Cool Stuff For Queer Kids
What It’s Really Like to Have Your Book Banned as an Author
Highest highs: Me and a room full of middle schoolers at a school visit in November 2022, organized by We Need Diverse Books and Writers and Artists Across the Country. Every student in the photo is holding their own copy of my nonfiction book for readers age 11 and...
Download the Activity Sheet for RED AND GREEN AND BLUE AND WHITE
I'm a giant fan of the RED AND GREEN AND BLUE AND WHITE picture book illustrator, Paul O. Zelinsky, and he created this brilliant activity page (click here to download.) What's so cool is that kids can fill in the windows with all Christmas trees and one Menorah, just...
October Queer History Month Book Recommendations and Events!
Happy October! This month I'll be presenting at 3 events: The San Diego Writers Festival - I'll be on two panels, There’s No Such Thing as “Self” Publishing – How to Publish Professionally (I'm moderating, with Kirk Whisler and Leslie Ferguson), and Kid Lit Experts...
Join Me For This Free “Banned Books Bingo” Online Event Friday Sep 23, 2022 at 2pm Pacific
It's Banned Books Week (September 18-24, 2022) - a celebration of the freedom to read, and an acknowledgement of the ongoing struggle to safeguard that freedom. As part of my day job for the Independent Book Publishers Association, I'll be co-hosting a FREE for...
Summer 2022 Update
Hi, community! The last few months have been full of many things, but not blogging... So, here are some fun highlights of what's been going on: #1 The International Literacy Association chose NO WAY, THEY WERE GAY? as the winner of their Young Adult Nonfiction Award!...
Kings of B’More – A YA with two Black Queer main characters spending one last AMAZING day together before one has to move away
Kings of B'more by R. Eric Thomas With junior year starting in the fall, Harrison feels like he's on the precipice of, well, everything. Standardized testing, college, and the terrifying unknowns and looming pressures of adulthood after that--it's like the future...
Download and Decipher This Moment from Queer History – An Activity Worksheet for NO WAY, THEY WERE GAY?
One of the very cool discoveries I made in doing research for NO WAY, THEY WERE GAY? was Anne Lister's secret code - crypthand - that let Anne write about things in the early 1800s without fear of someone else reading it and exposing her Queerness. In fact, it took...
Two Pride Podcasts – I’m a guest on “Virgin. Beauty. B!tch” and “Millennial Housewife”
As part of this month's celebration of Queer Pride, I had the honor to be interviewed on two podcasts: Virgin. Beauty. B!tch - a great conversation with Christopher and Heather "Revealing the Hidden History of Pride with Award-Winning Author Lee Wind" and Millennial...
STRONG – A Stereotype-Breaking Picture Book I Wish Had Been Read to Me When I was a Little Kid
Strong by Rob Kearney and Eric Rosswood, Illustrated by Nidhi Chanani Rob dreams of becoming a champion strongman. He wants to flip huge tires, lug boulders, and haul trucks -- and someday be the strongest man in the world! But he feels like he can't fit in with his...