While the number of LGBTQ-inclusive kids’ books for most age ranges has seen exponential growth in recent years, early chapter books with LGBTQ characters remain exceedingly rare. There’s a new one out this week, though: a fun and fantastical story about a girl and a piece of popcorn that comes to life. Oh, and the girl has two dads, but that’s happily incidental to the tale.
It’s Nonbinary Parents Day—so whether you go by maddy, baba, mapa, moppa, nibi, zeze, or any other parental name, may you bask in celebration! Here are a few picture books with nonbinary, genderqueer, and two-spirit parents and other adults (or ones that could be read as such) that may help add to the fun!
I’ve been adding books fast and furiously to my database and haven’t mentioned them all individually on the blog—so here are a few newish ones that are worth a look!
A lovely rhyming story shows diverse people and families, including one with two dads, as it seeks to inspire a lifetime love of reading. It’s also available in four different bilingual editions!
One of my favorite LGBTQ-inclusive picture books from the past few years has largely flown under the radar here in the U.S., so I’m mentioning it again just as a follow-up book comes out. The first book looks at the power of female friendships as it follows the intertwined stories of four girls from childhood into adulthood; the second follows four boys and gives us insight into not only male friendships, but also societal pressures around masculinity. There are queer characters in both, along with a message of unconditional allyship.
A young child, assigned male at birth but whose “shadow is pink,” finds acceptance and love from his burly, masculine, blue-shadowed dad in a new picture book inspired by the author and his child’s real-life story.
For the third year in a row, George, a book about a transgender girl, topped the American Library Association’s (ALA’s) annual list of the Top 10 Most Challenged Books, and LGBTQ-themed books remained dominant among all the censorship attempts tracked by the ALA. Unlike in the previous few years, however, books with themes of race and racial justice, not LGBTQ themes and characters, made up the majority of books in the top 10. That’s still awful.
A sweet new picture book about a girl who loves having her dads read stories to her (especially the one about her adoption) is uplifting and empowering.
Today is the Transgender Day of Visibility, so I’m celebrating by rounding up 25 (!) picture books with transgender and/or nonbinary characters that have been published in 2020 and 2021 alone. (I’ll also show you how to find older trans-inclusive kids’ books and ones for and about trans parents.)
In a new picture book by the real-life mother of a transgender daughter, a young boy isn’t quite sure what’s happening when his younger sibling, whom he thought was a boy, begins to want long hair and to wear dresses. The whole family learns together in this story that adds to the small number of picture books about transgender children and their siblings.
