OK, it’s not quite spring—but the new crop of LGBTQ-inclusive middle grade books that are coming out in the next few weeks are putting me in a spring-like mood. There’s humor, mystery, poignancy, adventure, romance, and a surfeit of surfing—plus a hint at what could be yet another queer-inclusive animated feature film!
Megan Rapinoe and three of her 2019 U.S. Women’s National Soccer teammates are the subjects of an inspirational new middle-grade book that follows them from their starts in the sport through their rise to global fame—and which also discusses Rapinoe’s coming out and its positive impact on her life.
In a sparkling new middle-grade graphic novel, two twins must hide with a group of magical women after a coup threatens their noble house. For one, dressing as a woman to blend in with the group is a disguise; for the other, it is the first step towards living as her real gender.
Erica Perl’s middle-grade novel All Three Stooges has just won the National Jewish Book Award for Children’s Literature—and its star, Noah, happens to have two moms. I reviewed it last April, but I’m reposting the review here in honor of the award.
Dana Alison Levy is back with her fourth middle-grade book set in the universe of The Misadventures of the Family Fletcher, her 2014 novel about a two-dad family. Her latest book, It Wasn’t Me, centers around one of the Fletchers’ classmates, whose photography project was vandalized with threats and gay slurs, and it asks readers to reflect on the assumptions we make about others.
A new middle grade book gives us a queer romance set in the U.S. South in 1977, long before gay-straight alliance clubs, marriage equality, or any kind of LGBTQ-inclusive books for children and youth. It will likely still resonate with young people today, however (and maybe some of their parents).
I know we’ve made progress towards increasing the number of LGBTQ-inclusive middle grade books when three come out within weeks of each other that are not just new books, but sequels or sophomore efforts. The authors are also all queer themselves!
I’m still thinking about natural disasters today—and about three queer-inclusive middle grade books just out this year that prominently feature weather disasters—along with young people finding strength as they go through them.
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.
Queer parents often wonder what their children will call them, but the Lotterys have it figured out. There’s MaxiMum (from Jamaica), CardaMom (of the Mohawk Nation), and their co-parents, PopCorn (from the Yukon) and PapaDum (after the tasty cracker of his native India, not because of a lack of intelligence). The two same-sex couples are co-parenting seven children and a menagerie of animals in Emma Donoghue’s funny and clever new middle-grade novel, The Lotterys Plus One.
