Picture books that include members of the LGBTQIA+ community tell a wide range of stories. Classifying these books with the following nine categories helps identify trends and themes in the types of stories that are being shared with young readers. While some picture books have one central storyline, many books present various messages and themes. To capture the complexity of these stories, we have classified books with all the categories that we see represented in the book.
These categories are adapted from the Aronson, Callahan, and O’Brien article, “Messages Matter” and the Diverse BookFinder categories.
Beautiful Life: A Focus on Identity
Books featuring one or more primary characters whose sexual orientation and/or gender identity places them within the LGBTQIA+ community. In these books, sexual orientation and/or gender identity is central to the story. Beautiful life books enable readers to explore the everyday world of LGBTQIA+ characters by explicitly focusing on the diverse expressions of human experience, relying on these elements to drive the story. This category includes fiction and nonfiction books and gives voice to a range of stories that invite the reader to see members of the LGBTQIA+ community in a way that honors and dignifies diverse sexual orientations and/or gender identities.
On occasion, this category may also include books that do not have any primary characters and instead showcase an ensemble cast of characters that includes representation from the LGBTQIA+ community.
Examples (primary character):
Example (ensemble)
Any Child
Books featuring one or more primary characters from the LGBTQIA+ community in which sexual orientation and/or gender identity is present but not part of the central storyline. These books invite readers to explore the everyday world of LGBTQIA+ characters by focusing on common and shared experiences that are unrelated to diverse sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
On occasion, this category may also include books that do not have any primary characters and instead showcase an ensemble cast of characters that includes representation from the LGBTQIA+ community.
Examples (primary character):
Examples (ensemble)
Biography
Narrative nonfiction books from a historical or contemporary perspective that explore the life of a particular person or group of people, named in the text, who are part of the LGBTQIA+ community. Biography books must explicitly identify the person or group of people as a member of the LGBTQIA+ community.
Biography books are usually also classified with at least one additional theme that indicates what type of story is being told.
Examples:
Resilience
Fiction or nonfiction books that depict the resilience of primary character(s) in response to mistreatment or oppression based on their own, a family member’s, or a friend’s sexual orientation and/or gender identity. Resilience can be explicit or implicit: a Resilience book shows a character’s persistence through mistreatment or oppression, whether or not it is resolved by the end. Mistreatment or oppression does not include self-censorship but instead originates from other character(s) or institution(s) that may include family members, friends, peers, governments, teachers, or supervisors. Mistreatment includes physical or verbal bullying that may cause the character(s) physical, psychological, or emotional harm or distress. Mistreatment can also include systematic oppression and group-based injustice that may involve experiences of or resistance to imprisonment, internment, persecution in or forced displacement from their homelands, or barriers to basic freedoms such as marriage, employment, land, food, housing, education, health & wellness, and bodily autonomy.
On occasion, this category may also include nonfiction books that focus on communal experiences of oppression and/or resilience in detail.
Examples:
Coming Out
Books that explore the process through which character(s) explicitly and voluntarily disclose or reveal their sexual orientation and/or gender identity to a specific audience for the first time. This disclosure may be made to one’s self or others. The experience of coming out can occur in the real-time of the book or in characters’ reflections or flashbacks. While Coming Out books may feature a character’s coming out as the central plotline, they also include stories in which this experience is a smaller piece of the larger narrative.
Examples:
Concepts: Sexual Orientation and Gender Identity Concepts
Books that define and/or compare specific aspects of human difference related to sexual orientation and/or gender identity. These books conceptually explain one or more identities that are part of the LGBTQIA+ community, inviting readers to consider varying perspectives related to sexual orientation and/or gender identity and to expand their vocabulary and understanding in relationship to these subjects. While Concept books may include named characters and a storyline, they place a significant focus on explaining concepts related to sexual orientation and/or gender identity.
Examples:
Community
Books featuring cisgender heterosexual primary character(s) with named, recurring, or otherwise identified secondary and/or background characters who are part of the LGBTQIA community and whose sexual orientation and/or gender identity matter and impact the storyline.
Examples:
Incidental
Books featuring cishet primary character(s) with secondary and/or background characters who are part of the LGBTQIA community. In these books, sexual orientation and/or gender identity are incidental and do not impact the storyline or narrative. Unlike Community books, these characters are not necessarily named, recurring, or otherwise identified.
Examples:
Informational: Factual Content
Informational books present factual information and depict members of the LGBTQIA+ community. These books may include a storyline or be encyclopedic. While members of the LGBTQIA+ community are depicted, sexual orientation and/or gender identity are not always central to the content.
Examples:
Alicia G. Vaandering & James Rosenzweig, 2021