Reading List: GLBTQ Characters

Fiction featuring characters of varying gender identity and/or sexual orientation.

View this list in Destiny.

Double Play
by Sara Cassidy

Allie loves baseball. It's the one thing that has been consistent in her lately complicated life. Allie's father left recently, and now Allie has a new family -- her mother's new girlfriend, Phyllis, and son Miles have moved in. Things start looking up when Allie gets invited to join the boy's baseball team as their new pitcher. But then Miles announces he's quitting the boy's team and tries out for Allie's old team--the girl's team! (from the book)

Better Nate than Ever 
by Tim Federle

Nate's small Pennsylvania town is filled with people who don't understand him--and actively dislike what they see in him. He's called all sorts of names because he loves theatre and singing. The only person who treats him well is his best friend, Libby, who alerts him to an open audition for E.T.: The Musical in New York City. With Libby's help, Nate runs away to the audition, which is wonderful and horrible and exciting and nerve-wracking all at once. But as his day trip to New York turns into an overnight with his estranged aunt, Nate's opportunities rise and plummet repeatedly.

George
by Alex Gino

Melissa’s class is putting on a play of Charlotte’s Web, and she wants to play Charlotte. She’s disappointed when she’s told that she can’t--because Charlotte is a girl’s part. Melissa knows that she is a girl, even if on the outside she’s a boy named George--but she hasn’t yet found the courage to tell anyone that yet.

Totally Joe
by James Howe

Twelve-year-old Joe knows he is gay. He played with Barbies as a young child, prefers cooking to sports, and has a crush on a male classmate. But Colin isn’t out yet, and when a rumor starts that the boys have been seen kissing, it’s Joe’s loyal friends--his “Gang of Five”--who help Joe weather the quashed relationship.

My Most Excellent Year: a novel of love, Mary Poppins, and Fenway Park
by Steve Kluger

Augie is obsessed with musical theater. TC lives and breathes baseball. Alejandra is an ambassador’s daughter. And all three of them are working together on a project for their English class, showing off the highlights of their magical freshman year.

See You at Harry’s
by Jo Knowles

Everyone in Fern’s family has better things to do than pay attention to her: Mom helps Dad run the family restaurant; Sarah is taking a gap year after high school; and Holden pretends that Mom and Dad and everyone else doesn’t know he’s gay, even as he fends off bullies at school. Then there’s Charlie: three years old, a "surprise" baby, the center of everyone’s world. He’s devoted to Fern, but he’s annoying, too, always commanding attention. But then tragedy strikes- and Fern feels not only more alone than ever, but also responsible for the accident that has wrenched her family apart.

Gracefully Grayson
by Ami Polonsky

Grayson knows that he's not really a boy--that he's always been a girl. At least, he knows that he's in a boy's body and tries to act like a boy, tries to swallow the urge to put on skirts and gossip with the girls. He lives with his aunt and uncle (his parents died when he was young) and isn't about to confide in them--or in his cousin, who already harasses him regularly. A decision to audition for the school play brings Grayson out of his usual comfort zone--and a spontaneous decision to audition for the part of Persephone brings him out of a lot more.