Celebrate Pride with LGBTQ Fiction

DC Public Library Staff were out in full force at the 2012 Capital Pride Festival on Sunday, June 10. Festival attendees signed up for library cards, checked out books, and even participated in a Creative Class workshop on how to make your own DIY screen print!

In preparation for the festival, Northwest One Library Associate Bobbie Dougherty compiled a list of 50 LGBTQ reads for older teens that are all available at DC Public Library. 

Here are ten favorites:

Skim  by Mariko Tamaki (G.N. FICTION TAMAKI)	Pink  by Lili Wilkinson (YA FICTION WILKINSON)
Debbie Harry Sings in French  by Meagan Brothers (YA FICTION BROTHERS)	Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green & David Levithan (YA FICTION GREEN)
Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher (YA FICTION KATCHER)	Orphea Proud by Sharon Dennis Wyeth (YA FICTION WYETH)
A Love Story Starring My Dead Best Friend  by Emily Horner (YA FICTION HORNER)	How Beautiful the Ordinary Edited by Michael Cart (YA COL. FICTION HOW)
Beauty Queens by Libba Bray (YA FICTION BRAY)	Ash  by Malinda Lo (YA FICTION LO)

Ten suggestions not good enough? There are tons of resources available relating to LGBTQ teen fiction both inside and outside of your public library. Our online database NoveList is a great place to start for read-a-like suggestions - just type in GLBT as a keyword.

If you prefer to read the best of the best, check out award winners from the ALA Rainbow Project, Stonewall Book Awards, and the Lambda Literary Awards.

And if blogs are more your style, check out these three great sites: 

• Queer YA - a comprehensive site of book reviews;
• I'm Here, I'm Queer, What The Hell Do I Read? - an award-winning interactive blog with videos; and 
• gayya.org - a site with reading lists, book reviews, guest author posts, an online forum, and links to other blogs relating to LGBTQ characters in YA.

E-mail barbara.dougherty@dc.gov if you would like her complete list of 50 suggested LGBTQ YA reads!