A non-profit and a
grassroots organization of children’s book lovers that advocates
essential changes in the publishing industry to produce and promote
literature that reflects and honors the lives of all young people.
Happy World Book Day! Tell us about a book that means a lot to you, and why you love it. 📚
“There are still a lot of common misconceptions about disabled people that affect how we’re represented in media, like the idea that we’re nonsexual and nonromantic by default, which lends itself to fewer stories about LGBTQIA+ disabled characters. “Readers may be surprised to see a wheelchair user revealed as a lesbian; they may not expect to see an autistic character casually talk about their sexual partners,” says Duyvis. It can be similarly unexpected when a disabled character is canonically asexual or aromantic, because that treats it as a valid part of their identity and confronts the audience with the idea that the character’s orientation may be completely separate from their disability.”
TODAY IS THE DAY! The YA world finally gets to have more Malinda Lo to read! I had the pleasure of beta reading this book, and this deliciously dark thriller is one of my favorites by Malinda. Just look at this stunning cover!
Jess Wong is Angie Redmond’s best friend. And that’s the most important thing, even if Angie can’t see how Jess truly feels. Being the girl no one quite notices is OK with Jess anyway. While nobody notices her, she’s free to watch everyone else. But when Angie begins to fall for Margot Adams, a girl from the nearby boarding school, Jess can see it coming a mile away. Suddenly her powers of observation are more curse than gift.
As Angie drags Jess further into Margot’s circle, Jess discovers more than her friend’s growing crush. Secrets and cruelty lie just beneath the carefree surface of this world of wealth and privilege, and when they come out, Jess knows Angie won’t be able to handle the consequences.
When the inevitable darkness finally descends, Angie will need her best friend.
“Lo has delivered an intricate tapestry of narrative, woven in a labyrinthine pattern of secrets and colored with intersecting hues of Chinese-American identity, the dark intensity of relationships, and telltale stains of blood.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“With an active focus on female friendships and relationships, A Line in the Dark is a twisty, dark psychological thriller that will leave you guessing til the very end. The story follows two friends down a path of dysfunction and murder as one of them, Chinese-American Jess tries to balance the expectations of her family, her fraught relationship with Angie, and her mounting sexual attraction for her. Lo offers some impressive storytelling, a chilling plot, and mean girls aplenty.”—
“Whether you’re a scholarship kid or not, being one of the few kids of color at a predominantly white school comes with a lot of challenges. There are clear lines drawn between the haves and have nots—and that reality is reflected on the page, too.”
“As introduced by Kirkus Children’s & Teen Editor Vicky Smith, Kirkus Collectionscreates curated lists of books about members of nine marginalized communities: Black, Latinx, Asian, Middle Eastern, First/Native Nations, Multiracial, Religion, LGBTQIAP, and Disability.”
Marie Lu’s Warcross has proven to be one of the most highly anticipated young adult reads of the year… and for good reason. The diverse, female-led, YA answer to Ernest Cline’s highly popular novel Ready Player One, Lu’s book follows the world of Warcross, an online game that millions across the globe are obsessed with. This is not just any old online game… it’s a way of life, especially for those eager to escape reality or make a hefty profit. Enter teenage hacker Emika Chen, a bounty hunter who tracks down people who bet illegally on the game.
The single sentence “The first LGBTQ history book for young adults” made me pause. Though I have long since phased out of being able to call myself a teen, I needed to get this book if only to learn what my younger self didn’t even to look for. Like many topics considered controversial in history, LGBTQ history is glossed over, usually focused on discussing the AIDS crisis and how it mostly impacted the gay community, and often erased entirely.
Picks include books with a transgender MC, the latest from Newbery winner Kwame Alexander, Indian mythology, alternate worlds, & recovery from depression just to name a few. Looking forward to diverse characters taking center stage in 2016 and beyond!
A guest post from Robert Bittner in schoollibraryjournal‘s Faith & Spirituality in YA Lit (#FSYALit) on books that have tackled characters who are in the LGBTQIA community and also have faith.
There are many posts in this series looking at different aspects of religion and how it has been represented (or not) in children’s literature.
In the dozen years that US author David Levithan has been writing young adult (YA) novels that focus either on or around LGBT issues, teen-marketed books with gay narratives have come out of the closet, and into the mainstream. When his 2003 debut, Boy Meets Boy, became a runaway bestseller on both sides of the Atlantic, it also courted – as runaway bestsellers often do – an attendant controversy, not merely because his lead characters were gay, but because they weren’t persecuted or in peril, but simply in love.
