Librarians Share Top 10 LGBTQIA+ Books for All Ages

Libraries are the last place left that you can go where you don’t have to pay for anything: knowledge, books, music, entertainment, community meeting spaces, art, research, technology, resource assistance, and much more. Our librarians take a lot of pride in making sure each library is a place where everyone can not only obtain these materials, but where everyone can feel welcome and included. Some of our librarians recently got into the Pride Month spirit by compiling a list of 10 top Non-Fiction and Fiction Pride Month books in 2022 for each age group.

Find the library closest to you and check out one of these great books that give a proper voice to LGBTQIA+ authors and subjects:

Picture Book Fiction (ages 3-6):

• Julian is a Mermaid by Jessica Love
• Prince & Knight by Daniel Haack
• Maiden & Princess by Daniel Haack
• When Aidan Became a Brother by Kyle Lukoff
• I am Jazz by Jessica Herthel
• Grandad’s Camper by Harry Wodgate
• Ritu Weds Chandni by Ameya Narvankar
• Ho’oanani: Hula Warrior by Heather Gale
• Phoenix Goes to School: A Story to Support Transgender and Gender Diverse Children by Michelle and Phoenix Finch
• Plenty of Hugs by Fran Manushkin

Chapter Book Fiction (ages 7-12)

• Goldie Vance by Hope Larson
• Obie is Man Enough by Shuyler Bailar
• Zenobia July by Lisa Bunker
• The Whispers by Greg Howard
• Hurricane Child by Cacen Kallender
• Pet by Akwaeke Emezi
• Too Bright to See by Kyle Lukoff
• Beetle and the Hollowbones by Aliza Layne
• This is Our Rainbow: 16 Stories of Her, Him, Them, and Us by Katherine, Melleby, and Nicole Locke

Juvenile Non-fiction (ages 3-12)

• What Are Your Words? A Book About Pronouns – Katherine Locke
• The Every Body Book: The LGBTQ+ Inclusive Guide for Kids about Sex, Gender, Bodies, and Families by Estrela Joana
• Rainbow Revolutionaries (Fifty LGBTQ+ People Who Made History) by Sarah Prager
• Be Amazing: A History of Pride by Desmond Napoles
• Queer Heroes: Meet 53 LGBTQ Heroes From Past and Present! By Arabelle Sicardi
• It Feels Good to Be Yourself: A Book About Gender Identity by Thersea Thorn
• What is the AIDS Crisis? (What Was? Series) by Nico Medina
• Sylvia and Marsha Start a Revolution: The Story of the Trans Women of Color Who Made LGBTQ+ History by Joy Michael Ellison
• Stonewall: A Building, an Uprising, a Revolution by Rob Sanders

Teen Fiction (ages 13-17)

• This Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily Danforth
• All Out: The No-Longer-Secret Stories of Queer Teens throughout the Ages by Sandra Mitchell et. al
• Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe by Benjamin Alire Saenz
• Dress Codes for Small Towns by Courtney C. Stevens
• Each of Us a Desert by Mark Oshiro
• The Taking of Jake Livingston by Ryan Douglas
• Darius the Great is Not Okay by Adib Khorram
• Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo
• Cemetery Boys by Aiden Thomas
• Cosmoknights by Hannah Templer

Teen Non-Fiction (ages 13-17)

• Quick and Easy Guide to Asexuality by Will Hernandez and Molly Muldoon
• The 57 Bus by Dashka Slater
• Brave Face by Shaun David Hutchinson
• Out Law: What LGBT Youth Should Know About Their Legal Rights by Lisa Keen
• Queer, There, and Everywhere: 23 People Who Changed the World by Sarah Prager
• A Queer History of the United State for Young People by Richie Chevat
• A Quick and Easy Guide to Queer and Trans Identities by Jules Zuckerburg and Mady G.
• The ABC’s of LGBT+ By Ash Hardell
• All the Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto by George M. Johnson
• Body Talk: 37 Voices Explore our Radical Anatomy by Kelly Jensen

Adult Fiction (ages 18 and up)

• An Unkindness of Ghosts by Rivers Solomon
• The Priory of the Orange Tree by Samantha Shannon
• She Who Became the Sun by Shelley Parker-Chan
• Bingo Love by Tee Franklin
• The Light from Uncommon Stars by Ryka Aoki
• The Price of Salt by Patricia Highsmith
• Damn Love by Jasmine Beach-Ferrara
• Honey Girl by Morgan Rogers
• Love After the End: An Anthology of Two-Spirit and Indiqueer Speculative Fiction by Joshua Whitehead
• When the Tiger Came Down the Mountain by Nghi Vo

Adult Non-Fiction (ages 18 and up)

• The Stonewall Reader by the New York Public Library
• When We Rise by Cleve Jones
• Ace: What Asexuality Reveals about Desire, Society, and the Meaning of Sex by Angela Chen
• Gender Queer by Maia Kobabe
• David Bowie Made Me Gay: 100 Years of LGBT Music by Darryl W. Bullock
• Storytelling in Queer Appalachia: Imagining and Writing the Unspeakable Other by Hillery Glasby, Sherrie Gradin, and Rachael Ryerson
• LGBTQ Fiction and Poetry from Appalachia by Jeff Mann and Julie Watts
• We Can Do Better Than This: 35 Voices on the Future of LGBTQ+ Rights by Amelia Abraham
• Black on Both Sides: A Racial History of Trans Identity by C. Riley Snorton
• Trans Bodies, Trans Selves: A Resource by and for Transgender Communities by Laura Erikson-Schroth

Buncombe County is promoting this list and it's library's participation in Pride Month. Vist our Facebook page to see more articles and initiatives associated with Pride Month.