Hi Community! I’m working hard to stay focused in this moment where the forces of chaos rage, wanting all of our attention so we have nothing left for kindness, or art, or standing up for each other in community.

Part of that is this monthly exercise of sharing the ways light from my lighthouse is shining, and light from other lighthouses is illuminating me, too…. Thanks for reading along!

1. The Gender Binary is a Big Lie was the NEA LGBTQ+ Caucus choice for their summer book club. They met four times to discuss the book, and invited me to join for a Q&A chat for the fourth zoom session. (See screenshot of that meeting above.) It was wonderful to have all these passionate educators engage with the material, and to share some of the inside scoop on the research. (Did you know there are over 300 primary source quotes in the book?)

This is something I love doing, so if you’re doing a book club reading of one of my books, know you can reach out to arrange a free 20-min zoom Q&A with your group.

2. Banana Menorah is my upcoming picture book and it publishes the first Tuesday of November (Nov 4). Illustrated by Karl West and published by Apples & Honey Press/Behrman House, it’s already received two strong trade reviews, from Publishers Weekly who called it “Sweetly Goofy,” and from School Library Journal, who cheered it as “a delightful read” and gave it this “VERDICT: An engaging book depicting a family’s fun and unique spin on their Hanukkah celebrations.”

3. Love of the Half-Eaten Peach was named as a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award in the LGBTQ+ Children’s Books category! The online ceremony will be Oct 4, and I’m delighted (and very excited) for this book I love so much to have this moment of recognition. Jieting Chen did such a gorgeous job with the illustrations, and this story of gay love from over 2,500 years ago has so much light and inspiration to share today!

4. The children and family event at the Eleanor Roosevelt Center for Like THAT Eleanor: The Amazing Power of Being an Ally was a big success! A generous donor donated 50 copies so every attending family could get one, and personalizing and signing the books was a joy. It was also really fun to meet and be in conversation with Eleanor Roosevelt’s great granddaughter, Anna Eleanor Fierst! You can see event photos (and my long list of ‘thank you’s) here.

5. The ACLU got the list of the 596 books banned by the department of defense education activity, which removed books from their schools around the world. Right there at #411 was The Gender Binary is a Big Lie. Sigh. And my late friend Claudia Harrington had two books included in the list of those stolen by church members in Kentucky. I remember Claudia sharing the manuscripts for “My Two Dads” and “My Two Moms” with me — how much care and love she poured into them, wanting to make sure they were light in the world, for kiddos with families like mine (two dads) and for every other kiddo, too. (They were part of a series of books she wrote about different kinds of families, all in the same classroom.)

Both of these sting, and build my determination to push back against all this book banning with the We Are Stronger Than Censorship program, that buys and donates two books to offset every one book ban. You can learn more and join the offense here.

6. I’m a guest on 2 1/2 new podcasts! Podcast One is Bold Voices, Good Yarns, where publisher Ian Henzel and I chat about my author journey and what shaped that. Podcast Two is In the Den with Mama Dragons, where Sara LaWall and I talk about the importance of Queer representation in children’s books — especially right now. And half? Well, Brooke Warner and Grant Faulkner of Memoir Nation did a “re-mix” episode where they paired part of my episode with part of their interview with Maggie Tokuda-Hall. It’s great company, and a great listen.

7. Finally, I’ll share a peek into my current reading. I’m loving Queer Mythology: Epic Legends from Around the World by Guido A. Sanchez, illustrated by James Fenner. And next up on my to-read pile are the pair of Queer History books from Dan Jones, Queer Heroes of Myth and Legend and Queer Villians of Myth and Legend.

And that’s our August update.

Stay safe and strong,
Lee