This Post Is Gay: 5 YA Books to Read While Celebrating Pride

With Pride Month quickly approaching, many places across the country - and the world - are starting to celebrate love. While these celebrations may look different than they have in years past, there is no wrong way to praise such diversity, nor is there a wrong way to support those we love. This summer, enjoy these colorful reads to diversify your repertoire, and to add to your Summer Reading on Beanstack!

Also, please join us for Drag Queen Story Time with Chasity Valentino on June 26th!

This Book Is Gay by Juno Dawson

A book for everyone, regardless of gender or sexual preference, who's ever wondered about the subject of being gay. Inside you'll find the answers to all the questions: from sex to politics, hooking up to stereotypes, coming out and more. This candid, funny, and uncensored exploration of sexuality and what it's like to grow up LGBT also includes real stories from people across the gender and sexual spectrums, for "coming out," as a lesbian, gay guy, bisexual, or trans person.

The ABC’s of LGBT+ by Ashley Mardell

We live in a post-binary world where gender fluency, awareness and acceptance of how people identify is essential. Ashley Mardell covers all things LGBT+ including in-depth definitions, personal anecdotes, helpful infographs, resources, and more.

*Meg wanted to share: The author is listed in SHARE as Ashley Mardell, so I have kept their name as that in the link for ease of searching. However, the author's name is Ash Hardell, and their pronouns are they/them.

The Dangerous Art of Blending In by Angelo Surmelis

Evan Panos's strict immigrant Greek mother sees him as a disappointment. His workaholic father is a staunch believer in avoiding any kind of conflict. And his best friend, Henry, has somehow become distractingly attractive over the summer. As things escalate, Evan has to decide how to find his voice in a world where he has survived so long by being silent.

They Both Die at the End by Adam Silvera

On September 5, a little after midnight, Death-Cast calls Mateo Torrez and Rufus Emeterio to give them some bad news: They're going to die today. Mateo and Rufus are total strangers, but, for different reasons, they're both looking to make a new friend on their End Day. The good news: there's an app for that. It's called the Last Friend and through it, Rufus and Mateo are about to meet up for one last great adventure--to live a lifetime in a single day.

When Love Comes to Town by Tom Lennon

The year is 1990, and in his hometown of Dublin, Ireland, Neil Byrne plays rugby, keeps up with the in-crowd at his school, and is just a regular guy. A guy who’s gay. It’s a secret he keeps from the wider world as he explores the city at night and struggles to figure out how to reveal his real self―and to whom. First published in Ireland in 1993 and compared to The Catcher in the Rye by critics, Tom Lennon’s When Love Comes to Town is told with honesty, humor and originality.

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