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Advocating for LGBTQ+ Children’s Literature in Schools and Libraries��

I was invited to serve as a guest editor in 2025 for a themed issue of The Dragon Lode, a journal of the Children’s Literature and Reading special interest group of the International Literacy Association. The issue focused on LGBTQ+ affirming literature for children and adolescents, identifying several such books and their use in classrooms.��

Particularly, we highlighted the 20th anniversary of And Tango Makes Three, a picturebook by Justin Richardson and Peter Parnell based on the true story of two male penguins who fostered a chick in New York City’s Central Park Zoo. The book is significant because it was one of the first LGBTQ+ affirming children’s books produced by a large publisher, Simon & Schuster, thus signaling such companies’ endorsement and distribution of LGBTQ+ depictions for young audiences at a wider scale.��

Since its publication, Tango has repeatedly surfaced on the American Library Association’s annual “Most Challenged Books” list, and the book remains the subject of censorship debates in public schools (e.g., “Florida Court Rejects Free Speech Argument in Book Removal Case,” October 1, 2025, The New York Times).��

On a personal note, I first encountered Tango in my early 30s, when I was enrolled in a graduate-level children’s literature course. It was the first children’s book I encountered with a same-sex relationship. Although the characters were penguins, I recall being so struck at finally seeing my gay identity not only reflected but validated in a children’s book.��

Tango fueled my academic interest to discover other LGBTQ+ affirming children’s books, analyze their content and explore how educators use or censor them in schools and libraries serving elementary youth.��

These areas of inquiry have propelled my scholarship as well as my teaching and professional service over the past 15 years.��

Serving as The Dragon Lode guest editor inspired me to reflect on my childhood and elementary-educator experiences, especially as someone who feared discrimination from parents, colleagues and administrators as a closeted gay man teaching in the rural U.S. South.��

Similarly, I recognize that even for educators committed to social justice, including LGBTQ+ affirming children’s books in the curriculum is often unchartered or precarious territory, particularly in the current sociopolitical moment.��

In the School of Education, one course I teach is “Children’s Literature and Literacy Engagement in Elementary Schools,” which is taken by undergraduate elementary education majors along with students from across the university. Although we include an array of classic and contemporary texts—that center culturally and linguistically diverse representations —across the course, I intentionally include Tango and other LGBTQ+ affirming stories.��

We also explore how to navigate such books’ censorship, including when districts implement opt-out policies and outright bans.��

Through my research and teaching, I want to equip our current and future educators to include and advocate for such stories, and I want them to see their or their loved ones’ identities validated through the books we read.��

It can be isolating for people of all ages to not see themselves represented in books and other media. We discuss how that not only affects people socially and emotionally but also how it can affect people’s relationship with reading.

On my bookshelf

Beyond Tango, below here are five LGBTQ+ affirming picturebooks I recommend. Additionally, the annual Rainbook Book List produced by the American Library Association is a helpful resource for discovering high-quality children’s and adolescent literature endorsed by educators and librarians:��

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by Lesléa Newman (Author), Carol Thompson (Illustrator)

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by Rob Sanders (Author), Steve Salerno (Illustrator)
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by A.J. Irving (Author), Cynthia Alonso (Illustrator)

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by Kyle Lukoff (Author), Kaylani Juanita (Illustrator)

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by Ernesto Javier Martínez (Author), Maya Christina Gonzalez (Illustrator), Jorge Gabriel Martínez Feliciano (Translator)

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Join us at the Children's Book Festival

The annual Children’s Book Festival, co-hosted by the �鶹��Ƶ School of Education and the Boulder Bookstore, invites teachers, students, families, librarians and all who enjoy children’s literature. The festival brings authors and illustrators to local schools and classrooms to foster a love of reading, engages the School of Education’s students in creating educational literacy resources for teachers and hosts a free community event with educational and family-friendly sessions led by renowned authors and illustrators.

Learn more about the Children's Book Festival������

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Discover more stories from Voices, vol. 8:

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