Lgbt childrens books

These books range from board books to early reader. For children 8 and up, see Middle Grade.

*Not Yet Released

Picture Book Biographies

These books are listed in verb of last name by (first-listed) subject. 

Little Golden Book Biographies

Who Is/Was? series

Standalones

Board Books with LGBTQ Content/Themes

Gender, Orientation, and/or Terminology

Queer Cis Male Main Characters

Queer Cis Female Main Characters

Transgender Main Characters (Binary)

Girls

Boys

Nonbinary Main Characters

Gender Non-Conforming Main Characters

Queer Family

Dads

Moms

Non-Binary/Gender Non-Conforming Parents

• My Maddy by Gayle Pitman and Violet Tobacco

Siblings

• *The Broken Heart by Aaron Chan
• Still My Tessa by Sylv Chiang and Mathias Ball

Aunts/Uncles/Cousins

Grandparents

Pride/Stonewall

Trans Themes

• *The House That Feels Like Me by Sasha Allen and Julian Plum

Early Reader Books

Female MCs

Male MCs

Nonbinary MCs

Chapter Books

A collection of booklists and resources that point out the LGBTQIA+ community and experience. This list provides resources and educational materials for kids of all ages and their caregivers to promote respect and kind, including guidance on pronouns and identities. 

To recognize and celebrate the activism, culture, and history of the LGBTQIA+ community, the CBC has curated an up-to-date list of new and backlist books. This list was created in June of 2025 and we will add books throughout the year.

You can also download the list as a spreadsheet!

Discover books that celebrate love in all forms and highlight LGBTQIA+ icons and activities. Allies welcome!

Young Adult and Children’s Booklists

Educational Resources

• GLSEN’s Rainbow Library offers to send out free LGBTQIA+ books and ebooks to schools in most states. Other states are welcome to submit an application and join. They also provide Elementary Lesson Plans (with Additional Curricular Resources below) for teachers. 
• LGBTQIA+ Studies: A Resource Guide: L

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  • A cute board book that goes into the colors of the rainbow flag and minuscule promises from a parent to love their child, no matter their identity.

  • This book gives a quick introduction to different types of genders.

  • The best way to describe this book is as a metaphor for non-binary individuals. There once was a being who didn't fit into the binary of "this" or "that." Those who fit into the binary of this or that decided that the being who didn't fit must be…

  • This book is about the identity of a boy and how he chooses to express himself through his love of dresses. It shows the uncertainty of his parents at first and their movement to be supportive. The book is warm, wonderfully illustrated, and hits on…

  • "Pride" focuses on the story of Harvey Milk, one of the first openly gay people to be elected into political office in the United States. One of the biggest symbols in this book is the use of a rainbow flag during Milk's campaign to fight for…

  • All his family and friends believed he was a red crayon,

    University Libraries

    19th and even 18th century adults wrote about their fears of same-sex relationships, especially between adolescent people, in medical and psychological texts.  Remember that true children's literature is a late 19th Century invention, and most books that children read were actually written for adults. While childhood is still supposed to be an age of innocence from any sexual knowledge, many novels include teen relationships that seem to modern eyes homoerotic (Tom Brown's Schooldays (1857), Ragged Dick (1869), Little Women(1868), Huckleberry Finn(1884), Anne of Green Gables (1908), A Separate Peace (1959)), but acknowledged LGBTQ characters do not appear until . . . . 1969. 

    • Heather Has Two Mommies by Lesléa Newman

      Call Number: PZ7.N47988 He 2000

      Publication Date: 2004 (2nd ed.) (1989)

      Amazon ‘Look Inside this title’ here
      
      First published in 1989, and often hailed as the "fir