GLBTQ Fiction

The books recommended below received a 3 rating or better in the Horn Book Guide. Suggested grade level for all titles is 7 and up (YA), unless otherwise noted.

Am I Blue?: Coming Out from the Silence edited by Marion Dane Bauer (HarperCollins)
Bauer’s exciting, moving collection includes stories of love, coming of age, adventure, and self-discovery, all centered on themes of coming to terms with homosexuality. Authors include Bruce Coville, Lois Lowry, Jane Yolen, and Nancy Garden. 273 pages.

If It Doesn’t Kill You by Margaret Bechard (Viking)
Ben struggles to balance his conflicted feelings about his football hero father, who left him and his mom for a man, and the messages he gets from the testosterone-infused world of male high school athletes. 156 pages. (OP)

Baby Be-Bop by Francesca Lia Block (Cotler/HarperCollins)
In this ghost story of self-discovery, Dirk (Weetzie Bat) has always known he’s gay, but he struggles with his attractions and a realistic self-loathing until a magic lantern allows him to discover truths about himself and his family. 106 pages. (OP)

Dare Truth or Promise by Paula Boock (Houghton)
This convincing, affecting lesbian love story from New Zealand recasts that old car crash cliché of gay teen novels. 170 pages.

Sugar Rush by Julie Burchill (HarperTempest)
Kim falls for beautiful, boozy classmate Maria in this raunchy but surprisingly romantic coming-of-age story. 244 pages.

Someday This Pain Will Be Useful to You by Peter Cameron (Foster/Farrar)
Eighteen-year-old James spends the summer before college working at his mother’s Manhattan art gallery and, several years after 9/11, takes his first few steps away from his own Ground Zero. 229 pages.

Touching Snow by M. Sindy Felin (Atheneum)
In this stomach-churning account of domestic violence, abused middle-schooler Karina draws courage from her more-than-platonic friendship with the daughter of the community center director working with her family. 234 pages.

Eight Seconds by Jean Ferris (Harcourt)
While attending summer rodeo school the outing of a friend forces John to face long-suppressed feelings about his own sexuality. 186 pages.

The Eagle Kite by Paula Fox (Orchard)
Liam’s discovery that his semi-closeted father is dying of AIDS precipitates his emotional evolution from voiceless anger and loss to acceptance and love. 129 pages. (OP)

My Heartbeat by Garret Freymann-Weyr (Houghton)
Ellen has been in love with her brother’s best friend James for years — a feeling she may share with her brother in this sophisticated depiction of a riveting love triangle. 159 pages.

Holly’s Secret by Nancy Garden (Farrar)
When her family moves, Holly decides to remake her image by telling her new seventh-grade classmates that her two mothers are actually sisters. Grade level: 4–6. 132 pages. (OP)

Two Weeks with the Queen by Morris Gleitzman (Putnam)
Colin’s friendship with a young gay man whose companion is dying of AIDS helps Colin accept his brother’s impending death from cancer. Grade level: 4–6. 141 pages. (OP)

Geography Club by Brent Hartinger (HarperTempest)
Russels starts an after-school support group for fellow gay students, code-named the Geography Club, in a novel distinguished by Russel’s pitch-perfect, pointed narration. The Order of the Poison Oak and Split Screen: Attack of the Soul-Sucking Brain Zombies / Bride of the Soul-Sucking Brain Zombies are sequels. 226 pages.

Jack by A. M. Homes (Simon)
With humor and panache, Homes describes a fifteen-year-old hero’s discovery that his father is gay. 220 pages.

Breaking Boxes by A. M. Jenkins (Delacorte)
Sixteen-year-old Charlie is unprepared for a friend’s horrified response when he learns that Charlie’s brother, who has cared for him since their mother’s death, is gay. 183 pages. (OP)

The Bermudez Triangle by Maureen Johnson (Razorbill/Penguin)
The dynamics between three best girlfriends change when two explore their romantic feelings for each other. 371 pages.

Another Kind of Cowboy by Susan Juby (HarperCollins)
An unlikely friendship develops between Alex, a boy who rides Western but secretly yearns to switch to dressage, and Cleo, a spoiled rich girl with way too much horse, when they meet at the stable of top-notch dressage trainers. 344 pages.

Deliver Us from Evie by M. E. Kerr (HarperCollins)
Parr deals with the growing realization that his strong older sister, Evie, may be a lesbian in this multi-dimensional, well-plotted classic. 179 pages.

Boy Girl Boy by Ron Koertge (Harcourt)
Sweet-natured but non-academically-minded Elliot; Teresa, still dealing with her mother’s long-ago abandonment; and openly gay movie buff Larry find their longtime friendship faltering as graduation nears. Grade level: 7 and up. 164 pages

Talk by Kathe Koja (Foster/Farrar)
Closeted gay high-school senior Kit cultivates his innate acting ability when he lands the leading male role (opposite queen bee Lindsay) in a controversial play. 134 pages.

