From: Merri Lindgren <mlindgren_at_education.wisc.edu>
Date: Thu, 15 May 2014 16:15:07 -0500

While there definitely seems to be a void of novels with transgender themes for upper elementary and middle school age readers, the CCBC has recommended a few titles with gay characters in past years. *Totally Joe* by James Howe (Ginee Seo Books / Atheneum, 2005) hints at 12-year-old Joe's sexuality, while *So Hard to Say* by Alex Sanchez
(Simon & Schuster, 2004) describes the gradual coming out process of Frederick, thirteen and in middle school. In /CCBC Choices/ we suggested Totally Joe for readers ages 10 to 14, and So Hard to Say for ages 12 to 15.

Two books for similar age readers feature middle grade female protagonists with gay older brothers. Twelve-year-old Fern's brother Holden has just entered high school and is coming out to his family in
*See You at Harry's* (by Jo Knowles, Candlewick Press, 2012). And in Jacqueline Woodson's *After Tupac and D Foster* (Putnam, 2008), eleven-year-old Neeka?s gay older brother Tash is the target of homophobia.

Merri

-- 
Merri Lindgren, Librarian
Cooperative Children's Book Center (CCBC)
School of Education / UW-Madison
4290 Helen C. White Hall
600 N. Park Street
Madison, WI  53706
608-263-3930
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Received on Thu 15 May 2014 04:16:26 PM CDT