If you haven’t read a book by Patrick Ness, you are really missing out. He is one of my favorite authors, and everything I’ve read from him has been a hit, including Release. I’ve previously reviewed one of his books More Than This review but I cannot recommend his Chaos Walking trilogy enough. Published the same years as The Hunger Games, it was a pioneer in the modern young adult dystopia genre and is FINALLY getting a film adaptation. I plan to reread the series next year. He also wrote A Monster Calls, which is one of the most beautiful books I’ve read in a long time. You might have also seen the very well done movie. So, anytime a Ness book comes out, I clamber to get my copy. Continue reading
Tag Archives: queer
One Year Blogiversary!
It’s my one year blogiversary!
I started RaiseThemRighteous a year ago with a review of Jessica Love’s Julian is a Mermaid.
It was about a month after I attended the Children’s Literature Association’s 2018 conference and I wanted to share my research about queer children’s picture books with a larger audience. At the conference I met with an editor from the University Press of Mississippi who was interested in publishing my work. I’ve since signed a contract with Mississippi and my book about queer children’s picture books should be out Spring 2021. As excited as I was, and am, to publish academic work, it’s also very important to me that I have an audience outside academia. I want this audience to include parents, educators, librarians, and of course, queer kids, who need the books I research and review! I’ve since reviewed over 100 queer children’s books all of which can be found on my blog under “Snapshots of LGBTQ Kid Lit.” Continue reading
Coming Soon: Dani Gabriel’s Sam!
Sam!, Penny Candy Books’ upcoming release about a transgender boy’s decision to share his gender identity with his family, is thoughtfully written by Dani Gabriel and warmly illustrated by Robert Liu-Trujillo. The story centers on a racially ambiguous family, all with thick dark hair and tan skin warmed by yellow undertones. This makes it one of only a handful of queer children’s books to engage both racial and gender diversity through major characters. Continue reading
Coming Soon: Elana K. Arnold’s What Riley Wore (2019)
What Riley Wore (2019), written by Elana K. Arnold, explores the creativity and sensitivity of a nonbinary/gender creative child as they navigate everyday life from the dentist’s office to the playground. This accessible children’s picture book is colorfully and cartoonishly illustrated by Linda Davick with a touch of whimsy that doesn’t detract from the text’s realism. Continue reading
ChLA 2019
I am recuperating from a 5 night adventure. I flew to Indianapolis on June 12 for ChLA’s 2019 conference where I presented my work about LGBTQ children’s non-fiction picture books. There are only a handful of children’s picture books that explore aspects of LGBTQ history and I discussed their transformative potential and limitations during my presentation: LGBTQ Children’s Picture Books Now: Between the Past and the Future.
If we build a rich archive of children’s nonfiction that centers diverse experiences of differently classed, raced, and gendered subjects we might just begin to create the type of critical consciousness needed to take account of various modes of oppression that work in tandem. We might also be able to imagine becoming queer as a project in empathy and understanding that forces us to rethink attachments to oppressive ideas, identities, and institutions that reproduce oppression, indignity, and injustice for a newly conceptualized all of us.
I was only there a couple of days before flying to Saratoga Springs, NY to participate in a workshop for an open access Introduction to LGBTQ Studies textbook project I’m contributing to. I’m writing chapters about queer theory and LGBTQ children’s picture books. I’m so excited about this project because it will make information about two of my favorite topics available to students for FREE! It was wonderful to talk with folks who love all things queer! But, it was a lot of flying!
Lollipop Power Press/Queer History
Lollipop Power Press is responsible for publishing some of the most stereotype shattering, queer-inclusive, children’s literature of the 1970s and 1980s! Learn more about the press and follow my blog for upcoming reviews of their children’s picture book publications!
Sophie Labelle’s A Girl Like Any Other (2013)
Like most children’s picture books that feature transgender children, Sophie Labelle’s 2013 publication, A Girl Like Any Other, was self-published with the help of crowdfunding. Readers are introduced to a quirky young girl who shares what it is like being transgender in this first-person-narrative which is sure to reflect many young children’s experiences. Continue reading