Absolutely, Positively Not by David LaRochelle (Levine/Scholastic)
Surrounded by the thoughtless homophobia of an average high school, Steven finally comes out to himself, family, and friends to mixed, often funny, and thankfully unformulaic results. 219 pages.

Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan (Knopf)
Sophomore Paul’s school couldn’t get more gay-friendly, a premise that allows Levithan’s gay characters to explore the vicissitudes of love on the same terms as the straight kids. 186 pages.

The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan (Knopf)
Discrete confessional poems, linked by themes of love and heartbreak and by their putative authorship by high school classmates, take in all manner of love. 213 pages.

What I Know Now by Rodger Larson (Holt)
Fourteen-year-old Dave doesn’t know what his crush on the handsome gardener means — and that’s just fine in this story that validates uncertainty as its own truth. 262 pages. (OP)

No Big Deal by Ellen Jaffe McClain (Lodestar)
Fourteen-year-old Janice works out her values and confronts adults after the outing of a talented, challenging teacher turns her small New York town on its ear. 188 pages. (OP)

Hero by Perry Moore (Hyperion)
Thom, a gay teen gifted with healing powers, secretly joins a superhero society, where he bonds with his fellow trainees, learns about his family’s past, and finally saves the world in this larger than life coming-of-age tale. 428 pages.

Between Mom and Jo by Julie Anne Peters (Tingley/Little)
Fourteen-year-old Nick is devastated when his mothers split up in this moving examination of the relationships we forge within the family we are given. 232 pages.

Far from Xanadu by Julie Anne Peters (Tingley/Little)
YA’s only literary butch narrator, Mike, tells of her fraught relationship with gorgeous city girl Xanadu. Mike’s dynamic personality and emotions carry this story, set in a small Midwestern farming town. 282 pages.

grl2grl by Julie Anne Peters (Tingley/Little)
The short stories in this collection give voice to ten distinct expressions of lesbian and transgender teen experience. 151 pages.

Empress of the World by Sara Ryan (Viking)
When she finds herself attracted to another girl, Nicola’s uncertainty about whether she’s lesbian or bisexual is believably conveyed in this summer romance. 216 pages.

The Rules for Hearts: A Family Drama by Sara Ryan (Viking)
Battle spends the summer with her estranged brother in a theater group’s communal house and carves out a bumpy romance with housemate Meryl. 222 pages.

Rainbow Boys; Rainbow High; and Rainbow Road by Alex Sanchez (Simon)
Jason, his jock boyfriend Kyle, and his flamboyant best friend Nelson experience the joys and travails of high school (and graduation) in this trilogy.

Swimming in the Monsoon Sea by Shyam Selvadurai (Tundra)
Shy, quiet Amrith becomes infatuated with his cousin in this YA debut, set in 1980s Sri Lanka, which references and often parallels Othello. 274 pages.

Unlived Affections by George Shannon (Alyson)
After his brusque grandmother dies, Willie discovers letters revealing the family secret — his father, whom he has never known, is gay. 135 pages. (OP)

A Really Nice Prom Mess by Brian Sloan (Simon)
Prom night for Cameron is a long string of questionable activities that get really wacky when he leaves the dance with a bisexual drug dealer — his parents, principal, and ex-boyfriend, not to mention the police, in hot pursuit. 266 pages.

The Blue Lawn by William Taylor (Alyson)
David and Theo are schoolmates whose mutual attraction is in turn denied, acknowledged, and deferred in this romantic love story. 122 pages. (OP)

7 Days at the Hot Corner by Terry Trueman (HarperTempest)
Third-baseman Scott sweats out a week waiting for his AIDS test results and confronting his own ignorance and homophobia after his best friend (who once bled all over him in a baseball bat–induced nosebleed) announces he’s gay. 150 pages.

Box Girl by Sarah Withrow (Groundwood)
Thirteen-year-old Gwen comes to trust her new friend Sarah enough to divulge her family’s deep secret: that her mom left five years ago because Gwen’s dad fell in love with another man. 181 pages.

Parrotfish by Ellen Wittlinger (Simon)
Grady, a teenage boy who was born Angela, a girl, comes out as transgendered to his family and community in this matter-of-fact, multi-layered novel. 294 pages.

The House You Pass on the Way by Jacqueline Woodson (Delacorte)
This reflective, lyrical story concerns fourteen-year-old Staggerlee and her growing feelings for her cousin, which confirm her own suspicions that she might be gay. 114 pages.

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