free children’s books to Jewish families, is offering free copies of the book to subscribers who request it.
The American Library Association (ALA) on Monday announced its annual Stonewall Book Awards for LGBT-inclusive children’s and young adult books, as well as its more extensive Rainbow List of notable titles. What did they choose this year?
Same-sex penguin pairs aren’t a new phenomenon. At least four male pairs have hatched eggs together. But a zoo in Israel reported recently that a pair of female penguins are building a nest. Suki and Chupchikoni “have clearly set up house together, creating a scrape into which they collect nesting materials,” reports Haaretz. Zookeepers originally thought
A Catholic educators’ group responsible for developing Catholic school curricula based on the Common Core State Standards has removed three books from its first-grade plan because they include same-sex and/or divorced parents.
Lesbian mom trivia question: What was the first children’s book in the U.S. to feature lesbian moms? Hint: It’s probably not what you think.
My son’s a middle-grade reader—beyond picture books, although not quite ready for young adult fare. LGBT-inclusive books for this age group seem to get less coverage than picture books and young adult ones, but here’s a nice new list—along with a longstanding one.
(This is a slightly revised version of a piece I wrote for my Mombian newspaper column several years ago, but which seemed worth reposting in honor of LGBT History Month.)
Gay AmericaLGBT History Month is the perfect time to write about Linas Alsenas’ Gay America: Struggle for Equality (Amulet: 2008), a history of gay men and lesbians in the U.S. from the mid-nineteenth century through 2005. It fills a much needed gap, not because of the subject (there are a small but a growing number of LGBT-specific histories), but because of its audience: teens.
It’s Banned Books Week once again — a national celebration of the freedom to read! Check out these children’s and young adult books that have been challenged in the past year because of gay- or lesbian-related content.
