Whether you’re looking for a rarely seen mirror of yourself or a window into those around you, these books will give you a sample of the many identities and experiences that make up L G B T Q I rainbow. Some are books about the process of self-discovery. Others are about the struggle to live as who you already know you are. Many are set in the present, some in a dystopian future, and some in a time much like today but with a little memorable twist. Read the rainbow!
Born a girl, Peyton Honeycutt meets Tara Parks in the eighth grade bathroom shortly after he gets his first period. Determined to impress Tara, Peyton sets out to win her love by mastering the drums and basketball. He takes on Tara’s small-minded mother, the bully at school, and the prejudices within his conservative hometown. In the end, Peyton must accept and stand up for who he is or lose the woman he loves.
The story of twin teenagers whose close relationship at thirteen comes apart over the next three years.
Fifteen-year-old bender Kivali has had a rough time in a gender-rigid culture. Abandoned as a baby and raised by Sheila, an ardent nonconformist, Kivali has always been surrounded by uncertainty. Where did she come from? What is she? Boy/girl? Human/lizard? Both/neither? Now she’s in CropCamp, with all of its schedules and regs, and the first real friends she’s ever had. Strange occurrences and complicated relationships raise questions Kivali has never before had to consider.
In the early 1990s, when gay teenager Cameron Post rebels against her conservative Montana ranch town and her family decides she needs to change her ways, she is sent to a gay conversion therapy center.
After enduring his father’s suicide, his own suicide attempt, broken friendships and more in the Bronx projects, Aaron Soto, sixteen, is already considering the Leteo Institute’s memory-alteration procedure when his new friendship with Thomas turns to unrequited love. You can also check out this title as eBook on Overdrive/Libby.
A groundbreaking story about a teenage girl who discovers she’s intersex, and what happens when her secret is revealed to the entire school.
Auditioning for a New York City performing arts high school could help Etta escape from her Nebraska all-girl school, where she’s not gay enough for her former friends, not sick enough for her eating disorders group, and not thin enough for ballet.
Sixteen-year-old, not-so-openly-gay Simon Spier is blackmailed into playing wingman for his classmate or else his sexual identity–and that of his pen pal–will be revealed.