Timeline Of LGBTQ Children's and YA Literature
19th and even 18th century adults wrote about their fears of same-sex relationships, especially between young people, in medical and psychological texts. Remember that true children's literature is a late 19th Century invention, and most books that children read were actually written for adults. While childhood is still supposed to be an age of innocence from any sexual knowledge, many novels include teen relationships that seem to modern eyes homoerotic (Tom Brown's Schooldays (1857), Ragged Dick (1869), Little Women(1868), Huckleberry Finn(1884), Anne of Green Gables (1908), A Separate Peace (1959)), but acknowledged LGBTQ characters do not appear until . . . . 1969.
I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip by Call Number: Annex PZ7.D7228 IlISBN: 0738721344Publication Date: 2010 (2nd ed) (1969)Amazon ‘Look Inside this title’ here
Much earlier than Heather Has Two Mommies, I'll Get There includes the frequent early theme of "linking homosexuality with tragedy" (tribunella, 2014).
The Man Without a Face by Call Number: PZ7.H7083 ManISBN: 0397312865Publication Date: 1972An example of another common theme: YAs deciding "whether their same-sex attractions are situational or permanent" (Tribunella, 2014).
Ruby: A Novel by Call Number: Alden 7th fl PS3557.U93 R8xPublication Date: 1976First YA novel about a teenage lesbian romance. Example of the many novels that see a teen's sexual orientation as the central problem of the plot.
Reflections of a Rock Lobster: A Story About Growing Up Gay by Call Number: alden 7th fl HQ76.3.U5 F74 c.2ISBN: 0932870090Publication Date: 1981Nonfiction YA autobio. Fricke "is best known for his legal campaign in the late 1970s for permission to bring a male date to his high school prom." (Hall, 2002) Sudden Strangers, 1991, tells that story in detail.
- Jenny Lives With Eric and Martin
1983.
Originally in Danish (1981), an early children's book about a girl with two daddies.
Dance on My Grave: A Life and Death in four Parts by Call Number: PR6053.H286 D3 1986xISBN: 006091310XPublication Date: 1986 (1982)Another early YA title with LGBT main characters and a tragedy.
Heather Has Two Mommies by Call Number: PZ7.N47988 He 2000ISBN: 1555835708Publication Date: 2004 (2nd ed.) (1989)Amazon ‘Look Inside this title’ here
First published in 1989, and often hailed as the "first gay book for children," Heather was also for many years the most frequently challenged children's book. The most common theme in picture books is still the happy family with LGBTQ parents. Now in its 3rd edition.
Daddy's Roommate by Call Number: (see OhioLink)ISBN: 9781555831783Publication Date: 1990Amazon ‘Look Inside this title’ here
Usually mentioned in the same breath as Heather Has Two Mommies, Daddy's Roommate came only a year later.
Annie on My Mind by Call Number: PZ7.G165 An 1992xISBN: 0374404143Publication Date: 1992 (1st ed.1982)One of the first books for YAs in which the protagonists are self-aware LGBT characters.
From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun by Call Number: PZ7.W868 Fr 1995ISBN: 0590458809Publication Date: 1995Amazon ‘Look Inside this title’ here
A novel about race and sexuality: Melanin's mother comes out as lesbian - with a white partner - and he must work to adjust.
"Hello," I Lied by Call Number: PZ7.K46825 He 1997ISBN: 0060275294Publication Date: 1997Amazon ‘Look Inside this title’ here
Without ever using the word "bisexual," Kerr presents a teen variously attracted as valid.
Rainbow Boys by Call Number: PZ7.S19475 Rai 2001ISBN: 0689841000Publication Date: 2001Amazon ‘Look Inside this title’ here
The novel as a teaching tool: Rainbow Boys (with Sequals Rainbow High and Rainbow Road) depict a group of teens learning to get along together, coming out, discovering social services (!)....
Boy Meets Boy by Call Number: PS3562.E922175 B69 2003ISBN: 0375824006Publication Date: 2003Amazon ‘Look Inside this title’ here
Teenagers in a queer-normalized world in which there are many problems in growing up, but same sex preference is NOT one of them.
Luna by Call Number: PZ7.P44158 Lu 2003ISBN: 0316733695Publication Date: 2004Amazon ‘Look Inside this title’ here
The beginning of the trend for trans teen experience depicted in novels.
The Vast Fields of Ordinary by Call Number: PZ7.B915985 Vas 2009ISBN: 9780803733404Publication Date: 20092010 Stonewall winner, also selected for its easy attitude toward teens' orientations. This is a story about regular people, good and bad.
Will Grayson, Will Grayson by Call Number: PZ7.G8233 Wil 2010ISBN: 9780525421580Publication Date: 2010Amazon ‘Look Inside this title’ here
More recent books feature LGBT characters for whom their orientation is not the central theme of the book. A 2011 Stonewall Book Award winner.
