LGBTQ in youngCanLit

I honestly believe that every young person should see themselves somewhere in literature.  Sure, no one will see themselves in every piece of youngCanLit but, in this age and with the wide variety of writing out there, there is a plethora of picture books, fiction and non-fiction that includes members of the LGBTQ communities, as there should be.

And in the month of June, when Toronto will be celebrating gay pride from June 19-27 (Vancouver will be celebrating from July 25-August 2, Montreal from August 10-16 and Calgary from August 28-September 7), I can't think of a better time to prepare a booklist that includes titles with LGBTQ characters or deal with related issues.

So, if you'd like to enlighten, to share, to appreciate and to understand LGBTQ issues, check out these youngCanLit books.

Picture Books

Asha's Mums

by Rosamund Elwin and Michelle Paulse
Illustrated by Dawn Lee
Women's Literary Press
24 pp.
Ages 5-9
1990

Fiction

Big Guy
by Robin Stevenson
Orca Book Publishers
128 pp.
Ages 12+
2008

Chance to Dance for You
by Gail Sidonie Sobat
Great Plains Teen Fiction
172 pp.
Ages 14+
2011

Reviewed here

Crush
by Carrie Mac
Orca Book Publishers
136 pp.
Ages 14-17
2006

Drummer Girl
by Karen Bass
Coteau
192 pp.
Ages 14+
2011

Forward Pass

by Lorna Schultz Nicholson

Lorimer

144 pp.

Ages 13+

2013

Girl from Mars
by Tamara Bach
Translated by Shelley Tanaka
Groundwood Books
176 pp.
Ages 14+
2008

Hello, Groin
by Beth Goobie
Orca
292 pp.
Ages 14-17
2006

Homo

by Michael Harris
Lorimer
144 pp.
Ages 14-17
2012

In the Garage
by Alma Fullerton
Red Deer Press
181 pp.
Ages 13+
2006

Money Boy
by Paul Yee
Groundwood Books
184 pp.
Ages 12+
2011

Moon at Nine
by Deborah Ellis
Pajama Press
224 pp.
Ages 14+
2014

Reviewed here

Not With a Bang
by Gail Sidonie Sobat
Magpie Books
118 pp.
Ages 14+
2012

Reviewed here

One in Every Crowd
by Ivan E. Coyote
Arsenal Pulp Press
238 pp.
Ages 12-17
2012

Parallel Visions
by Cheryl Rainfield
Rain and Sun Press
146 pp.
Ages 13+
2012

Reviewed here

Scars
by Cheryl Rainfield
Westside Books
248 pp.
Ages 14+
2010

Skim
by Mariko Tamaki
Illustrated by Jillian Tamaki
Groundwood Books
141 pp.
Ages 14 +
2008

Stained
by Cheryl Rainfield
HMH Books for Young Readers
304 pp.
Ages 14+
2013

Reviewed here

Straight Punch

by Monique Polak
Orca Book Publishers
256 pp.
Ages 13-16
2014

Swimming in the Monsoon Sea
by Shyam Selvadurai
Tundra
280 pp.
Ages 16+
2007

Switch
by Douglas Davey
Red Deer Press
252 pp.
Ages 15+
2014

Reviewed here

This High School has Closets
by Robert Joseph Greene
Icon Empire Press
96 pp.
Ages 14+
2011

This One Summer
by Mariko Tamaki
Illustrated by Jillian Tamaki
Groundwood Books
320 pp.
Ages 14+
2014

Reviewed here

Way to Go
by Tom Ryan
Orca Book Publishers
224 pp.
Ages 12+
2012

Reviewed here

What We Hide
by Marthe Jocelyn
Tundra Books
275 pp.
Ages 14+
2014

Reviewed here

When Everything Feels Like the Movies
by Raziel Reid
Arsenal Pulp Press
176 pp.
Ages 15+
2014

Would You Mind?

by Robert Joseph Greene
Icon Empire Press
121 pp.
Ages 14+
2013

(You) Set Me on Fire
by Mariko Tamiki
Razorbill
304 pp.
Ages 14+
2012

Non-fiction

Branded by the Pink Triangle

by Ken Setterington
Second Story Press
196 pp.
Ages 13-18
2013

Homophobia: Deal with It and Turn Prejudice into Pride

by Steven Solomon
Illustrated by Nick Johnson
Lorimer
32 pp.
Ages 12-14

2013

n.b. Please let me know about any titles I may have missed that belong here.  I would love to make this a more complete booklist, and not limit it to only those books with which I'm familiar.

