Finding just the book for teens, especially those that are dealing with gay, lesbian, bisexual, or transgender issues is often difficult. Michael Cart and Christine Jenkins presented an overview of titles that include these issues in them. They reviewed books from 1999 through 2009. Many titles on their list were not discussed. There were so many to cover in just one hour and the list contained over 2000 books.
The trend in books is that the main character is male by a 2 to 1 margin, usual, white, middle class and dealing with issues of coming out. In their discussion they pointed out the books where this was generally not the norm. If looking for a list of books look at the Rainbow List from ALA. It is an annual reading list of books for beginning readers through 12th grade that validate same-gender lifestyles, including portraying GLBTQ (gay, lesbian, bisexual, transgendered or questioning) characters in a realistic and prominent manner.
While this is a subject difficult for some of us to deal with we need to be award of what is in the literature so that we can guide students to the most appropriate and best that is out there on a topic.
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