Mariana Llanos’s Luca’s Bridge/ El puente de Luca

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Luca's Bridge/El Puente de LucaMariana Llanos’ timely bilingual picture book Luca’s Bridge/ El puente de Luca tells the story of a boy named Luca and his family as they move from the US, where his parents are undocumented, to Mexico, where they are citizens, so the family can remain together.

The story is told in the third-person from Luca’s point-of-view as he leaves the only home he has ever known for a country whose language he doesn’t speak. The book captures the generational divide that often separates citizens from non-citizens in homes throughout the US as well as the effects of unreasonable immigration policies on families and children. Continue reading →

Pija Lindenbaum’s Mini Mia and her Darling Uncle (2007)

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Pija Lindenbaum’s Mini Mia and her Darling Uncle (2007) was originally published in Stockholm but was readily available in the US at the time of its release thanks to distributors like Amazon.com. Like quite a few LGBTQ children’s picture books, this one is told in the first person from the point-of-view of a young girl, Mini Mia, as she gushes about her amazing relationship with her gay uncle. Continue reading →

Eric Jon Nones’ Caleb’s Friend (1993)

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Caleb's Friend by Eric Jon Nones (1993-05-01)Eric Jon Nones’ Caleb’s Friend (1993), published by Farrar, Straus & Giroux, offers a queerly seductive representation of same-gender desire.

Caleb, a tan-skinned boy of about twelve, is an orphan who works on a boat. One day an icy-blue skinned merboy approaches the ship to return a harmonica Caleb has accidentally dropped into the sea. The human boy and merboy continue to meet, but they exchange objects like shells and flowers instead of kisses. Continue reading →

Ingrid Godon’s Hello, Sailor (2003)

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Hello, Sailor, by Ingrid Godon with words by Andre Sollie, was originally published in the Netherlands before being translated into English and published by MacMillan Children’s Books in 2003.

It is a beautiful story about a man named Matt who lives in a lighthouse and works nightly to guide ships safely home with the hope that the sailor he loves and longs for will be on one of the ships. Continue reading →

Jason Martinez’s My Mommy is a Boy (2013)

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My Mommy Is a Boy by [Martinez, Jason, Winchester, Karen]Written by Jason Martinez and illustrated by Karen Winchester the self-published My Mommy is a Boy (2013) is a short picture book told from the point-of-view of a little girl named Amaya whose parent is transitioning. The amateurish illustrations and use of the “she” pronoun throughout detract from the story and confused the four-year-old I shared it with. He didn’t understand why Amaya kept referring to her parent as “mommy” and using she/her/hers pronouns, since he was a man.

It is a bit jarring.

Although the author notes on the back cover that he wrote the book for his daughter to “show her that I care about how she feels and to show her how much I love her” the confusion his daughter may have experienced, confusion he tried to convey, doesn’t translate well to helping other children understand the gender transition of a parent. Continue reading →

David Milgrim’s Time to Get Up, Time to Go (2006)

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Time to Get Up, Time to Go by David Milgrim (2006-04-17)

David Milgrim’s Time to Get Up, Time to Go (2006) follows a little boy and his doll throughout their day.  Simple illustrations and text make the picture book accessible to very young children to whom the cheerful illustrations will likely appeal. The young protagonist takes his pale-blue doll with him everywhere. His daily activities pivot around homemaking and include cleaning and cooking. Continue reading →

AMPLIFY: Alex Logan @ Almost, Almost

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My name is Jennifer Miller and I blog about children’s books at Raise Them Righteous. I recently started a new project on my blog – AMPLIFY – to boost blogs and bloggers that I love and am excited to support. Today I’m featuring Alex Logan’s blog Almost, Almost.

Alex reviews queer literature and their blog is AMAZING. Please, take a look and support Alex’s important work by following their blog! Check it out here: Almost, Almost. You can follow Alex on Twitter, too! Check them out: @AAlexLogan

Please, take a minute to read about Alex and their blog! I’ll continue to AMPLIFY Alex and their blog throughout the week by sharing some of their favorite blog posts at Raise Them Righteous!

Bio: I’m Alex Logan (they/them). I’m an asexual and agender reader, writer, and librarian from New York State. I love books and languages and my other main interest is soccer, which I both watch and play (and, of course, read about!)

When did you start blogging?

I started blogging on Almost, Almost in August 2016, and started blogging primarily about bookish topics starting in June 2017.

Why did you start blogging?

I originally started blogging when I was coming to terms with and becoming more public about my nonbinary gender identity; I wanted a place where I could reflect and work things out with a supportive community at a time when I was still firmly closeted in real life, or just starting to come out to close friends. Then, in June 2017, I decided to combine my interests in LGBTQ issues with my passion for books and do a month of Reading for Pride posts, where I read exclusively LGBTQ books and shared what I was reading on the blog.

What specific content do you blog about? Why?

I currently blog mostly about LGBTQ books. I enjoyed the posts I did for my Reading for Pride month so much that I started doing a weekly Rainbow Reading roundup of the LGBTQ books I was reading. As a librarian, I’m always happy to do reader’s advisory and generally talk about books, and as a librarian I also have access to a lot of books, including under-the-radar books that I love to share with more people. At the time, I also was in the process of writing a book of my own – Royal Rescue, a young adult fantasy novel with an aro-ace protagonist that was published by NineStar Press in April 2019 – so I had books on the brain even more than usual. As a result, the blog shifted from mostly personal posts to mostly bookish ones – although I still do some posts about asexuality, medically transitioning as a nonbinary person, being out at work, and more.