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.
 
More
lists of Recommended Books
|