Conference musings part 2

There are no "boy" books, or "girl" books, or "gay" books.  There are books - period.

I attended a fabulous panel featuring women whose books at one time or other had been selected to the Texas Lone Star List.   The discussion came around to the fact that some books written by female authors are promoted to girls, and only girls.  While I am guilty of saying things like, "this will be a book most girls will enjoy", I never really considered that in doing so, I may have unconsciously sent the message that these female authors weren't important voices to my male students.  I DO promote authors like Marie Lu, Maggie Stiefvater,  Maureen Johnson and many others to my male students, but I've never done so to promote a female voice -  I did it because they have written some AMAZING books.  Should I make more of a point that they are female authors?  Not really sure.  I haven't seen my male students stay away from a book because it was written by a female author. 

This discussion stayed with me when I moderated a panel featuring authors David Levithan, Alex London, Aaron Hartzler, and Bill Konigsburg who have written YA books featuring gay characters.  Their books are amazing and meeting them was truly one of the highlights of my week.  The stories they shared made such an impact on me and I thought the books these men have written shouldn't be shared with just those students who are gay or questioning their sexuality, they should be shared with all students.  They provide a window into the world of their characters and the hurt and pain they feel when faced with ignorance and hate.  The characters in these books face new adventures, the unknown, the fear of rejection, the breathlessness of a first crush, the heartache of love lost, the joy of discovering new friends, and the pain of lost friendships just as teen characters in every other book I've read.  In preparing for this panel I read these authors' books and immediately started recommending them to my adult friends and the grade level appropriate ones to my students.  The authors of these four books did an outstanding job of writing stories to which I could relate and to which I think teens could relate, not because those students are gay, but because they are teens and will recognize the emotions of the characters.  It is in the pages of books like these that my students can learn that the differences don't define their friends, and the books may help them empathize with those who are dealing with ignorance and hate.  This in turn may help this young generation eliminate the ugliness of ignorance and hate. I look forward to promoting these authors as well as other authors who write books for middle school students featuring gay characters. I look forward to promoting these books using labels such as friendship, romance, action/adventure, family - labels that fit everyone.