What does the LGBT+ acronym mean?
What does LGBT+ mean?
As the video on the left explains LGBT is an acronym…
Lesbian
Gay
Bisexual
Transgender
And we add the + to include people who fit under the umbrella of LGBT+ but who don’t identify personally and wholly with any of those four letters.
At the library you’ll mostly see the longer acronym LGBTQI+
Children learn acceptance from the world around them: from what they see and hear and what they experience. Many of us know people who are LGBT+ or are ourselves LGBT+ and a great way to challenge the hetero-normativity we can see in the world around us is to ensure that children hear stories and are exposed to personal journeys that are as wide-ranging and inclusive as possible.
Reading makes us more empathetic and expands our world view, it asks us to explore someone else’s story. This is the reason that a book like ‘Green Eggs and Ham’ encourages children to try things before they make judgements about them – they go through that journey with Sam-I-Am and the main character. When we expose children to books their horizons are expanded – they will see themselves but also get to experience worlds that are unfamiliar to them. The broader our selection of books the more empathetic and open-minded we become. When we introduce children to inclusive stories early it becomes part of their world view.
Books
Prince & Knight words by Daniel Haack and pictures by Steve Lewis
In this modern fairy tale, a noble prince and a brave knight come together to defeat a terrible monster and in the process find true love in a most unexpected place.
Maiden & Princess words by Daniel Haack & Isabel Galupo and illustrated by Becca Human
When a maiden reluctantly attends a ball for her friend, the prince, everyone considers her his perfect match until she surprises them–and herself–by finding true love with someone else.
These books are full of knights, dragons, quests, and true love in the model of traditional fairy tales but the Prince falls in love with a knight who helps him defeat a dragon and the princess falls in love with a maiden at a royal ball. Both books are written with lyrical pacing and rhymes to make them a delight to read aloud and great for helping develop children’s rhyming skills to help them spell later. The illustrations in both cases are delightful with the Prince book in particular reminding me visually of Sleeping Beauty with a beautiful dragon. The Princess book highlights the fact that being royal is just as much about helping your subjects as it is the pomp and circumstance of a royal event; the princess and maiden dedicate their lives helping others.
Julian is a Mermaid by Jessica Love
While riding the subway home from the pool with his abuela one day, Julian notices three women spectacularly dressed up. Their hair billows in brilliant hues, their dresses end in fishtails, and their joy fills the train car. When Julian gets home, daydreaming of the magic he’s seen, all he can think about is dressing up just like the ladies in his own fabulous mermaid costume: a butter-yellow curtain for his tail, the fronds of a potted fern for his headdress. But what will Abuela think about the mess he makes — and even more importantly, what will she think about how Julian sees himself?
We are told at the beginning of the book that Julian is a boy. He wants to dress up like the mermaids that he sees. So, given the opportunity he does with the support of his Nana who then takes him to join in a parade with all of the mermaids. This book is about embracing that our gender doesn’t get to define what we want to do, how we want to dress, and who we are as people. Gender non-conformity is something that has been a topic of social change for decades, if not longer, from Katherine Hepburn wearing pants on screen (it didn’t go over very well at the start) to this book where Julian can proudly dress as a mermaid. The trend of history books that are highlighting the people of history we don’t know about is showing us that gender non-conformity is not new but we are now embracing it as a society as never before.
Introducing Teddy by Jessica Walton and illustrated by Dougal MacPherson
Errol and Thomas the teddy play together every day. But when Thomas feels sad one morning – and not even the swings cheer him up – Errol is worried. Thomas has a secret to share, and it’s something that is difficult to say out loud. Will Errol understand that Thomas would rather be called Tilly? And can they still be friends?
This book takes us through Teddy’s journey to being accepted as Tilly. Teddy feels that they has always been a girl teddy not a boy teddy and would really rather be called Tilly and have a bow in her hair than a bowtie at her neck. Teddy is worried about telling their friend Errol but Errol doesn’t care if his friend is Teddy or Tilly so Tilly now has the chance to embrace who she really is inside. This is a lovely book about being yourself and is important for the Teddy who wants to be Tilly, for the Errol who knows someone like Tilly, and everyone else.
King & King by Linda de Haan and Stern Nijland
When the queen insists that the prince get married and take over as king, the search for a suitable mate does not turn out as expected.
As the Prince says when his mother insists that he marry – “Very well, Mother. I’ll marry. I must say though, I’ve never cared much for princesses”. I imagine you can guess what happens. The wedding is wonderful and the prince becomes King as does his husband.
The Prince and the Frog by Olly Pike
When Prince Oskar and Princess Caroline meet Prince Alex, who was turned into a frog by an evil wizard, they want to help but which sibling will prove to be Alex’s true love? Includes notes for teachers.
Prince Oskar wants to find love and he has read lots of fairytales so he is just waiting to meet someone he can share his life with. His sister, Princess Caroline, isn’t that interested in love and is just rather happy with her life as it is. Then they meet a frog – Alex, who used to be a prince but was cursed to be a frog until he received true love’s kiss. Oskar assumes it must be Caroline but when the kiss doesn’t work he assumes it is because they don’t know each other yet and therefore aren’t in love yet. But all of his plans to give them the opportunity to fall in love result in Oskar falling in love with Alex and vice versa. Then there is true love’s kiss and Alex and Oskar can live happily ever after.
I think this is my favourite book on this blog because I really enjoyed Caroline not being interested in love, the fact we have that journey to allow love to take hold instead of it being instantaneous and I also liked the writing style.
I’m a Girl! by Yasmeen Ismail
I’m supposed to be made of sugar and spice and all things nice. But I’m sweet and sour and not a little flower. I am a girl! I am a girl! I am a girl! The girl in this book likes to win, she likes to be spontaneous, fast and strong, and because she also likes to dress in t-shirt and shorts, she is forever getting mistaken for a boy. And when she meets a boy who likes wearing princess dresses and playing dolls, they both quickly discover that they share interests that are wide and varied. I am a Girl! is a wonderful celebration of being who we are and not being pigeon-holed or restricted by gender stereotypes. Most of all it is full of energy and laugh-out-loud funny. Who says that pink is for girls and blue is for boys?.
The summary above says it all – our main character is forever explaining that she’s a girl! while doing all of the things she loves but she doesn’t let their wrong assumption stop her because as the cover states – Be yourself, there’s no one better.
Families, Families, Families! by Suzanne Lang & Max Lang
A host of animals portray many kinds of non-traditional families.
Each of the books I’ve mentioned so far in the blog has specifically been written to showcase LGBT+ main characters but this book is different and just as important. In this book we see a range of families, some with children being cared for by aunts or single parents or who have been adopted. Then some that have two mums or two dads and they are not separate, they are not unusual, this is simply a different type of family because every family is a little bit different. And it’s important to see LGBT+ as a ‘normal’ part of life as this takes away that idea of ‘other’ or ‘different’ so it is great to share books that both show LGBT+ in a spotlight as well as one that have it part of the tapestry of life.
If you have an LGBT+ picture book you love that I haven’t mentioned here please tell us about it.
