ALA Releases 2009 Rainbow List

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By SLJ Staff -- School Library Journal, 2/9/2009 2:00:00 PM

If you’re in need of some well-written and wonderfully illustrated gay-themed books, you’re in luck. The Rainbow Project has just released the 2009 Rainbow List, featuring books with authentic and significant gay/lesbian/bisexual/transgendered/questioning (GLBTQ) content for youth from birth through age 18.

This year’s bibliography includes 34 titles, published in the last 18 months, and represents a broad range of GLBTQ experiences. Most titles are recommended for teens, including four titles published for adults. Two picture books, two middle-grade novels, two graphic books (a novel and a biography), one short story collection, one translation, and five nonfiction titles are also represented.

The titles on this year’s list offer young readers rich characters and portray the full spectrum of youth and family experiences. Primary characters are gay, lesbian, transgendered, questioning, and straight, and they grapple with varying degrees of acceptance and prejudice from their friends, families, and communities, as well as from themselves.

Four titles stood out to the selection committee as especially deserving of recognition for their characters, stories, quality of writing, and illustration:

Down to the Bone (HarperTeen, 2008) by Mayra Lazara Dole; 10,000 Dresses (Seven Stories Press, 2008), by Marcus Ewert and illustrated by Rex Ray; Last Exit to Normal (Knopf, 2008) by Michael Harmon; and Skim (Groundwood, 2008) by Mariko Tamaki with art by Jillian Tamaki.

The list is a joint partnership between the American Library Association’s Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Round Table and Social Responsibilities Round Table.

More information can be found on the Rainbow Project blog, MySpace, and Facebook (search: rainbow list).

Rainbow Final List – 2009 Picture Books
Uncle Bobby’s Wedding.(Putnam) by Sarah Brannen
10,000 Dresses (Seven Stories Press) by Marcus Ewert

Middle/Early Young Adult Fiction
No Castles Here (Random) by A.C.E. Bauer
After Tupac & D Foster (Putnam) by Jacqueline Woodson

Young Adult Fiction
Girl from Mars (Groundwood) by Shelley Tanaka.
Debbie Harry Sings in French (Holt) by Meagan Brothers
Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List (Knopf) by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan
Down to the Bone (HarperTeen) by Mayra Lazara Dole
Big Big Sky (Red Deep Press) by Kristyn Dunnion
Suicide Notes (HarperTeen) by Michael Thomas Ford
Fancy White Trash (Viking) by Marjetta Geerling
Two Parties, One Tux, and a Very Short Film About The Grapes of Wrath (Bloomsbury) by Steven Goldman
Map of Ireland (Scribner) by Stephanie Grant
Nothing Pink (Front St) by Mark Hardy
Last Exit to Normal (Knopf) by Michael Harmon
M+O 4EVR (Houghton) by Tonya Cherie Hegamin
Another Kind of Cowboy (HarperTeen) by Susan Juby
My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins, & Fenway Park (Dial) by Steve Kluger
Out of the Pocket (Dutton) by Bill Konigsberg
Gravity (Orca) by Leanne Lieberman
My Tiki Girl (Dutton) by Jennifer McMahon
Belinda’s Obsession (Lobster) by Patricia Penny
Sword Masters (Dragon Moon) by Selina Rosen
Crossover (Orca) by Jeff Rud
Entrances and Exits (Simon Pulse) by Paul Ruditis
Skim (Groundwood) by Mariko Tamaki and Jillian Tamaki
What They Always Tell Us (Delacorte) by Martin Wilson
Love & Lies: Marisol’s Story (S & S) by Ellen Wittlinger

Nonfiction
Gay America: Struggle for Equality (Abrams/Amulet) by Linas Alsenas
The Memoirs of a Beautiful Boy (St. Martin’s) by Robert Leleux
Sex Variant Woman: The Life of Jeannette Howard Foster (DaCapo) by Joanne Passet
Two Truths and a Lie: A Memoir (Homofactus) by Scott Turner Schofield
Awkward and Definition (S & S) by Ariel Schrag

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