Nadia

Don’t Judge A Book By Its Description

By Nadia|2020-03-28T13:40:37-05:00June 25th, 2016|Categories: Author Guest Blog, Blogathon 2016|Tags: LGBTQIA, Queer Girls, Queer Guys, Representation|

by Zac Brewer I have to admit, I may have squealed a little when I read the email inviting me to write a piece for Gay YA. It’s an honor to be included, to feel like my voice matters, on the subject of being queer. Growing up, there wasn’t really any YA to speak of (this was the 70s/80s—yeah, I KNOW THAT WAS A MILLION YEARS AGO, OKAY?—so we pretty much had Judy Blume and then went straight into adult fiction), and there certainly wasn’t, at least within my grasp, any queer fiction available. If there had been, [...]

Comments Off

Latinx Gay YA

By Nadia|2020-03-28T13:40:49-05:00June 12th, 2016|Categories: Archive, Blogathon 2016, Book Lists, Guest Blogs|Tags: Intersectionality, Latin@, LGBTQIA, PoC, Queer Girls, Queer Guys|

by Dr. Sonia Alejandra Rodriguez There remains a great need for Latinx Gay young adult literature. The list below is a compilation of texts that center and complicate these experiences. I’ve decided to make this list a space dedicated to stories written by self-identifying Latinx authors who have created gay Latinx protagonists. There are certainly other books with gay Latinx minor characters and books with gay Latinx characters written by non-Latinx. Many of the protagonists in the novels listed below express a feeling of isolation when they come out or at simply existing as a gay Latinx person. [...]

Comments Off

New Releases: June 2016

By Nadia|2020-03-28T13:40:49-05:00June 12th, 2016|Categories: Archive, Book Lists, New Releases|Tags: Bisexual, gay, lesbian|

June 1st - Style by Chelsea M. Cameron (L) Kyle Blake likes plans. So far, they’re pretty simple: Finish her senior year of high school, head off to a good college, find a cute boyfriend, graduate, get a good job, get married, the whole heterosexual shebang. Nothing is going to stand in the way of that plan. Not even Stella Lewis. Stella Lewis also has a plan: Finish her senior year as cheer captain, go to college, finally let herself flirt with (and maybe even date) a girl for the first time and go from there. Fate has other [...]

Comments Off

There was, there is/it was, it is

By Nadia|2020-03-28T13:40:49-05:00June 9th, 2016|Categories: Archive, Blogathon 2016, Guest Blogs, Readers on Reading|Tags: LGBTQIA, Poetry, Queer Girls|

There was a girl. There was a girl who loved to read and read and read. There was a girl who loved to read and read and read but hated it sometimes but she couldn’t tell why. There was a teen. There was a teen who watched too much tv but still found time to read and read. There was a teen who watched too much tv and started thinking that maybe some girls were hot but still found time to read and read. There were moments. Experiences. Thoughts. Feelings. Moments. It was going to a party to [...]

Comments Off

A Learning Journey

By Nadia|2020-03-28T13:40:49-05:00June 8th, 2016|Categories: Archive, Blogathon 2016, Guest Blogs|Tags: Allies, LGBTQIA, Queer Girls, Queer Guys|

As a librarian and a blogger, I want to be able to purchase, read and promote excellent books. The first step is finding those books. That would seem easy enough, but I also want to make sure that I’m finding a wide range of quality stories providing windows and mirrors for readers. This is where it gets more complicated. We read through a lens of our own experiences and that certainly affects what we see or don’t see as we read. I’m on a journey as a reviewer, librarian, and obviously a human being. I make mistakes – [...]

Comments Off

Being Queer, Being Latino and Being a Reader: One of Many Latinx Narratives.

By Nadia|2020-03-28T13:40:49-05:00June 6th, 2016|Categories: Archive, Blogathon 2016, Guest Blogs, Readers on Reading|Tags: Intersectionality, Latinx, LGBTQIA, Queer Guys|

by Joseph Jess Many of us know how hard it is to find queer fiction, that is why we search the depths of the internet for it, blog about it and even write it. If you read enough of the queer fiction out there you will notice that the vast majority of it centers around White characters. We’ve read and loved these stories and will continue to read and love them but the lack of PoC representation is glaringly apparent. I am a queer Mexican-American who talks (and cries) about books on the internet, with a specific passion [...]

Comments Off

Seeking the Non-privileged Gaze

By Nadia|2020-03-28T13:40:50-05:00June 3rd, 2016|Categories: Archive, Blogathon 2016, Guest Blogs|Tags: Intersectionality, LGBTQIA|

by Andrew Karre I don’t think a day goes by in kidlit where we’re not in one way or another reminded of the importance of #ownvoices in telling the stories of historically underrepresented, oppressed, and marginalized people. Many authors and critics have been more articulate on that point than I can be—often on this very blog--and I’m grateful for their work and all the ways it informs mine (which is a fancy way of saying the ways it keeps me from making an ass of myself). There is a secondary benefit to more #ownvoices in our literary landscape that [...]

Comments Off

What We Missed: January – May 2016

By Nadia|2020-03-28T13:40:52-05:00May 28th, 2016|Categories: Archive, New Releases|Tags: New Releases|

What We Missed in January January 1st – Raise the Stakes by Megan Atwood (T) January 5th – The Impostor Queen by Sarah Fine (B) January 5th – This Song Is Not For You by Laura Nowlin (A) January 5th - This Is Where It Ends by Marieke Nijkamp (L) January 14th - Colors by Russell J. Sanders (G) January 19th - We Are the Ants by Shaun David Hutchinson (G) January 19th – Burn (Four Sisters #2) by Elisa Sussman January 20th - The Raising (The Torch Keeper #3) by Steven Dos Santos (G) January 21th – Fake [...]

Comments Off

What We Missed: July-December 2015

By Nadia|2020-03-28T13:40:52-05:00May 25th, 2016|Categories: Archive, New Releases|Tags: New Releases|

What We Missed in June June 7th - Breaking Into Cars by Emery C. Walters (G, T). June 23th - Summer Love Anthology by Various Authors (LGBTQ). June 25th - Blue Jeans and Sweatshirts (Book Four) by Jo Ramsey (L). July July 2nd - Carnival Chattanooga (Book Two) by Zoe Lynne (G). July 7th - You and Me and Him by Kris Dinnison (Gay secondary character). July 9th - Beneath the Scales by Aurora Peppermint (G). July 14th - Asher’s Out (The Asher Trilogy #3) by Elizabeth Wheeler (G). July 14th - About a Girl by Sarah McCarry (B,L,T). July 16th - Fox-Hat [...]

Comments Off

Dumbledore Gets Married in Ireland. Sort Of.

By Nadia|2020-03-28T13:41:33-05:00June 25th, 2015|Categories: Archive, Guest Blogs|Tags: Activism, Advocacy, Allies, gay, LGBTQIA, Representation|

by Jennifer Polish So Dumbledore and Gandalf got married. At the suggestion of J.K. Rowling. And all the fandoms rode off into the proverbial sunset. But that’s not the entire story. In the same episode of Doctor Who that Shakespeare was portrayed as bisexual (I punched the air myself before remembering I was watching it with a straight cis guy who was glaring at me), the Doctor proclaims – after saving the world with the iconic spell Expelliarmus! (please don’t ask how) – “Good old J.K.!” Which is largely what the queer interwebs have been saying of late: [...]

Comments Off

About Nadia