I’m not a young adult librarian, but I’m a longtime reader of young adult fiction, particularly stories that feature lesbian characters. As a reader, I can confirm that we’ve come a long way since the days of having to (as recently described by Mary at Queer Books Please) scour mainstream books for some hint of queer content. My coming of age and coming out was largely done in pre-internet days, when often the best you could do was manufacture your own subtext. Although it’s still inconsistent and problematic, YA fiction is increasingly diverse. According to the book Serving [...]

Being a teen is painful. You’re no longer a kid, you’re not yet an adult, and no matter who you are, you’re not quite sure it’s okay to be yourself.  In library school we learned about the Search Institute’s 40 Developmental Assets for Teens, which tells us that an extra caring adult in the community, someone who is not a parent, can make a difference for teens by helping to bolster them during this difficult time. I thought back to my own teen years, which were painful, and I thought about those few teachers who were there when I [...]

One of my favorite ways to discuss diverse literature is with the concept of "mirrors and windows"- which is to say, some books will reflect one's experience, while others will open the reader to a new perspective.  Mitali Perkins describes it well here. A lot of times, I see people misusing it as a dichotomy; either this book will be a mirror of your own life, or a window into someone else's. That ignores what I think are the best books, which- as Mitali mentions- are the ones that manage to do both. Seeing aspects of yourself in [...]

I was absolutely thrilled when Gay YA asked me to write a guest blog for their fantastic site (though baffled as to why they asked me- I’m just a regular blogger), and then even more thrilled that they gave me a second chance after I completely spaced on the deadline. Sorry about that, guys! So they asked me to talk about reviewing in general as well as spotlighting GLBT books on my blog. I’ve been doing this for almost 6 years now; I started June 23, 2007 and have been going ever since, moving from Myspace (yes, remember [...]

Guest Blog series part 3 of 3 This week I wanted to take my blog post in a different direction than the last two have gone and talk about everyone’s favorite subject, sex.  I say it’s everyone’s favorite subject, because sex and sexuality is ubiquitous in U.S. culture, and there is no escaping its grasp.  I’d also go so far as to say that just about everyone of age has an opinion on, or feelings about sex.  Well, here’s mine… I’ve been reading YA fiction since I was in elementary school, and graduated to adult books when I [...]

by: Kenneth Creech   Last week in my post about The New LGBTQ Teenager I explored the topic of characters that are gay for a purpose, or gay to fit in. This week I wanted to explore a similar topic, but one that maybe gets discussed a little less often. When I was in my middle to late teen years, it seemed that almost every LGBTQ YA book I read was almost singularly about the coming out process. The entire book revolved around who was coming out and how. Some examples that come to mind are Alex Sanchez’s [...]

by: Kenneth Creech When I was working on my undergrad degree in Sociology, I read a book by Ritch Savin-Williams called The New Gay Teenager, which argued that LGBTQ teens were no longer identifying themselves as LGBTQ.  Savin-Williams suggested they were instead adopting the belief that labels were no longer needed and that by labeling themselves, they were limiting themselves. No offense to Mr. Savin-Williams, but I did not find that to be true when I was an undergraduate, and I still don't find it to be true as an author or professor of Sociology.  Whether we like [...]