In June, we celebrate Pride Month, a time to recognize and honor the accomplishments and contributions of people in the LGBTQIA+ community. It is also an opportunity to reflect upon and acknowledge the challenges that those in this community often face- but there’s plenty of joy and uplifting experiences here as well! Listed below is a sampling of fiction and nonfiction books from our teen collection that highlight the LGBTQIA+ experience.
Kween by Vichet Chum (9th gr. & up)
A queer Cambodian American teen uses slam poetry to attempt to come to grips with the deportation of her father, and the changes that has created for her family. When one of her videos goes viral, she must decide where her poetry, and her life, will take her.
Dead End Girls by Wendy Heard (9th gr. & up)
Desperate to escape suffocating expectations and menacing families, seventeen-year-old Maude and her step-cousin Frankie fake their own deaths while on a family vacation in Hawaii, with deadly consequences.
The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester by Maya MacGregor (7th gr. & up)
An autistic nonbinary eighteen-year-old moves to a new town and school with the support of their loving father and finds friends in an LGBTQ-plus club, but they all must come together to solve the decades-old murder of a teenage boy and confront the demons lurking in Sam's past.
Only This Beautiful Moment by Abdi Nazemian (9th gr. & up)
Set against the backdrop of Tehran and Los Angeles, this intergenerational story, examining queer identity at the end of different decades, follows three boys in the same Iranian family as they each gain a new understanding of their history, their culture, and themselves.
Dark Rise by C.S. Pacat (9th gr. & up)
Discovering that his destiny is to fight beside the Stewards, 16-year-old Will, who is on the run from his mother’s killer, is plunged into a world of magic where he must train to play a vital role in the oncoming battle against the Dark.
Fable for the End of the World by Ava Reid (10th gr. & up)
In a society controlled by one corporation, Inesa's mother has accrued enormous debt and offers Inesa as a sacrifice, who is then pursued by Melinoe, an assassin, in a dystopian romance about survival, sacrifice and love that risks everything.
The Darkness Outside Us by Eliot Schrefer (9th gr. & up)
Ambrose and Kodiak are sworn enemies sent on the same rescue mission. Alone in space, they must deal with inexplicable memory gaps, indications that strangers have been on board, and other strange events. Forced to work together, slowly gaining trust, can the two boys survive the ship’s secrets and complete their mission?
The Sunbearer Trials by Aiden Thomas (7th gr. & up)
Transgender demigod Teo is unexpectedly selected for the Sunbearer Trials, a fierce competition among demigod heroes where the winner sacrifices the loser to Sol, their blood fueling the Sun Stones that protect Reino del Sol.
Growing Up Trans: In Our Own Words edited by Dr. Lindsay Herrot and Kate Fry (6th gr. & up)
What does it mean to be young and transgender today? Written by trans youth from 11 to 18, this collection illustrates the trans experience through stories, essays, art and poetry. They tell of the challenges, big and small, of being a young trans person. It is also a toolkit for what understanding, acceptance, and support for the trans community looks like.