Read to Celebrate Pride Month!
June is Pride month. This month celebrates the amazing contributions of the LGBTQIA+ community, while also acknowledging the struggles, discrimination and violence they have faced in the fight for equity and liberation.
On their website, GLADD shares that “The majority of Pride events are held in June to commemorate the anniversary of the Stonewall Rebellion in New York City on June 28, 1969, which most historians consider to be the birth of the modern LGBT movement. At the time, police raids on bars catering to LGBT patrons were common, but that night, the patrons of the Stonewall Inn fought back. While historical accounts of the night vary, the violent response ignited a national firestorm of activism that brought new visibility to the struggle for LGBT equality.”
The events at Stonewall were a critical turning point for the LGBTQIA+ community and there is a great deal to learn about the activism, cultural contributions and individual expressions of LGBTQIA+ people. Children and families can celebrate pride month together, and learn more about these movements through books and other media. To kickoff pride month, below are 15 titles to to share with the children (and adults!) in your lives.
The books below are not a complete reading list, and taking time to learn about the LGBTQIA+ community should never be limited to a single month.
Use the titles below as a springboard to having conversations with your child about what it looks like be an ally, elevate the voices of others and advocate for justice.
Love Makes A Family by Sophie Beer
Julian Is A Mermaid by Jessica Love
In Our Mothers’ House by Patricia Pollaco
One True Way by Shannon Hitchcock
I Am Jazz by Jessica Herthel and Jazz Jennings
This Day In June by Gayle E. Pitman
Beyond The Gender Binary by Alok Vaid-Menon
Red: A Crayon’s Story by Michael Hall
Stonewall: A Building. An Uprising. A Revolution. by Rob Sanders
The Boy and the Bindi by Vivek Shraya
Twas the Night Before Pride by Joanna McClintick
My Rainbow by Trinity and DeShanna Neal
Calvin by JR and Vanessa Ford
Mama and Mommy and Me in the Middle by Nina LaCour
Born Ready: The True Story of A Boy Names Penelope by Jodie Patterson
Below are additional resources for families who want to learn more about Pride Month and inform themselves about
LGBTQIA+ issues:
We as the Books Are Wings team are always looking for ways to grow our books collection and one of our top priorities is to make sure that the books we distribute are historically accurate and representative of our diverse world. If you have suggestions for book titles that we can add to our Book Wishlist, please email us at info@booksarewings.org!
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