(no subject)

[usullusa]

Hey everyone,

So I am starting a project. I am compiling a list of Young Adult fiction (that includes picture books, middle grade, teen, and everything in between) that contains gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgender/intersex/asexual/queer themes. I realize that doesn't cover everything, so please feel free to correct me.

So I need your help, internet. Do you know of any YA/children's books that contain queer themes or characters? Please tell me about them!
What I need from you: Title; Author; Genre (if you know it); Age Group (if you know it); Kind of Queer Content (if you know it).

Please pass this on. I haven't found any list that is comprehensive and accessible enough to be useful. Our youth need it. And I am sure that there are many of us who would find it useful.

Thanks!

The list so far:

The Privilege of the Sword by Ellen Kushner
Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan
The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan
Love is the Higher Law by David Levithan
Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn
Will Grayson & Will Grayson by David Levithan and John Greene
Cycler by Lauren McLaughlin
(Re)Cycler by Lauren McLaughlin
Ash by Melinda Lo
Runaways by Brian K. Vaughn
Tithe by Holly Black
Ironside by Holly Black
Luna by Julie Anne Peters
Rage by Julie Anne Peters
V for Vendetta by Alan Moore
Top Ten by Alan Moore
Will of the Empress by Tamora Pierce
Warchild by Karin Lowachee
Cagebird by Karin Lowachee
Am I Blue? Edited by Marion Dane Bauer (includes Jane Yolen and Bruce Coville)
The Year they Burned the Books by Nancy Garden
Annie on my Mind by Nancy Garden
Good Moon Rising by Nancy Garden

Comments

[muccamukk]

Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson slice of life/coming of age contemporary fiction aimed at teenaged girls. Has lesbian/bisexual content.

[contrarywise]

Hi there, I'm here from iambickilometer's journal. I'm a long-time fan and reader of children's and YA lit, so I love the idea of your list. You've made a good start, but a lot of the work has already been done by others, especially in the area of teen YA books.

First, there's I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the Hell do I read? While it may not be the easiest resource to navigate, it's got a lot of queer teen books already listed and reviewed. There's also QueerYA and this huge queer YA bibliography to check out. A Web search for "gay children's literature" turns up several more Web pages covering kid's books with gay characters and queer-related topics.

[usullusa]

Thank you, these are very useful. I knew that there were several lists already out there but I didn't have links to them anymore; I was hoping people could point me in the direction of them.

[contrarywise]

You're welcome, I'm glad to be of help.

Are you also looking for online fiction recs?

[torachan]

Alex Sanchez: Rainbow Boys, Rainbow High, Rainbow Road, So Hard to Say, Getting It, The God Box, Bait [high school; mostly gay male, though one (Rainbow Road) has a transgender girl briefly]

Julie Anne Peters: Keeping You a Secret (this and Luna are the only ones I've read by her, but check Amazon; some of her others may have queer characters, too) [high school; lesbian]

Lois-Ann Yamanaka: Name Me Nobody [jr high/high school; lesbian]

Ellen Wittlinger: Parrotfish (I believe she may have written others as well; she had a blog post where she whined about being discriminated against by the Lamdas as a straight author) [high school; transgender (ftm)]

Tanuja Desai Hidier: Born Confused (protagonist is straight, but there are queer supporting characters) [high school; lesbian & transgender (mtf)]

Shyam Selvadurai: Swimming in the Monsoon Sea [gay male]

As for genre, all are just real life growing up stories.

[esmenet]

Guardian of the Dead; Karen Healey; (haven't read far enough to straightforwardly tell you the genre); Teen; Asexual character -- the only one I can think of offhand.

[ldydragon7.livejournal.com]

Hello, I'm here from Iambic's LJ. I'm a YA Librarian at a public library,so this is a subject I'm very interested in. Off the top of my head I can think of --

Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher, Realistic Fiction/High School Romance, Transgender MtF

Hero by Perry Moore, Superhero Novel, Main Character is a Gay Teenage Superhero

And Tango Makes Three by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell, Based on a true story about penguins at the Central Park zoo, Two Male penguins hatch and raise and egg together

In Our Mothers' House by Patricia Polacco, picture book grades 1-4, Families, A sweet story about the home life of a lesbian couple and their three adopted kids

Young Avengers by Allan Heinburg, Marvel Superhero Comic Book/collected into graphic novel form, Two boys on the team are a couple (has a great 'coming out' scene with one of the boy's parents)

As I think of more I'll come back and add them to the list.

[indywind]

How Beautiful The Ordinary,edited by Michael Cart, teen, lesbigaytrans

[lairofthemalelesbian.blogspot.com]

Tanya Huff's Keeper Trilogy: "Summon The Keeper", "The Second Summoning" and "A Long Hot Summoning."

I love them because one of the major characters is gay and it's not treated as anything major at all. It's not an issue or a huge plot-point; that's just the flavour that she happens to fancy. In the third book, she's the main character and her love interest is a girl. No big deal.

I wish real life were more like that.

PJW