Six LGBTQ+ Affirming Books to Read with Your Kids
It’s Pride Month, friends! An annual month-long celebration and commemoration of the tireless fight and advocacy for LGBTQ+ rights and liberation. We really encourage you to take the time to honor all those who have paved the way in this liberation movement, while also wholeheartedly acknowledging that we still have so much work to do and progress to make.
To kick things off this month, we’ve gathered a small handful of some our favorite LGBTQ+ affirming books that we love reading with our little ones ALL year long:
Stella Brings the Family (By Miriam B. Schiffer)
When there’s a Mother’s Day celebration taking place at school, Stella becomes worried about who she’ll bring because she has two dads. Even though she doesn’t have a mom to invite to the class party, this sweet and sensitive story makes it clear that there’s no shortage of love, care, or joy in Stella’s life! She’s able to come up with a creative solution—one that centers love, acceptance, celebration, and the important reminder that there is strength in our uniqueness!
When Aidan Became a Brother (By Kyle Lukoff)
This wonderful picture book celebrates and validates all of the changes that take place in Aidan’s life. Aidan is a young transgender boy who is navigating important feelings on his journey toward becoming a big brother. With this book’s affirmation of transgender and gender-nonconforming characters, kids are encouraged to express and feel at home in their gender identities and in their individuality.
Love Makes a Family (By Sophie Beer)
This inclusive and heartwarming read emphasizes that there’s one thing that makes every family a family, and that’s LOVE. Whether you have two moms, two dads, one parent, a grandparent, a mom and a dad, another special grownup who cares for you, the most important thing is the love that you share. This book is simple and great for read-aloud story time, emphasizing all of the special little moments that families share throughout the day and offering joyous, diverse, inclusive pictures throughout.
Plenty of Hugs (By Fran Manushkin)
In this tender, rhyming picture book, readers are invited to follow two moms and their toddler throughout a day of sweet and fun family activities, from their morning bike ride to the farm stand all the way to their nighttime story routine before bed. It offers a life-giving depiction of a queer family going about their everyday routine and adds even more magic with its poetic cadence: “There's a buzz for each bug, and a breeze for each tree, and plenty of hugs for you and me…”
Julián Is a Mermaid (By Jessica Love)
This stunning Stonewall Award-winning book is a story about being seen—really seen—and affirmed by someone who loves you. After encountering three mesmerizing and beautifully-costumed mermaids on the subway with his abuela, Julián imagines himself as a mermaid too and then sets out to bring his imagination to life with a dazzling, handmade mermaid costume of his own. His abuela affirms his self-discovery and takes him to the Coney Island Mermaid Parade, offering a story of joyful individuality and unwavering support.
Mommy, Mama, and Me (By Lesléa Newman)
This beautiful and rhythmic board book shows the loving bond between two moms and their little one. From snuggling together in the rocking chair to playing hide-and-seek at the park, this short story highlights daily moments infused with gentleness, fun, and connection. A compelling depiction of a nurturing family relationship!
While this is just a short list of suggestions to get you started, our hope is that it allows you to begin building a library for your little ones that is filled with diverse, inclusive, expansive, thought-provoking, and kind stories—stories where everyone can say “That looks like me!” or “That reminds me of my family!” There is immense power in stories that simply show queer people and queer families living their lives, in their fullness and with exuberant joy, where queerness is not the central conflict or problem to be solved (For more on this, we highly recommend this piece from the New Yorker: What Should a Queer Children's Book Do?).
Ultimately, our deepest hope is that you may feel loved, respected, validated, seen, and honored in your wholeness, just as you are and without exception. Together, we must be consistently working to center queer voices, to celebrate what makes us unique, to see community as an antidote to judgment, and to always always always choose love. Today and every day.
