Thank you Denver Public Library (Pride '08 Page), Oakland Public Library (Pride Page), Las Vegas-Clark County library system (Pride Page), and others that reach out to and value your GLBTQ patrons during Pride month and year-round. I'm not sure you know how wonderful it makes us feel, and what an important service it provides--not just to those who are out and attending your events, but to those who are struggling with their identities and may never attend a Pride program. Thank you, thank you.
PS--30 Rock at Hulu
6/2/08
Shelf Check #224
4 comments:
I'm a library assistant for Phoenix Public Library. While we don't have programs for pride month, inspired by your comic, I got my supervisor's clearance to set up a Young Adult GLBTQ book display in the Teen area! I have about 12 books on my list so far, do you have any suggestions I might not have heard of yet?
Oh, man, that's the best news I've had all day. Thank you!
My all-time favorite GLBTQ YA book is one of the oldest: Annie On My Mind by Nancy Garden.
Everything depends on your library system, title-wise. I liked Tough Love: High School Confidential, a graphic novel involving a gay male couple, but my library doesn't carry it.
Skim is a great new graphic novel with a lesbian storyline; it's by Mariko Tamaki. Peter Cameron's Someday This Pain Will Be Useful To You is a great recent YA book. Hero by Perry Moore beat it out for the YA Lambda Literary Award (I didn't like it as much, though). Julie Anne Peters and Alex Sanchez each have multiple GLBT YA titles to their names. Peters' Luna is about a transgender teen (M2F), and Ellen Wittlinger's Parrotfish is, too (F2M--usually far harder to find books on folks transitioning to maleness rather than femaleness). Absolutely, Positively Not by David LaRochelle is a funny fairly recent book about a closeted gay guy. I haven't read Down to the Bone by Mayra Lazara Dole yet, but I'm particularly excited about it: it features a YA Latina "tortillera" (slang for "lesbian:). If you Google YA GLBT books, you'll find lots of library lists, and is a blog devoted to reviews of GLBT books for teens and young children.
Lots of nonfiction, too. I'm particularly fond of Revolutionary Voices, an anothology of writing and art by LGBT teens, edited by Amy Sonnie. I reviewed it for School Library Journal a million years ago.
Thanks so much for commenting--seriously, this made my day, and makes me feel really good about writing Shelf Check. I realize the political stuff isn't as funny as some of the other strips, but it's important, and there's a reason Shelf Check is a blog as well as a strip.
All my best to you. I'm so happy for the teens that will get a chance to see your display!
Sorry for the awkwardly unclosed link--running short on time, or I'd fix right now--
Thank you so much for responding. I just checked the catalog and our library system has all of those books except "Tough Love: High School Confidential." While we apparently aren't doing anything really special for to Pride month, we have a fairly decent GLBTQ book selection, and we had a booth at the Phoenix Gay Pride festival a couple of years ago (manned by me!) which was a lot of fun.
I seriously love your comic. Keep up the great work!
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