| Stonewall Book Awards | The Stonewall Book Awards, in conjunction with the ALA, have been doling out seals for fifty years. The Mike Morgan and Larry Romans Children’s and Young Adult Literature Award is the label specifically for children’s books, though this award did not come into being until 2010. It should also be noted that only recently did the award consider two winners a year, one for YA and one for younger children. There is no way to filter books with bisexual characters and themes without reading about each book individually. The American Library Association also has a Rainbow Round Table, which provides resources and book lists for librarians and other educators looking to reach and provide for rainbow families and youth. This is a great resource, especially for small libraries, though it does keep things under the LGBTQIA umbrella as a whole. |
| Lambda Literary Awards | The Lambda Literary Awards, or “Lammys”, began in 1989 as a literary award devoted to LGBTQ storytelling. While they now have bisexual and transgender categories, those are relatively new. It should also be noted that there are no delineations for the children’s book category; it is just listed as LGBTQ Children’s/Middle Grade. The majority of the winners, and the finalists for that matter, are definitely geared toward older kids. This is a great resource for slightly older readers, early YA and above. |
| “Representations in Award-Winning LGBTQ Young Adult Literature from 2000-2013” | In a study done in 2015, Laura Jiménez catalogued the amount of lesbian and gay characters in award winning YA books published between the years 2000-2013. While a new study is due, I think her conclusion probably still rings true. “Although the number of books with LGBTQ characters has quadrupled over the last five years, the number of lesbian characters remains startlingly low, prompting the question: Where are all the lesbians in the LGBTQ YA literature”? My question is, of course, “Where are all the bisexuals?” |
