1. tfk
  2. A Bleg

A Bleg

By tfk on May 24, 2008.

A friend wants LGBT books for tweens:

So far, the best we’ve been able to do in terms of LGBT fiction for kids who have moved beyond picture books is:

Boy Meets Boy, by David LevithanSo Hard to Say, by Alex Sanchez
Geography Club, by Brent Hartinger
The Order of the Poison Oak, by Brent Hartinger
Totally Joe, by James Howe

Not one of these books, however, is truly a tween read. They’re basically young adult novels without too much explicit sex. So while a 10-year old could read them without his parents throwing a fit, he probably wouldn’t get too much out of them, since they’re not really written for his age group.

I would love to purchase some books for younger students that include LGBT characters (and by include, I mean include prominently — not just incidentally or allusively), but I’m having a really tough time finding anything — anything at all. Help? Anyone?

My knowledge of tween lit is pretty limited, but perhaps one of you readers can help.

Tags
Chatter

More like this

That Facebook Book Meme Thing
My friend Iain Davidson tagged me with the facebook novel meme. Here are the rules: Oh, hell, never mind the rules. I wanted to provide links to the books so I decided to do this as a blog post which I'll paste on my facebook page (and of course tag some unlucky facebook friend). Here it is. I…
Reading Diary: Summer reading with Bradbury x 2, Burke, Maberry, Lemire and more
My 2011 summer reading was pretty meagre this year. For various reasons too boring to go into here, there wasn't much actually much vacation for me this summer. I think I'll probably have a better December/Christmas reading list than summer. Such is life. Anyways, what I did read was pretty good…
Read Aloud
I should have known, but did not, that being read aloud to was a learned skill. It never occurred to me to think about it from my privileged place in the world of literacy. I was, for a time, though a teacher of writing, a fish who swam in words without thinking of the water. Like a lot of book-…
The Future of Our Disabled Children
I wrote this in 2008 - now Eli is a 5'9, 120lb almost-teen.  We're getting ready to celebrate his bar mitzvah in a few months, which will be an adaptive celebration of not only what Eli can do, but also what our community has done for him over the years.  Adolescence and autism combine with some…

I *LOVE* "Am I Blue?" by Bruce Coville. You can find it in a book of short stories by that title compiled by Marion Dane Bauer (Amazon link: http://www.amazon.com/Am-I-Blue-Coming-Silence/dp/0064405877).
I'm not sure what the exact age range on the whole range of stories, but I think a 10 year old would get plenty out of Am I Blue.

Hi, I've done a series on encouraging science literacy through literature (http://tiny.cc/books997), but finding the younger years is tough for LGBT, absolutely! It's only started to gain ground recently.

I've got the following, that might help:
Stephen Chbosky - The Perks of Being a Wallflower,
Garret Freymann-Weyr - My Heartbeat,
Jack Gantos - Desire Lines,
A.M Homes - Jack,
James Howe - The Misfits,
Maureen Johnson - The Bermudez Triangle,
Lisa Papademetriou and Chris Tebbett - M or F?,
Julie Ann Peters - Keeping You A Secret / Far from Xanadu / Luna,
Sara Ryan - Empress of the World,
Alex Sanchez has a series, beyond the one previously mentioned,
Shyam Selvadurai - Swimming in the Monsoon Sea,
Andrea Steinhofel - The Center of the World,
Jacqueline Woodson - The House You Pass on the Way.

Thanks for posting this, Josh!

Becca, I love Am I Blue! We actually do have that in the library; I should have added it to the above list. I'm thinking of reading some of the essays aloud to my 6th grade class next year in hopes that a few of them will then borrow the book to finish on their own.

DLC, the question comes from a school librarian.