In recent years, we have seen a number of picture books with gender non-conforming characters or that challenge the typical gender roles generally seen in literature and toys for children. There have also been several self-published books for young children…
Category: LGBTQ
Civil Rights and Intersectionality: Lies We Tell Ourselves
The past ten years have seen 50-year milestones for significant events in the Civil Rights Movement, and with them have come a number of books, fiction and non-fiction, for young readers. Stories of school desegregation, in which a white student…
Crazy Horse’s Girlfriend by Erika T. Wurth
I knew from the very first sentence of Crazy Horse’s Girlfriend, by Erika T. Wurth, that I was reading a young adult novel like no other–that the voice was going to be entirely original, the setting one of those “invisible”…
Three Books on Questioning Religious Belief
With Hanukkah and Christmas at hand, this seems an inopportune time to review books about teens who question the religious beliefs of their elders. Still, adolescence is a time of questioning, and whatever decision a young person makes about faith…
Coming of Age with “Gabi: A Girl in Pieces”
As I’ve made my way through the dozens of books nominated for the Cybils Award in YA Fiction—I’m now up to 55—a few books have come to stand out. I’ve already reviewed some and will be focusing on others in…
Review: Tomboy by Liz Prince
Liz Prince‘s graphic memoir Tomboy (Zest Books, September 2014) chronicles her 31-year journey to define who she is in a world bent on doing it for her, and her evolution from rejecting all that is “girl” to someone who embraces who…
Tigers, Sunsets, and Tangerine Dresses
Honestly, the trailer for Morris Micklewhite and the Tangerine Dress by Christine Baldacchino might do the book more justice than anything I can say about it. I picked up a copy of this delightful picture book from Groundwood Books at…
Music IS the Weapon: A review of Coda & Chorus by Emma Trevayne
A documentary of one my favorite musicians, the Nigerian Afropop star Fela, is titled Music is the Weapon (http://vimeo.com/8818071). Fela used music as his way to speak truth to power—it was such a powerful weapon that the government arrested him…
Three Middle Grade Titles from Indie Publishing Pioneer Zetta Elliott
Zetta Elliott burst onto the children’s publishing scene with a Lee & Low New Voices Award and the acclaimed 2008 picture book for older readers Bird, the moving story of a boy’s close relationship with his troubled older brother. Since…
Review: Babe Conquers the World
Babe Conquers the World: The Legendary Life of Babe Didrikson Zaharias, by Rich Wallace and Sandra Neil Wallace, is a wonderful new biography out now from Calkins Creek. I have to admit, my reading of Babe Conquers the World got off to…