Text Messages: Recommendations for Adolescent Readers

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Episode 13 — Gay and Lesbian Characters in Young Adult Literature

The social landscape has changed dramatically for gay and lesbian people over the past twenty years.  Similar changes have occurred in the ways that gays and lesbians are represented in young adult literature.  Tune in to hear about the many different ways in which contemporary authors are including gay, lesbian, and transgender characters in their novels for teens, and listen for recommendations of new as well as classic gay, lesbian, and transgender titles. 

After listening to this episode, be sure to print out this list of recommended titles to take to the library or book seller.

Recommendations in this episode include

• Annie on My Mind by Nancy Garden (Farrar, Strauss, and Giroux, 1982)
• My Heartbeat by Garrett Freymann-Weyr (Houghton Mifflin, 2002)
• Empress of the World by Sara Ryan (Viking, 2001)
• Rules for Hearts by Sara Ryan (Viking, 2007)
• Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan (Alfred A. Knopf, 2003)
• Freak Show by James St. James (Dutton, 2007)
• Parrotfish by Ellen Wittlinger (Simon and Schuster, 2007)
• Debbie Harry Sings in French by Megan Brothers (Henry Holt, 2008)
• My Most Excellent Year: A Novel of Love, Mary Poppins & Fenway Park by Steve Kluger (Dial, 2008)
  

Published March 30, 2009

About the Host

Jennifer Buehler taught English for ten years before earning a Ph.D. from the University of Michigan’s Joint Program in English and Education. As a high school teacher, she developed an 800-book classroom library designed to engage and inspire her ninth grade students as readers. Watching students select reading materials led Jennifer to expand her own reading accordingly, allowing her to match books successfully with teens’ wide-ranging tastes and interests.

As a teacher consultant with the Eastern Michigan Writing Project, Jennifer regularly led workshops on young adult literature for parents, area teachers, and students in university methods classes. Now Assistant Professor of English Education at Saint Louis University, Jennifer teaches classes on English methods and young adult literature. She is an active member of NCTE's Assembly on Literature for Adolescents (ALAN), and she served on ALAN’s first Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Committee.