From: Mary Wepking <wepking>
Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 17:08:57 -0500

A couple of notable YA titles with bi-sexual characters, in addition to Geography Club, are the Printz Honor book, My Heartbeat by Garret Freymann-Weyr and Eddie De Oliveira's Lucky. Also, a book that won the best YA title in Germany about 10 years ago was just translated into English in 2005 -- Center of the World by Adreas Steinhofel. It includes a bi-sexual character, and a gay protagonist & his heterosexual twin sister. It's one of my favorite GLBTQ titles for YAs, although it leans more literary than popular.

Mary

Quoting Nancy Silverrod <nsilverrod at sfpl.org>:

> Actually this is also a good title with a bisexual character, Russel's
> friend, Min.
>
> Nancy Silverrod, Librarian
> San Francisco Public Library
> 100 Larkin St.
> San Francisco, CA 94102-4733
> 415-557-4417
> nsilverrod at sfpl.org
>
> Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to another
> mind. -James Russell Lowell, poet, editor, and diplomat (1819-1891)
>
> A closed mind is like a closed book: just a block of wood. -Chinese
> Proverb
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.education.wisc.edu
> [mailto:ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.education.wisc.edu] On Behalf Of Heather
> White
> Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 10:49 AM
> To: Kathleen T. Horning
> Cc: ccbc-net, Subscribers of
> Subject: Re: [CCBC-Net] GLBTQ Literature
>
> The Geography Club by Bret Hartinger (sp?) is a good pick about a boy
> who thinks he is the lone homosexual at school and finds he is not
> alone.
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Kathleen T. Horning" <horning at education.wisc.edu>
> Date: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 12:12 pm
> Subject: Re: [CCBC-Net] GLBTQ Literature
> To: "ccbc-net, Subscribers of" <ccbc-net at lists.education.wisc.edu>
>
>
> > Nancy Silverrod has provided a great overview of where we are right
> > now
> > with GLBTQ lit, and were we could be going (and, wow! before she's
> > even
> > fully awake!)
> >
> > I'd love to see more done with your Point 6. I'm always amazed at the
> >
> > diversity of families and family structure within the LGBTQ community,
>
> >
> > with different ethnicities, different arrangements for co-parenting,
> > recognition of biological parents, etc. Gay and lesbian families
> > are,
> > by necessity, intentional, and they require a lot of planning and
> > cooperation. I'm not saying that traditional hetero families don't,
> > too,
> > but gay/lesbian families often go to extreme lengths in family
> > planning,
> > and they have to do all of this in the midst of a society that doesn't
>
> >
> > make it easy for them and sometimes doesn't even recognize them as a
> > real family. Kids growing up in these different types of family
> > structures would make a great photo-essay book.
> >
> > KT
> >
> > Kathleen T. Horning
> > Director
> > Cooperative Children's Book Center
> > 4290 Helen C. White Hall
> > 600 N. Park St
> > Madison, WI 53706
> >
> > Phone: 608-263-3721
> > FAX: 608-262-4933
> >
> > horning at education.wisc.edu
> > http://www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/
> >
> >
> >
> > Nancy Silverrod wrote:
> > > I'll start with some brief comments. Overall, we are definitely
> > seeing a
> > > move toward the view that being lesbian or gay is an acceptable,
> even
> > > positive, sexual identity. Many young adult books these days even
> have
> > > minor characters who are gay. There are still very few books that
> take
> > > on the subject of bisexuality--fewer than those dealing with
> transgender
> > > characters. However, there are still very few lgbtq books for
> children
> > > as opposed to the growing number of books for teens, and many of
> them
> > > are being published by small presses, or are self-published, making
> > them
> > > difficult to find. A number of these latter books have the tendency
> > to
> > > be didactic, and libraries often have to balance that, and the
> sometimes
> > > poor artwork, against the subject needs.
> > >
> > > There are a whole range of subject needs that are under-addressed,
> or
> > > not met:
> > > 1. More books about gay marriage, particularly more fiction, all
> > > ages
> > > 2. Books about bisexuality, fiction and non-fiction, all ages
> > > 3. Books about having a transgender family member (there are a
> > > few exceptions in young adult fiction) -- both fiction
> and
> > > non-fiction, all ages
> > > 4. Books about transgender parents (yes there are a number of
> > > them) -- both fiction and non-fiction, all ages
> > > 5. Books about gender-variant young children (even more of those
> > > than transgender parents) -- both fiction and
> non-fiction
> > > 6. Books about the various ways lgbtq people become parents
> > > (adoption, pregnancy, surrogacy, etc)
> > > 7. Books about young lgbtq people joining together to fight back
> > > the homophobia and violence they face
> > >
> > > Subjects that have possibly(or hopefully) been beaten to death:
> > > 1. Boo-hoo, my boyfriend's gay
> > > 2. Oh no, I'm gay, my life is ruined, my parents will hate me
> > > 3. Car wrecks, suicide attempts, gay-bashing
> > >
> > > More thoughts later, after I've woken up...
> > >
> > >
> > > Nancy Silverrod, Librarian
> > > San Francisco Public Library
> > > 100 Larkin St.
> > > San Francisco, CA 94102-4733
> > > 415-557-4417
> > > nsilverrod at sfpl.org
> > >
> > > Books are the bees which carry the quickening pollen from one to
> another
> > > mind. -James Russell Lowell, poet, editor, and diplomat (1819-1891)
> > >
> > > A closed mind is like a closed book: just a block of wood. -Chinese
> > > Proverb
> > >
> > > -----Original Message-----
> > > From: ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.education.wisc.edu
> > > [mailto:ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.education.wisc.edu] On Behalf Of Megan
> > > Schliesman
> > > Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 8:20 AM
> > > To: ccbc-net, Subscribers of
> > > Subject: [CCBC-Net] GLBTQ Literature
> > >
> > > Thank you for the posts on literature for children and teens about
> > the
> > > Middle East. While we'd like to spend more time on this topic to
> > > encourage additional posts, but time being time, we need to turn our
>
> >
> > > attention to the topic for the second part of May: GLBTQliiterature.
> > >
> > > Even more than literature about the Middle East, this area of
> publishing
> > >
> > > for youth has grown tremendously in recent years.* *We have been
> struck
> > >
> > > by the fact that since first talking about this topic on CCBC-Net,
> > in
> > > June of 2004, publishing reflecting the experiences of lesbian,
> > gay,
> > > bixesxual, transgendered, and questioning youth has grown
> exponentially,
> > >
> > > and in that growth we are seeing more new voices and greater
> > diversity
> > > of experience. (Unfortunately, books for younger children reflecting
>
> > the
> > >
> > > many families with gay or lesbian parents are still few and far
> > > between.)
> > >
> > > We invite you to share what you've observed about GLBTQ literature
> > in
> > > recent years for the remainder of May.
> > >
> > > Megan
> > >
> > >
> > _______________________________________________
> > CCBC-Net mailing list
> > CCBC-Net at ccbc.education.wisc.edu
> > Visit this link to read archives or to unsubscribe...
> > http://ccbc.education.wisc.edu/mailman/listinfo/ccbc-net
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Mary Wepking Senior Lecturer University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee School of Information Studies 520 Bolton Hall P.O. Box 413 Milwaukee, WI 53201 wepking at uwm.edu phone 414-229-2474 fax 414-229-6699
Received on Tue 20 May 2008 05:08:57 PM CDT