Bad Pirate

by Kari-Lynn Winters

Illustrated by Dean Griffiths

Pajama Press

978-1-927485-71-2

32 pp.

Ages 5-8

May, 2015

Of course Augusta Garrick wants to be a good pirate.  Her father is Captain Barnacle Garrick and he was all the things a good pirate should be: saucy, bold and selfish.  In other words, he was bad.  He has no problems tying up traitorous crew and making them walk the plank (though Augusta rescues them in her rowboat below).  Or fighting off a giant octopus. Or yelling at the crew for helping an older member.

So one night she decides to do something saucy, bold and selfish: she tosses out the wooden peg leg of Scully, the one-eyed pit bull who never lets Augusta get away with any kindnesses.  But the next morning a brewing storm demands Scully's attention to the main sail, and he can't climb!  Will someone be "feedin' the fishes" for that snafu?  Will it be Scully, Augusta or the whole crew when the ship sinks?

You know Kari-Lynn Winters will spin a great yarn, which she has, and it’s a rollicking good one of life on the high seas, living with barnacle-hardened sea dogs (literally) and a father-daughter relationship like no other.  There’s learning about being oneself and accepting others' strengths as important, even if different. The text is salted with the voice of pirates–though nicely scrubbed for young ears and eyes–and the fluency of a sea shanty.  And Dean Griffiths makes sure that his bold illustrations transport the reader to the swaying decks of that pirate ship, embellished with detailed rigging, portholes, ratlines and masts.  And the crew of spaniels, chihuahuas, bulldogs and sheepdogs (this list is limited only by my own limited dog knowledge) is resplendent in their kerchief do-rags, breeches, buckle boots and gold earrings, the captain especially dapper in his frock coat and feathered musketeer hat.  And Augusta fits right in, truly looking like a pirate, even if Kari-Lynn Winters has to help her, and everyone else on the ship, see that when she was good, she really was a very Bad Pirate. Lucky for them.

Song for a Summer Night: A Lullaby

by Robert Heidbreder 

Illustrated by Qin Leng

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-493-0

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

May 2015

Prepare to be lulled into the joyful warmth of a lullaby that will wrap reader and listener in that soft cacophony of a Canadian summer night.  It's when children ready for bed, after long days playing outside, peer out their windows at the creeping darkness of grey periwinkle and marine blues and anticipate a nightly show of colours, sounds and textures.  The branches of trees begin the show with their shh-shh’s, followed by the glint-glint of dancing fireflies, pinging bellflowers (they are bellflowers, after all) and snapping snapdragons, waltzing raccoons, hooting owls, rhythmic crickets, and a sparkling assortment of domestic and wild noisemakers.

The children are spellbound,
attuned to the park.
Its music brightens,
lightens the dark. (pg. 17)

The text is lyrical and the illustrations melodic. Song for a Summer Night harmonizes line and colour with the palatable sweetness of the sound splashes.  Robert Heidbreder does poetry with texture and Qin Leng’s fountain brush and ink art evoke that ethereal musicality, emphasizing darkening backgrounds with flashes of indoor lights, impressed young faces, and splotches of park green and flowers.  Oh, to be enjoying that view and orchestral piece, all without mosquitoes and flies nipping at elbows resting on window sills!

Truly a lullaby for a Canadian summer night.

shh-shh
glint-glint
ping-ping
tra-la-la
snap-snap
tip-tap
hoo-hoo
click-click
purr-purr
scratch-scratch
pound-pound (pg. 32)

The Death of Us

Written by Alice Kuipers

HarperTrophy Canada

978-1-44342-410-3

216 pp.

Ages 13+

2014

Be prepared for heartbreak. 

Before you’ve finished two full pages, a girl will be showing Kurt and his friends a social media image of Ivy’s car being pulled out from the river below the broken rail of the bridge.  And he knows that Callie would have been in that car.

