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Queer YA Novels About Book Banning

Right now, I’m feeling very sappy about the fact that I read I Kissed Shara Wheeler recently, I’m now reading Melt With You, and have Just Your Local Bisexual Disaster up next. I remember when having a mainstream sapphic YA romcom would be a once in a year (maybe) occurrence, and now they’re back-to-back! What a delight.

This week, I want to highlight the charity LGBT Books to Prisoners. You can donate either monetarily or with books. They’re especially looking for gay, bi, and trans books (they have an overflow of lesbian book at the moment). You can also purchase books off their Amazon wishlist.


Queer YA and MG Books About Book Banning

When I did an analysis of the 850 books Texas lawmaker Matt Krause wants to ban, I gave the award for most ironic book to be included on this list to The Year They Burned the Books by Nancy Garden, which was originally published in 1999 and is still unfortunately timely.

I was reminded of it when I saw the description for Answers in the Pages by David Levithan, a gay middle grade book that’s out this week and tackles the current wave of book banning.

I wasn’t able to find any books by authors of color on this subject, although books by authors of color have been targeted the most recently, especially books with Black queer main characters. I hope that in the coming years, we’ll see publishers support authors translating this experience at the intersection of racism and queerphobia to fiction.

the cover of Answers In the Pages, featuring an illustration of a line of turtles, two of them with rainbow shells

Answers in the Pages by David Levithan

Donovan was not expecting his 5th grade assigned reading of a book called The Adventurers to turn into a passionate community debate. But when his mom picked it up and interpreted the ending as implying the two boys become a couple, she arranged a meeting with the principal and demanded it be removed from the school. The situation is made more complicated by the fact that Donovan’s teacher is gay, and there is at least one out student in the class who doesn’t understand why the book would be considered inappropriate if it did gave gay characters. The narrative switches between Donovan and the book ban, the adventures of the two boys in the book, and two other boys in the school who start falling for each other while working together on a project.

David Levithan is the author of Boy Meets Boy and Two Boys Kissing (among many, many others) and he is an editor for a YA imprint at Scholastic, so he has an inside look at what it’s like to have queer books challenged and banned, as well as how important those narratives are — Boy Meets Boy was radical when it came out for imagining such an accepting environment for its queer characters. (Including a drag queen quarterback!)

the cover of The Day They Burned the Books

The Day They Burned the Books by Nancy Garden

As editor of her high school’s newspaper, Jamie writes an opinion piece about the update to the health curriculum, which now includes comprehensive sex ed and free condoms. The article starts a firestorm of backlash, both for the newspaper and the sex ed curriculum. The new textbooks are pulled from classes and a conservative parents’ group begins burning library books. Meanwhile, Jamie is starting to realize that she maybe, probably is falling for a female friend, though she hesitates to come out as her best friend, who’s gay, faces homophobia in the aftermath of her article.

Like Levithan, Nancy Garden is a historic name in queer YA. She wrote Annie On My Mind in 1982, a groundbreaking YA lesbian love story. It continues to be challenged and banned today.

the cover of Hello, Groin

Hello, Groin by Beth Goobie

When Dylan volunteers to put together a library display assembling book covers onto silhouettes of bodies, it starts a domino effect that has her questioning her own relationship to sex. Her choices for the books to represent the groin area of the silhouette are apparently scandalous. As she tries to defend herself, she also begins to form a new relationship to her body and her desires, admitting that she’s more interested in kissing a random girl at a party than her boyfriend.

While this book is not as well known as something like Annie On My Mind, it made a big impression on me when I read it as a young adult. I loved that this didn’t just discuss sexuality in terms of orientation, but also the entire concept of sex and desire: “Anyway, why does that part of your body have to be treated like a wild animal that should be caged and controlled? Why can’t it be about decency and honor, and what’s true and good? And wise,” Dylan argues. Honestly, I still think that the message that sexuality (especially young people’s sexuality) doesn’t deserve to be demonized is still progressive, though this came out in 2006.

LGBTQ Book Riot Posts

Don’t forget you can get three free audiobooks at Audiobooks.com with a free trial!

New Releases This Week

Siren Queen by Nghi Vo cover

Siren Queen by Nghi Vo (Sapphic Fantasy)

I fell in love with Vo’s previous book, The Chosen and the Beautiful, so I can’t wait into this other historical fantasy! Lulli is a Chinese American girl trying to break into pre-code Hollywood, and she’s willing to do anything to make it. Behind the scenes, she finds a network of demons, dark magic, and blood pacts that decide what makes it to the screen.

cover image for Magic, Lies, and Deadly Pies

Magic, Lies, and Deadly Pies by Misha Popp (Bisexual Cozy Mystery)

Daisy runs the Pies Before Guys mobile bakery, which has a secret: baked into the delicious goodies is revenge against men who wrong women. But that secret is threatened when she starts getting blackmail letters. Well, that will make trying to win the state pie-baking content a little more complicated.

the cover of Café Con Lychee

Café Con Lychee by Emery Lee (M/M YA Contemporary)

If you, like me, are a fan of Meet Cute Diary, you’ll want to check out Lee’s newest, a M/M YA romance between two sons of competing restaurants. A new fusion café is poised to put both their families out of business, so they band together to try to save them. The close working conditions and secrecy, though, start to turn these rivals into something more than reluctant allies.

Bad Girls by Camila Sosa Villada, translated by Kit Maude (Trans Woman Fabulism)

The Wicked and the Willing by Lianyu Tan (F/F Paranormal Romance)

the cover of Nate Plus One

The Summer of Bitter and Sweet by Jen Ferguson (Demisexual YA Contemporary)

Nate Plus One by Kevin van Whye (M/M YA Contemporary)

Dead End Girls by Wendy Heard (Sapphic YA Thriller)

Answers in the Pages by David Levithan (Gay Middle Grade Contemporary)

The Science of Being Angry by Nicole Melleby (Sapphic Middle Grade)

Every Bird a Prince by Jenn Reese (Aromantic/Asexual Middle Grade Fantasy)

the cover of The Science of Being Angry

Strong written by Rob Kearney and Eric Rosswood, illustrated by Nidhi Chanani (Gay Picture Book)

Mizuno and Chayama by Yuhta Nishio (Yuri Manga)

The Women’s House of Detention: A Queer History of a Forgotten Prison by Hugh Ryan (Queer Nonfiction)

From Gay to Z: A Queer Compendium by Justin Sayre (Queer Nonfiction)


That’s it for me this week! Until next time, you can find me at my bi and lesbian book blog, the Lesbrary, as well as on Twitter @danikaellis. You can also hear me on All the Books or you can read my Book Riot posts.

Happy reading!

Danika