LGBTQ+ Books

All Boys Aren't Blue

Book • 2020 • By George M. Johnson

Journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist George M. Johnson’s memoir will make you laugh, cry, and marvel at their bravery. Johnson gets deeply personal, revealing pivotal moments from their years as a Black queer boy growing up in New Jersey and Virginia, through childhood, adolescence, and college. Johnson addresses these stories directly to the reader, exploring topics like toxic masculinity and structural marginalization with intense insight and plainspoken simplicity. There are also moments of levity in all the right places—the Real Housewives of Atlanta and Cardi B references were giving us life. Johnson’s writing really shines when they’re describing their closest relationships—their letter to their brother blew us away—and unpacking even their most painful traumas, including being beaten up by other kids regularly, starting in kindergarten. Whether you’ve had similar struggles yourself or you’re just here to learn, All Boys Aren’t Blue is too riveting and inspiring to pass up. 

 

 

And Tango Makes Three

Book • 2015 • By Justin Richardson & Peter Parnell

And Tango Makes Three is the bestselling, heartwarming true story of two penguins who create a nontraditional family.

At the penguin house at the Central Park Zoo, two penguins named Roy and Silo were a little bit different from the others. But their desire for a family was the same. And with the help of a kindly zookeeper, Roy and Silo get the chance to welcome a baby penguin of their very own.

Selected as an ALA Notable Children’s Book Nominee and a Lambda Literary Award Finalist, “this joyful story about the meaning of family is a must for any library” (School Library Journal, starred review).

 

 

Beyond Magenta

Book • 2014 • By Susan Kuklin

A groundbreaking work of LGBT literature takes an honest look at the life, love, and struggles of transgender teens. Author and photographer Susan Kuklin met and interviewed six transgender or gender-neutral young adults and used her considerable skills to represent them thoughtfully and respectfully before, during, and after their personal acknowledgment of gender preference. Portraits, family photographs, and candid images grace the pages, augmenting the emotional and physical journey each youth has taken. Each honest discussion and disclosure, whether joyful or heartbreaking, is completely different from the other because of family dynamics, living situations, gender, and the transition these teens make in recognition of their true selves.

 

 

Fun Home: A Family Tragicomic

Book • 2007 • By Alison Bechdel

Time Magazine #1 Book of the Year • National Book Critics Circle Award Finalist •

Winner of the Stonewall Book Award • Double finalist for the Lambda Book Award •

Nominated for the GLAAD Media Award

Alison Bechdel’s groundbreaking, bestselling graphic memoir that charts her fraught relationship with her late father.

Distant and exacting, Bruce Bechdel was an English teacher and director of the town funeral home, which Alison and her family referred to as the "Fun Home." It was not until college that Alison, who had recently come out as a lesbian, discovered that her father was also gay. A few weeks after this revelation, he was dead, leaving a legacy of mystery for his daughter to resolve.

In her hands, personal history becomes a work of amazing subtlety and power, written with controlled force and enlivened with humor, rich literary allusion, and heartbreaking detail.

 

 

Gender Queer

Book • 2019 • By Maia Kobabe & Phoebe Kobabe

In Gender Queer, Maia Kobabe has crafted an intensely cathartic autobiography about eir path to identifying as nonbinary and asexual, and coming out to eir family and society. By addressing questions about gender identity — what it means and how to think about it — the story also doubles as a much-needed, useful, and touching guide.

 

 

 

 

 

I Am Jazz

Book • 2014 • By Jessica Herthel & Jazz Jennings & Shelagh McNicholas

The story of a transgender child based on the real-life experience of Jazz Jennings, who has become a spokesperson for transkids everywhere

"This is an essential tool for parents and teachers to share with children whether those kids identify as trans or not. I wish I had had a book like this when I was a kid struggling with gender identity questions. I found it deeply moving in its simplicity and honesty."—Laverne Cox (who plays Sophia in “Orange Is the New Black”)

From the time she was two years old, Jazz knew that she had a girl's brain in a boy's body. She loved pink and dressing up as a mermaid and didn't feel like herself in boys' clothing. This confused her family until they took her to a doctor who said that Jazz was transgender and that she was born that way. Jazz's story is based on her real-life experience and she tells it in a simple, clear way that will be appreciated by picture book readers, their parents, and teachers.

 

 

Jack of Hearts (and other parts)

Book • 2018 • By L. C. Rosen

Riverdale meets Love, Simon in this modern, fresh, YA debut about an unapologetically queer teen working to uncover a blackmailer threatening him back into the closet.

Jack has a lot of sex--and he's not ashamed of it. While he's sometimes ostracized, and gossip constantly rages about his sex life, Jack always believes that "it could be worse."

But then, the worst unexpectedly strikes: When Jack starts writing a teen sex advice column for an online site, he begins to receive creepy and threatening love letters that attempt to force Jack to curb his sexuality and personality. Now it's up to Jack and his best friends to uncover the stalker--before their love becomes dangerous.

Ground-breaking and page-turning, Jack of Hearts (and other parts) celebrates the freedom to be oneself, especially in the face of adversity.

 

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