Celebrating Queer Love
Kit Ballenger
Valentine’s Day is a great excuse to celebrate love in its various forms, from familial to romantic. Here are some recent books for kids young and older!
Take a cue from our friends in the animal kingdom as you share LOVE IN THE WILD, by Katy Tanis, with a lap reader. With a chipper rhyme scheme and vibrant, rainbow-hued artwork showing how various creatures show their love, this scientifically sound board book from an author-artist pursuing graduate studies in biology will expand little one’s understanding of how affection might be displayed. While the text does not explicitly articulate them, the illustrations celebrate same-sex animal relationships with solid pride undertones as it delivers its message: “love is love wherever it’s found.”
In PORCUPINE CUPID, by Jason June and Lori Richmond, the titular character uses his quills to poke unsuspecting peers, delivering romantic predictions with each prick. The forest friends all gather, plotting a plan to stop Porcupine, and a “meet cute” ensues. Each animal finds in the group a pairing that suits their personality well – even pokey Porcupine’s. Animals are ungendered by pronoun but illustrative details include a rabbit with a genderqueer flag-patterned yoga mat and a s’mores-toasting bear sporting a pale pink, blue, and white striped scarf suggestive of the transgender flag pattern.
I LOVE YOU BECAUSE I LOVE YOU, by Muợn Thị Văn and Jessica Love, is a warm and inclusive picture book that offers young readers examples big and small of many ways love can be shared and expressed. With a subtle call and response format and double-page spreads that celebrate love across a wide range of relationships, this multigenerational, multiethnic story features multiple same-sex couples as well as a sibling set in which one twin transitions. A beautiful selection for Valentine’s Day, this book positively exudes affection and comfort and should be enjoyed year-round.
Some of you may recognize LOVE, VIOLET, by Charlotte Sullivan Wild and Charlene Chua, as one of our current Pride and Less Prejudice book selections, part of the Pride Bundle. Valentine’s Day motivates Violet to finally share with classmate Mira how she’s the one to make Violet’s “heart skip.” After several thwarted attempts to deliver her special valentine, Violet musters up the courage to tell Mira how she feels and is met in return with a lovely gift of her own. A gentle holiday story whose namesake and soft palette offer a subtle nod of symbolism along with this much needed sapphic representation in early school crush stories.
Another delightful, ungendered and affectionate picture book alternative is WORM LOVES WORM, by J.J. Austrian and Mike Curato, in which the nuptials of two worms push back against wedding traditions. (Psst: Fellow PLP contributor Rebecca Bauer offers a reading guide for that pick on our website!)
Circling back to love in the wild, on my radar for spring for teen readers is Eliot Schrefer’s QUEER DUCKS (AND OTHER ANIMALS): THE NATURAL WORLD OF ANIMAL SEXUALITY, a nonfiction dive into recent research revealing more expansive same-sex relationships among animals than had been previously scientifically understood (or acknowledged). Dolphins, penguins, geese, doodlebugs – plenty of animals participate in non-procreative sexual expressions! The book will be released in May.
Her U.S. fanbase will be relieved to know that LOVELESS, by British writer Alice Oseman, releases here in mere weeks. Sure, you were thinking I’d recommend her HEARTSTOPPER graphic novel series (What’s not to love about those? And the name is so fitting!) but this award-winning sex-positive, friendship-focused story delivers lesser-represented asexual and aromatic visibility in a fresh and funny light.
For hot new takes on familiar love story structures from beloved names in YA, check out FOOLS IN LOVE: FRESH TWISTS ON ROMANTIC TALES, ed. by Ashley Herring Blake and Rebecca Podos. You know the tropes – Enemies to lovers! Missed connections! There’s only one bed?! – and, here, fifteen authors each tackle a theme to reimagine classic romantic encounters. With LGBTQIA+ literary legends like Ashley Herring Blake, Julian Winters, Natasha Ngan, and Mason Deaver among the contributors, this collection breaks genres and busts stereotypes as it delivers inclusive, swoon-worthy stories.
Really love those romantic tropes? But wait, there’s more! In SERENDIPITY: TEN ROMANTIC TROPES, TRANSFORMED, ed. by Marissa Meyer, ten more authors tackle heartstring-tugging themes including secret admirers and fake relationships.
Published a mere three weeks apart, this collection, too, features prominent queer writers (including Anna-Marie McLemore and Caleb Roehrig) and several affirming short stories.
One more suggestion for those who enjoy vignettes is 19 LOVE SONGS, by the inimitable David Levithan. A “mixtape” of stories, verse, and a brief comic featuring new characters as well as revisiting old friends from his popular novels Two Boys Kissing, Every Day, and Boy Meets Boy, this “playlist” grew from Levithan’s tradition of writing a story for his friends each Valentine’s Day.
Finally, I leave you with a frank nonfiction tome that we all wish had been the conversation starter for sex-ed when we were growing up: THE BIG QUESTIONS BOOK OF SEX & CONSENT, by Donna Freitas. Best suited for mature teens (but honestly helpful for adults, too), the book explores sexual ethics, ways to combat heteronomativism, consent, and other critical conversations to help guide readers into a more complete understanding of themselves as sexual beings. Based on research, including interviews with thousands of college-students, the book includes advice from notable authors like A.J. Sass and Brandy Colbert (you knew I’d bring it back to KidLit in the end, didn’t you?).
Yay for love!
