Pride Month Books for Kids
Celebrate LGBTQIA+ pride with these Pride Month books for kids! These range from picture books that help explain the basics and affirm children’s identity to middle grade and YA books that provide in-depth history and stories with meaningful representation for older kids and teens.
Pride Month Books for Kids
Disclosure: I received complimentary copies of some of the books below for review purposes; however, all opinions are my own. This post contains affiliate links. If you click through and make a purchase, I receive a small commission at no cost to you.
Celebrate and affirm children’s identity with these Pride Month books for kids!
This is a sweet book for very young readers. It looks at each color of the Rainbow flag, explaining Pride in terms of love, inclusion, and acceptance. It is a wonderful way to talk about belonging and loving yourself (and others) just as you are. Watch my interview with the author.
Buy Rainbow: A First Book of Pride on Amazon or Bookshop
This book features a loving, queer family as they prepare to celebrate pride. It is a joyous book full of affirmations, spoken by the dads to their child. The repeated phrase, “It’s pride, baby!” sets the ebullient tone, making readers want to chant along. The book is also a tribute to Black Queer history, especially to Black Pride in DC, where it is set. Watch my interviews with the author on Read Your World and Make A Way Media.
Buy It’s Pride, Baby! on Amazon or Bookshop
Marley wants to celebrate Pride Month with their grandparent, but the thought of the crowds and noise at the parade makes them anxious. Yet their love for their grandparent and their curiosity about what makes the queer community so special inspires them to give it a try – especially since their grandparent will be receiving an award for helping other transgender folk! Using all their tools to prevent sensory overload, Marley realizes that here is a community where they are understood and accepted just as they are. Includes at the back a discussion of vocabulary and concepts such as non-binary and transgender.
Buy Marley’s Pride on Amazon or Bookshop
This book focuses on the challenges faced by many children of queer couples, who may hear nasty things said about their family. It gives children language to talk about their feelings and provides clear responses to common “put downs” they may hear from other children. A wonderful book to teach all children that what really matters in a family is love.
Buy Love Is Love on Amazon or Bookshop
Do you ever get frustrated by how young children are pushed towards gendered play? Jamie Is Jamie is just the first book in a series, helping adults understand how they can support children to break from of their strictures. In this first book, Jamie (who never reveals their gender, despite lots of curiosity from other students) plays with toys that are stereotypically female as well as those that are stereotypically male, challenging others to question why we have to have such divisions in the first place. Later books explore pronouns and how kids can talk to adults who aren’t really listening to them. Watch my interview with the author.
Buy Jamie Is Jamie on Amazon or Bookshop
A wonderful book about exploring gender expression and ultimately discovering your own unique identity. Picking out a costume becomes the perfect opportunity to invent a costume that is just right, allowing Charly to express both feminine and masculine qualities.
Buy Costume for Charly on Amazon or Bookshop
This fast-paced adventure story is a real page turner, full of action and romance, as two gay teens set out to save the world from a pseudo-doctor running a gay reprogramming institute. The book is a loving tribute to James Bond movies, at the same time as it critiques them, offering queer representation in a genre where it is sorely lacking. But above all, it is highly readable and fun! Watch my interview with the author.
Buy A Different Kind of Brave on Amazon or Bookshop
This novel is based on the true story of the author and his brother, two gay Mexican American boys growing up in a small town with little tolerance for anyone who is different. They suffer racism and small mindedness but also abuse from their mother. Yet through it all, they have each other, as they experience first loves and find their places in the wider world. This is a story of love and resilience, as well as a lesson in the importance of exploring intersectionality. Watch my interview with the author.
Buy Pedro and Daniel on Amazon or Bookshop
The Fat Angie books are one of my favorite YA series. Angie’s voice comes through so clearly in the book, and I always feel like I am right there with her as I’m reading. The stories and emotions are so compelling that I never want to put the books down. In this third book in the series, Angie comes to terms with her sudden popularity, after a video of a recent musical performance goes viral. As she sorts through her feelings for her her first love (as well as a potential new girlfriend), Angie also must navigate her increasingly volatile relationship with her mother. Can she figure out what she wants, and not lose her sense of self, as she races to get ready for a music competition? Watch my interview with the author.
Buy Fat Angie: Homecoming on Amazon or Bookshop
Ever wonder why there is so little queer representation in mainstream media? This action-packed YA novel follows Bex, a teen who finally lands her dream job as an intern on one of her favorite TV shows – only to become disillusioned with the show and her chances of making any impact. Most days she’s stuck fetching coffee, and even when she does write a script for the show, the head writer just reworks it and passes it off as his own. Bex doesn’t protest, figuring this is how she pays her dues, but when a queer character in her script is rewritten as straight, she knows she has to do something. A fun read with just the right mix of suspense, action, and romance. A great story about learning to stand up for yourself – and the other fans! Watch my interview with the author.
Buy Going Off Script on Amazon
Whether you loved history class or dreaded it, this is the book for you! It dives into the hidden lives of many of history’s great figures (such as Gandhi and Abraham Lincoln) as well as bringing to light lesser known stories from around the world. It demonstrates that many of these historical rock stars were queer, either themselves hiding their love lives out of fear, or having their stories buried or sanitized by later historians. What I love the most is that the book connects readers with primary sources, such as letters or diaries, empowering the reader to take an active role and decide for themselves whether the person was queer and why we aren’t taught this history in school.
Buy No Way, They Were Gay?: Hidden Lives and Secret Loves on Amazon or Bookshop
