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LGBTQ+ books

Books about LGBTQ+ characters, families, and gender expression.

This hub is for rainbow families, gender-curious kids, and anyone stocking a shelf that is not a debate. LGBTQ+ life here is play, grandparents, crushes, and ordinary Tuesdays. It is not a special episode, and it is not only June.

We keep transgender books as its own hub so families looking for that specificity do not have to wade through a general list. This page still includes gender expression, because kids do not wait for our information architecture.

What we look for

Joyful self-expression. Families that are already a family. Stories where the child on the page is not present to win an argument. We skip tragedy-as-the-point for picture books. We skip titles that treat two moms as the twist.

A starter picture-book pile lives in LGBTQ+ picture books for families. Teens who want a slow love story or a bar that lets them see a future should start with an inclusive YA shelf.

How to keep it ordinary

Leave the books in the regular pile. Read them on a random night. If a child asks a question you were not ready for, it is allowed to say you need to think, then actually come back. After the last page is the method for that pause.

Related guides: LGBTQ+ Picture Books for Families · Starting an Inclusive YA Shelf

Audience

Age

2 books · Clear filters

Cover of Rick

Ages 8–12

Rick

Alex Gino

Rick's never questioned much. He's gone along with his best friend Jeff even when Jeff's acted like a bully and a jerk. He's let his father joke with him about which hot girls he might want to date even though that kind of talk always makes him uncomfortable. And he hasn't given his own identity much thought, because everyone else around him seemed to have figured it out.But now Rick's gotten to middle school, and new doors are opening. One of them leads to the school's Rainbow Spectrum club, where kids of many genders and identities congregate, including Melissa, the girl who sits in front of Rick in class and seems to have her life together. Rick wants his own life to be that . . . understood. Even if it means breaking some old friendships and making some new ones.

$8.99$10.99
Buy on Bookshop
Cover of Drama

Ages 8–12

Drama

Raina Telgemeier

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.

$12.99$14.99
Buy on Bookshop