From: Annette Goldsmith <ayg>
Date: Tue, 20 May 2008 18:28:35 -0400

Katy, your comment about diverse families and family structure reminded me of Megan Lambert's article in the May/June 2008 Horn Book, "Reading about Families in My Family" which begins: "In my family there are two moms and five kids. I've yet to find a children's book that depicts a cast of characters that looks anything like our particular multiracial, foster-adoptive family constellation..." There's a lovely family photo, too. The stuff of a photo-essay book, perhaps?

Annette

Annette Goldsmith Tallahassee, Florida


-----Original Message----- From: ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.education.wisc.edu
[mailto:ccbc-net-bounces at ccbc.education.wisc.edu] On Behalf Of Kathleen T. Horning Sent: Tuesday, May 20, 2008 1:13 PM To: ccbc-net, Subscribers of Subject: Re: [CCBC-Net] GLBTQ Literature

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
>
>
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Received on Tue 20 May 2008 05:28:35 PM CDT