June is Pride Month, which means it’s a great time to introduce LGBTQ-friendly children's books into your kiddos’ library. Ensuring your children grow to accept others and themselves is no simple task, but finding beautiful books that help children understand gender identity, inclusivity, and pride is a great first step in setting them on a course to be an ally or member of the LGBTQ community.
Fortunately, the variety of LGBTQ-friendly books available for kids has grown enormously in the past decade and today you can find titles that take on all kinds of topics. From the history of the Pride movement to trans rights, unconditional love to gender identity, each is written in a way kids can understand and published with compelling pictures they’ll love so these books won’t just be one-off reads, but regular favorites.
In a season where allyship is more important than ever, instilling empathy for the diversity of human experiences is so important. But you can set your child on a course of compassion with the simple act of sitting together and reading a good book. As British writer Children's Laureate Malorie Blackman once said, “Reading is an exercise in empathy; an exercise in walking in someone else's shoes for a while.” Help your child step into another’s shoes with these titles.
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A Book Celebrating Two Daddies
All families, no matter how they look, are special so long as they’re filled with love. That’s at the center of this beautifully illustrated book that celebrates the diversity of families.
A Pro-Pronoun Book For Kids
Normalizing inclusive pronouns is an important step in the fight for inclusion. So start your kids young with this simple rhyming book that teaches kids how to properly address their friends with stanzas like “Ari loves to arabesque. They hold their pose with ease. Brody is a break dancer. Brody loves to freeze.”
A Tender Transgender Coming Out Tale
This picture book, designed for ages preschool to second grade, takes one child’s experience of accepting a new baby in the house shortly after realizing his own identity as a boy, and showcases how one loving family makes room for all of its members. Written by a trans author, this book was named a Best Books of 2019 by School Library Journal.
A Book About Helping Two Grandpas
Described as "a positive and realistic representation of both a wheelchair user and an elderly, interracial gay male couple” by Kirkus, this book makes inclusivity a part of the story without making it the focus when Lou’s Pop is told he must use a wheelchair and Lou’s Pop works to cheer him up.
A Story For Those Who Feel “Double Different”
Thuy feels “double different.” Not only is she Vietnamese, she has two moms. And she’s being bullied for her difference. Angry at her circumstances, on a walk home she happens upon a bird who leads her on a walk through other creatures’ footsteps who give her the courage she needs to go on.
A Fairy Tale About a Knight And A Prince
A twist on the typical fairytale, this knight in shining armor falls in love with the prince he rescues, not the princess... and they lived happily ever after.
A Book About Not Compromising Your Identity
Touching on themes of gender norms and identity, this book follows one girl’s frustration when her mom asks her to ditch her beloved plaid shirt for a dress for her uncle’s wedding. Written by a licensed clinical psychologist, the book teaches kids not to compromise themselves for others.
A Celebratory Story About Being Proud of Your Family’s Differences
What does a child with two dads do when her class holds a Mother’s Day party? She realizes she has all kinds of family members who help her and decides to bring them all.
A Transgender Story Told From The Perspective Of A Teddy Bear
Errol and Thomas are best friends. Will that change when Thomas decides he’s really a girl and prefers to be called Tilly? “I don't care if you're a girl teddy or a boy teddy! What matters is that you are my friend,” Errol tells her.
A True Story of One Transgender Boy
In this children’s book, Jodie Patterson, the Chair of the Human Rights Campaign Foundation Board, shares her own transgender son's experience about coming out and being accepted, from his triumphs to his frustrations.
A Picture Book That Normalizes Lesbian Love
A life affirming book that showcases the love of one family with two mommies as they go about their day with joyful rhymes preschoolers will love like “There's a buzz for each bug, and a breeze for each tree, and plenty of hugs for you and me.”
A Book About Breaking Boundaries
What’s a worm to do when it wants to marry another worm but all the other insects in the area say this goes against tradition? This perfect for Pride month book celebrates love in all of its many forms.
A Tome About Family Differences Throughout The Animal Kingdom
What do animal families look like? All are different as this book filled with gorgeous illustrations shows. Some animals have a bunch of brothers and sisters, others are only children. Some, like a pair of chinstrap male penguins, raise a baby penguin together and others have adopted parents.
A Gay Pride Picture Book For Kids
Heather loves the number two. It stands for her favorite things: her two arms, two legs, two mommies, two pets... this celebration of lesbian love is seen through the eyes of a child.
A Double Daddy Book About Two Adventurous Dogs
From the brain trust of Scottish film and stage star Alan Cumming and his husband, illustrator Grant Shaffer, this sweet book is their second in a children’s book series about the adventures of their two dogs Honey and Leon. In this one, the two wrestle to figure out how to protect their dads when Honey falls for a Scottish dog named Coll on a trip to the Highlands.
An A-Z Look At Equality
It’s not easy trying to explain equity and inclusion to a child. So when you’re struggling for the right words, turn to this book, an illustrated alphabet of how we all deserve the right to be treated fairly.
A Love Story For Young Boys
Like a love letter to young queer love, this book looks at one boy’s quest to tell another boy how much he loves him, from A to Z.
An Children’s Invitation to Embrace Pronouns
The title says it all; this book is all about pronouns. In colorful illustrations it explains how to ask another person’s pronouns and how to figure out one’s own.
A Book About Sidestepping Stereotypes
This book says bye bye to gender stereotypes and encourages kids to embrace who they are and what they love no matter what that is.
A Children’s History Book On The Pride Movement
Studying history can help someone understand that they are not alone. That’s why this book is so valuable to young allies. With playful pictures and fun storytelling, this book explains the Pride movement and its history.
Whether you want to open your child’s eyes to the beauty of diversity all around them, or let them know they are not alone, these wonderful LGBTQ-friendly books will help them see the joy in embracing inclusion and standing up for equality.
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