Rewind two weeks, and Ivy Foulds and her alcoholic mom are returning after 3 years away to live next door to Callie Carraway and her family again, now that Mom has reunited with former boyfriend, Kevin.  But there’s something suspicious about the way that they left and about some secret between Callie and Ivy that cools their reunion.  However, with Callie’s best friends away for the summer and her preachy and inattentive mom distracted with new baby Cosmo, Callie is drawn to reconnect with Ivy who is determined to give "shiny-penny Callie in the bank account of my life" (pg. 5) a great summer.  But when Ivy is introduced to Kurt Hartnett, the school zine editor, on whom Callie is secretly crushing, she decides that, "He's so going to help me get over everything." (pg. 35)

So that great summer is off to an odd start and there are so many obstacles to it: Ivy’s flirtatious ways, secrets being held back and lies being told.  Sadly the book’s opening foreshadows a friendship that will be the death of them somehow.

Alternating between the voices of Ivy and Callie in the weeks prior to the accident and Kurt at the time of the accident, The Death of Us  examines the friendship between the two girls, both from the past and in the current summer, as they navigate their family issues and own explorations with love.  Their story told from the pen of Alice Kuipers is never predictable.  Not. Ever.

The girls are complex, juggling what they know, what they need and whom they trust, within each’s precarious family dynamics.  Most of all, Callie and Ivy are trying to figure out who they are and put forward those personas.  But try as they might, they still don't have a handle on the people they are growing into.  Ivy likes to rely on self-help podcasts ("the best way to grow as a person is to step outside your comfort zone"; pg. 122) to navigate this learning while Callie tends to look externally to others, including books, to direct her ideas about self.  But Callie and Ivy are the products of their families–as is Kurt, in a different way–and they are so affected by their mothers, that I weep for mother-daughter relationships that can be so disheartening, even destructive.  But I cheer for those like Kurt and his friend Xander and Callie’s Granny who provide real and unconditional support and affection, even if only discreetly.

Even without the twists and turns of highly-plotted stories, there’s no way the reader will see the ending coming, just as author Alice Kuipers did in her book 40 Things I Want to Tell You  from HarperTrophy Canada, 2012.  You see, there is no need for Alice Kuipers to embellish truths and reality when the drama of real life is so captivating and she can write it so well.  The Death of Us will take you into that reality and walk you along that cliff edge, back and forth, wondering when the jump or the fall is coming, because you know it will. That's life.  And it will be The Death of Us, one way or another, predictably or not.

Swimming, Swimming

by Gary Clement

Groundwood Books

978-1-55498-449-7

48 pp.

Ages 4-7

April 2015

It's summer and a boy who is obviously obsessed with swimming (note the posters hanging on the blue water walls of his room, his t-shirts, and the goggles and flippers on the floor) is just getting up, getting dressed, packing his backpack and meeting his friends. Any guesses where they’re heading?  Yep, it’s summer so it’s the local swimming pool.

And once they’re changed and pre-showered and on the deck of the massive outdoor pool, it’s time for the Swimming, Swimming song.  What? You don't know the camp song “Swimming, swimming, in a swimming pool?” No worries.  Gary Clement will take you along for a colourful and quirky illustrated rendition of the song, and even share with you, via video (which I've also shared below), the gestures that go with it.  Ready?  Sing!

Swimming, swimming
In a swimming pool.
When days are hot
When days are cold
In a swimming pool.
Breaststroke
Sidestroke
Fancing diving too!
Oh don’t you wish you never had anything else to do?

From the boy and his friends, to moms and dads with little ones, swimmers with balls, flutterboards, an innertube or waterwings, everyone is getting into Swimming, Swimming.  I defy you to not find yourself amongst the goggled, sunglassed, gotteed, bearded and clean-shaven, bikini- and tankini-ed, full-suited and trunked floaters and active swimmers at the swimming pool.  Gary Clement has included everyone!  And when the day is done and they leave the community pool, stopping at the Mister Ice Cream truck before heading home for dinner, the boy ends the day tending to a small orange swimmer for whom he is responsible, before he’s in bed resting so he'll be ready for another day of Swimming, Swimming in a swimming pool.

