Beyond Picturebooks: LGBTQ+ Middle Grade Novels
by Sylvie Shaffer
Picturebooks are for everyone; we don’t outgrow them. Not at a certain age or grade in school, not when we’ve learned to read independently, not when we think we’re too big for the laps we used to sit on for readalouds. Picturebook readalouds in a classroom setting are, and always will be, a wonderful way to introduce a new idea or complex topic, to facilitate a shared reading experience, to create a framework for discussion, to collectively admire beautiful illustrations, and to savor stories and language.
Picturebooks featuring illustrations and plots that include LGBTQ+ characters are a powerful and effective way of making visible, normalizing, and celebrating the experiences of those who are marginalized because of our gender identity or the loving families we create. For a child to see themselves, their family, a friend, or community member represented in this way is a powerful experience with lasting impact, despite the picturebook readaloud taking only a matter of minutes.
Still, in my experience as an elementary school librarian, even as students continue to enjoy and benefit from picturebooks read aloud or independently, by third grade, many are ready for and eager for stories beyond thirty-two pages long, with wider casts of characters, increasingly complex plots and subplots, and a more immersive and sustained reading (or listening!) experience, building not just stamina, but fondness and excitement for longer works of literature.
Chapter book, or younger middle grade readalouds are magical - even today, decades later, I have fond memories of my elementary school teachers reading aloud after lunch each day as a way to settle the class after recess, blanketing the classroom in stories that kept us engaged a chapter at a time, always leaving us wanting more when our teacher closed the book and set it on their desk until tomorrow. As a school librarian, it’s just as magical on the other side of the book, and I look forward to reading aloud as much as the kids do to listening.
Sharing longer books in community over the course of days or weeks gives us more time with these stories, to get to know and empathize with these characters - in other words: an extended opportunity to casually make visible, normalize and celebrate queer people living their lives!
Two younger middle grade selections that would make excellent classroom (or family!) readalouds, or that appeal to confident independent readers are The Misadventures of the Family Fletcher, by Dana Alison Levy, and The Lotterys Plus One, by Emma Donoghue. As a bonus, each of these books has a sequel, presenting kids the incentive and opportunity to spend even more time with characters they’ll come to love. I often select books with sequels as readalouds to introduce and ground students in the settings and characters in stories they might not have selected to read themselves, but that they are eager to revisit on their own.
Both of these novels center families where, over the course of many chapters, we get to know the different siblings, parents, pets, and neighborhoods in humorous and endearing detail as the characters grapple with everyday challenges, foibles, and adventures. Books like these have long been a staple with third graders- think Judy Blume’s Fudge books, Beverly Cleary’s Ramona series, or, more recently Jeanne Birdsall’s Penderwicks or Karina Yan Glaser’s Vanderbeekers.
In The Misadventures of the Family Fletcher, third person narration switches up each chapter to follow over the course of a school year one of the two-dad-family’s four adopted sons- one African-American, two white, and one adopted from India, ranging from kindergarten to sixth grade. In its starred review, School Library Journal said;” With its semi-episodic structure, laugh-out-loud humor, and mix of zaniness and love, Levy’s debut offers something truly significant: a middle-grade family story featuring gay parents and interracial families that is never about either issue.” The language and structure are pretty straightforward, and the vibe leans more Ramona than Vanderbeeker.
By contrast, The Lotterys- a name the family self-selected, when, after winning the lottery, two same-sex couples combined households to create a family together through a combination of birth and adoption- are a bigger and more complicated family, with bigger and more complicated conflicts driving the plot, and plenty of puns and wordplay throughout. Middle child Sumac (the kids are all named for trees) narrates this story of four parents and seven kids with multi-racial and multi-ethnic identities, and also includes one child who identifies outside the gender binary. The “plus one” in the title refers to a central conflict in the story: a grandfather struggling with dementia who moves in because he requires more support with everyday tasks. As Kirkus notes: “For all the Lotterys’ apparent eccentricity, the novel delves into universal themes of family relationships that will resonate with readers from all backgrounds.”
I hope this inspires teachers to think beyond picturebooks when selecting LGBTQ+ readalouds or books to include in classroom libraries. As always, it’s a good idea to preview any texts you share with your class. Happy Reading (aloud)!
