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Teaching LGBTQIA+ Topics Recommended Reading: Children + Middle Grade

UPDATED 9/27/2017. This list was created for a workshop called "Teaching LGBTQIA+ Topics in the Classroom" that took place on February 16, 2016 at Brooklyn public Library. Led by educator, Aaron McAuliffe, it was for PreK-12 educators interested in incorporating Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Trans, Queer/Questioning, Intersex, Asexual and related topics into their classroom and school community. By no means an exhaustive list, it represents a broad array of BPL's holdings on these subjects.

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31 items

This day in June
by Gayle E. Pitman ; illustrated by Kristyna Litten.
Format:

A picture book illustrating a Pride parade. The endmatter serves as a primer on LGBT history and culture and explains the references made in the story.

Gay & lesbian history for kids
Jerome Pohlen.
Format:

Offers a look at the history of LGBT rights through personal stories and firsthand accounts, and chronicles the events, organizations, and influential leaders of the movement.

Gracefully Grayson
Ami Polonsky.
Format:

Grayson, a transgender twelve-year-old, learns to accept her true identity and share it with the world.

Made by Raffi
Craig Pomranz ; illustrated by Margaret Chamberlain.
Format:

As a shy boy, Raffi is a loner and teased at school until one day he discovers knitting and decides to make a scarf for his father and a cape for the prince in the school play.

And Tango makes three
Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell ; illustrated by Henry Cole.
Format:

At New York City's Central Park Zoo, two male penguins fall in love and start a family by taking turns sitting on an abandoned egg until it hatches. Based on a true story.

Husky
by Justin Sayre.
Format:

Twelve-year-old Davis lives in an old brownstone with his mother and grandmother in Brooklyn. He loves people-watching in Prospect Park, visiting his mom in the bakery she owns, and listening to the biggest operas he can find as he walks everywhere. But Davis is having a difficult summer. As questions of sexuality begin to enter his mind, he worries people don't see him as anything other than "husky."

Rad American women A-Z
written by Kate Schatz ; illustrated by Miriam Klein Stahl.
Format:

Profiled are 26 American women from the 18th through 21st centuries, who have made-or are still making--history as artists, writers, teachers, lawyers, or athletes. The women come from a variety of economic and ethnic backgrounds and many had to overcome extreme hardships.

Stella brings the family
by Miriam Baker Schiffer ; illustrations by Holly Clifton Brown.
Format:

Stella brings her two fathers to school to celebrate Mother's Day.

Sex is a funny word
by Cory Silverberg & Fiona Smyth.
Format:

A comic book for kids that includes children and families of all makeups, orientations, and gender identies, Sex Is a Funny Word is an essential resource about bodies, gender, and sexuality for children ages 8 to 10 as well as their parents and caregivers.

Drama
Raina Telgemeier ; with color by Gurihiru.
Format:

Callie rides an emotional roller coaster while serving on the stage crew for a middle school production of Moon over Mississippi as various relationships start and end, and others never quite get going.