Many Canadian readers will be familiar with Gary Clement’s political cartoons in the National Post but I believe that his illustrations have that originality and funniness that are the heart of great humourous picture books.  Obviously others think so as well, since Gary Clement did win a Governor General’s Award for Illustration for his book The Great Poochini (Groundwood Books, 2010).  Just like his loveable relatives in Oy Fey So? (Cary Fagan, Groundwood Books, 2013), Gary Clement’s very real characters who are less-than-perfect-morphologically steal the story, again bringing all readers into the book, whether they want to go swimming or not. (And, for reference, the endpapers will show you the different strokes!)

(BTW, thanks, Gary Clement, for keeping the Speedo-ed strutter out of the community pool!)

~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~  ~

Swimming, Swimming Sing Along

Uploaded by House of Anansi on April 27, 2015 to YouTube.

See You Next Year

by Andrew Larsen

Illustrated by Todd Stewart

Owlkids Books

978-1-926973-99-9

32 pp.

Ages 3-7

March 2015

I'll bet lots of families are already thinking about their summer plans, and many already know where and when they’ll be vacationing because it’s become an annual ritual.  It’s a ritual embedded in a known car trip, a familiar cottage à la motel, and a proverbial beach.

We’ve been coming to the same place every summer since I was little.
Nothing changes.
That’s why I like it. (pg. 8)

In See You Next Year, the intimacy of the location is only surpassed by the familiarity of the activities.  The very people may change from year to year but the sand-raking tractor, the umbrella-toting visitors, the evening concert at the gazebo bandstand and the beach bonfire are all the same.  However, a new friend,  not unexpected, adds some new milestones to the young girl’s summer.

The rhythm of Andrew Larsen’s text will easily transport older readers to summer holidays as children: the lapping of the waves on the beach, the pattern of the sea of umbrellas , the patter of that inevitable day of rain, the routine of waking, swimming, playing, staying up late and sleeping in.

And Todd Stewart, for whom this is his first picture book, captures the essence of those summer holidays with family in his retro art and minimal palette.  In illustrations in which he could have emphasized a myriad of colours across bathing suits, umbrellas, and blistering heat, Todd Stewart chooses eloquently to underscore the turquoise of the water, the sandy golds of the beach, the midnight blue of a clear sky, or the taupes of a rainy day inside.  It works so well.

I suspect Andrew Larsen may be recreating his own memories or sharing those of his own children.  Either way, summer will seem very familiar and too far in the future until it’s already gone, and a postcard and warm memories are all that are left.  Until next year.

Orca Book Publishers: Spring Book Launch (Victoria, BC)

Orca Book Publishers

 will be launching their newest spring books

on

Wednesday, June 10, 2015

at 

7:30 pm

at 

Munro's Books

Victoria, BC

Authors and illustrators in attendance will include:

Sara Cassidy

Not for Sale
Orca Echoes
(early reader for ages 7-9)
64 pp.

Michelle Mulder

Trash Talk: Moving Toward a Zero-Waste World
Orca Footprints
(non-fiction for ages 8+)
48 pp.

Mike Deas

Tank and Fizz: The Case of the Slime Stampede

Ages 8-11
152 pp.

Reviewed here

Alex Van Tol

Chick: Lister

Orca Currents
(middle-school fiction for reluctant readers; RL 2.4)
144 pp.

Diane Dakers

Homecoming

Orca Soundings
(teen fiction for reluctant readers; RL 3.5)
120 pp.

Sean Rodman

Tap Out

Orca Soundings
(teen fiction for reluctant readers; RL 3.0)
128 pp.

Robin Stevenson

The World Without Us

Ages 12-16
226 pp.

Reviewed here

Brian Harvey

Beethoven's Tenth: A Frank Ryan Mystery

Rapid Reads
(short books for adult readers; RL 4.5)
160 pp.

Dayle Campbell Gaetz

Disappearing Act: A Leena O'Neill Mystery

Rapid Reads
(short books for adult readers; RL 4.2)
160 pp.

There's something for everyone, 

as the above books indicate, 

and all ages are welcome.