Archive – Page 22

Book Review: None Of The Above by I.W. Gregorio

By Kale|2020-03-28T13:41:48-05:00May 14th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Book Club, Book Review|Tags: Intersex|

by Alexandra von Klan from Inter/Act Youth None of the Above is GayYA's book of the month. Grab a copy now and get ready to discuss later this month in our book club twit chat! None of the Above by I.W. Gregorio (Balzer + Bray / HarperCollins, 2015) Within the vast realm of young adult novels, I’m an amateur reader. I’ve yet to devour the Hunger Games trilogy and, up until a week ago, I had zero point of reference to John Green (although, after looking him up, I sobbed during the trailer for [...]

Comments Off

I’ve got a girl in the war

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:41:48-05:00May 13th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, Guest Blogs, Readers on Reading|Tags: asexual, Non Binary, Representation|

by Marieke Nijkamp “The objection to fairy stories is that they tell children there are dragons. But children have always known there are dragons. Fairy stories tell children the dragons can be killed.” With these words, the late, great Terry Pratchett famously misquotes G.K. Chesterton’s Tremendous Trifles. It’s not a misrepresentation of Chesterton’s ideas though. For Chesterton, too, stories were St. Georges, dragonslayers. But I’d like to think it goes further than that. Stories tell readers dragons come in many ways and many forms—from false friends to overwhelming dystopias. Stories do not just tell readers dragons can be [...]

Comments Off

M.E. Kerr and Deliver Us from Evie

By Helen|2020-03-28T13:41:48-05:00May 12th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, Book Review, Guest Blogs|Tags: classics, Queer Girls|

by Sara Zarr I knew about M.E. Kerr long before I read her. When I was growing up in the seventies and making regular visits to our neighborhood library, there was a beat-up paperback on the spinning rack of “teen fiction” that caught my eye: Dinky Hockey Shoots Smack by M.E. Kerr (HarperCollins Publishers, 1989) DINKY HOCKER SHOOTS SMACK! How could I not notice a title like that? The cover image had the title spray-painted across a brick wall like graffiti. At age nine or ten I made a mental note to myself to read that [...]

Comments Off

How To Make Your Library a Safe Place for Queer Teens

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:41:48-05:00May 11th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: Advocacy, Allies, Library|

by Angie Manfredi Last year, I chose Alex London’s YA dystopian thriller Proxy as my teen book club’s selection. This meant my library would purchase multiple copies, many teens would read it, and then we would Skype with Alex to talk about it. Why did I choose Proxy? Well, partially because it’s superb YA: a well-written, engaging, fast-paced read that asks interesting questions about debt and income inequality. But I also partially chose it because it has a gay, biracial lead character and the author is a gay man. I wanted my teen readers to experience a swashbuckling [...]

Comments Off

Are They LGBTQIA? Let Your Characters Tell You

By Helen|2020-03-28T13:41:48-05:00May 10th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, Writers on Writing|Tags: Allies, LGBTQIA, Minor Queer Characters|

by Karen Sandler As a cis white author who’s inching ever closer to old lady status, I experienced a couple fortunate circumstances in my youth that shaped me as a writer. First, when I transferred to a new high school in 1970, the circle of friends who drew me in were largely gay, lesbian, and transgender. Second, when I started writing more seriously in my early 20s, several of the members of my critique group—which included luminaries Katherine Forrest and Montserrat Fontes—were gay or lesbian. I don’t mention this to brag that I’m “all that and more” or [...]

Comments Off

When Books Save Lives… And When They Don’t

By Kale|2020-03-28T13:41:48-05:00May 9th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog|Tags: Bisexual, gay, Latin@, Mental Health|

(warning for discussion of suicide) by Alex Sanchez Rainbow Boys by Alex Sanchez (Simon & Schuster, 2001) When my first novel, Rainbow Boys, was about to be published my editor asked me, “Do you realize this book isgoing to save lives?” I wondered if he’d confused my book with someone else’s. But then the novel came out, and I began to receive emails from readers. Some said the protagonists had become their role models. Others said they’d read the book over and over when they felt lonely and afraid. And then came responses like this one: [...]

Comments Off

On Building a Better Tomorrow

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:41:48-05:00May 8th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog|Tags: Advocacy, Allies, Minor Queer Characters|

by Ellen Hopkins I write contemporary young adult fiction. To date, I’ve published eleven bestselling YA novels-in-verse, and each storyline is unique. I’ve written about addiction, abuse, suicide, prostitution and the drive for perfection, both internal and external—issues that touch teen lives every day. The books are diverse, but they all have in common queer characters somewhere in their pages. Burned by Ellen Hopkins (Margaret K. McElderry Books, 2006) Sometimes they’re main characters. Other times, they’re peripheral or barely seen. For instance, in Burned, Pattyn has a gay uncle who’s been shunned by his ultra religious [...]

Comments Off

Tanuja Desai Hidier’s “Dimple Lala/ GayYA Bday Party Playlist”

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:41:49-05:00May 7th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog, Fun Things, Guest Blogs|Tags: Intersectionality, Minor Queer Characters, Other Media, PoC, Queer Girls, Realistic, South Asian|

4 original songs from Tanuja’s ‘booktrack’ albums When We Were Twins (songs based on her first novel, Born Confused) & Bombay Spleen (songs based on her new novel, sequel Bombay Blues) to celebrate GayYA’s 4th birthday! And for now, and always, I knew: Love had to be allowed in wherever, whenever, and in whatever form it took. We didn’t have to shrink to fit it, box it to casket. And even then, when we found it dying, could opt for ashing down rather than burial, scatter it to all five corners of the earth and ether. Whatever could [...]

Comments Off

Author Guest Blog: Kimberly Derting

By Olivia|2020-03-28T13:41:49-05:00May 6th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Author Guest Blog|Tags: Advocacy, Allies|

By Kimberly Derting I have three kids, and I’ve raised them all to be conscientious and loving—to see people as people rather for their sexual orientations or skin colors or religious beliefs. But it’s my youngest daughter—my 14-year-old—who is fierce about these principles, to the point of being rabid. This was what she asked for as her 14th birthday. "Why ban gay marriage when you can ban kidz bop?" She wears it everywhere, until eventually I have to sneak it into the wash. I think, secretly, she wants to overhear a whispered slur just so [...]

Comments Off

Booktube Needs You!

By Vee|2020-03-28T13:41:49-05:00May 5th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Book Review, Guest Blogs, Readers on Reading|Tags: Book Community|

by Danika Leigh Ellis If you're a bookish person, and especially if you're a fan of YA, you should be exploring the wonderful world of Booktube by now. Booktube is the bookish community of Youtube. Hundreds of people make videos about books, from reviews to bookish tags to provocative discussion topics. It's similar to the book blogosphere, but feels more interconnected. Being able to see people's faces as they discuss book they're passionate about makes it a much more personal interaction, and you quickly begin to feel like you really know the people you follow. Booktube is also [...]

Comments Off