Top Ten Tuesday: Freebie Edition

Ohmygoodness. Top Ten Tuesday this week is a FREEBIE week, which means I get to pick the topic. As always, the meme is hosted by the ladies over at The Broke and the Bookish, where bloggers all post their lists to share. You should check it out. This week should be particularly interesting, since there will be so many different lists for this FREEBIE topic.

I picked this topic because I doubt it will ever be an actual TTT topic. So I’m going to introduce y’all to some great books in a category that is near and dear to my little heart:

Top Ten YA Books With Great LGBT Characters

[Books with positive or realistic gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered characters]

Five Books I’ve Read (summaries are my own)

1.) Annie On My Mind by Nancy Garden

This was one of the first YA lesbian books I read, and it is iconic in the canon. Published in 1982, this is the story of two girls (Annie and Liza) who meet at a New York museum and realize that they are more than friends. Though they struggle to hide their relationship, they also wish to stay true to each other despite the possible consequences.

2.) Beauty Queens by Libba Bray

Though not a LGBT book specifically, the inclusion of lesbian, bisexual, and transgendered girls as main characters in the story were amazing. Libba Bray wrote some amazing LGBT girls into this quite feminist novel.

3.) Will Grayson, Will Grayson by John Green and David Levithan

**2011 Stonewall Honor Book** “Tiny Cooper is not the world’s gayest person, and he is not the world’s largest person, but I believe he may be the world’s largest person who is really, really gay, and also the world’s gayest person who is really, really large.” Tiny Cooper is amazing. The gay Will Grayson is realistically flawed. And this is a wonderful, hilarious story about love and friendship in high school.

4.) Keeping You A Secret by Julie Anne Peters

Holland is a high school student, involved in clubs, dating a guy, and getting ready for college. One day she meets Cece, a girl who plans to start a Lesbigay club at the high school, and everything changes. Holland’s story isn’t always a happy or ideal one, but it reflect the realities and fears of students as they come out to themselves, their friends, and their families.

5.) The Realm of Possibility by David Levithan

A verse novel depicting the voices of several high school students and the complicated web of relationships between them. Everyone can relate to at least one of the characters, and I loved that the relationships were so complex, unexpected, and interconnected. Secret crushes, secret fears, and secrets about identity are expressed in each point of view. 

And Five I Want To Read (summaries from Goodreads)

6.) Empress of the World by Sara Ryan

Nicola Lancaster is spending eight weeks at the Siegel Institute Summer Program for Gifted Youth, a hothouse of smart, articulate, intense teenagers. She soon falls in with Katrina (Manic Computer Chick), Isaac (Nice-Guy-Despite-Himself), Kevin (Inarticulate Composer) . . . and Battle. Battle Hall Davies is a beautiful blonde dancer, and everything Nic isn’t. The two become friends-and then, startlingly, more than friends. What do you do when you think you’re attracted to guys, and then you meet a girl who steals your heart?

7.) Shine by Lauren Myracle

When her best guy friend falls victim to a vicious hate crime, sixteen-year-old Cat sets out to discover who in her small town did it. Richly atmospheric, this daring mystery mines the secrets of a tightly knit Southern community and examines the strength of will it takes to go against everyone you know in the name of justice. 

8.) Luna by Julie Anne Peters

**A 2004 NBAYPL Finalist** For years, Regan’s brother Liam has been nursing a secret. By day, he is Liam, a passably typical boy of his age; at night, he transforms himself into Luna, his true, female self. Regan loves and supports her brother and she keeps his Liam/Luna secret. Things change, though, when Luna decides to emerge from her cocoon. She begins dressing like a girl in public; first at the mall; then at school; then at home. Regan worries that her brother’s transgender identity is threatening her own slippery hold on normalcy.

9.) Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy by Bil Wright

**Winner of the 2012 Stonewall Award!!** Carlos Duarte knows that he’s fabulous. He’s got a better sense of style than half the fashionistas in New York City, and he can definitely apply makeup like nobody’s business. He may only be in high school, but when he lands the job of his dreams–makeup artist at the FeatureFace counter in Macy’s–he’s sure that he’s finally on his way to great things.But the makeup artist world is competitive and cutthroat, and for Carlos to reach his dreams, he’ll have to believe in himself more than ever.

10.) Ash by Malinda Lo

**Winner of the 201o William Morris Award** In the wake of her father’s death, Ash is left at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Consumed with grief, her only joy comes by the light of the dying hearth fire, rereading the fairy tales her mother once told her. When she meets the dark and dangerous fairy Sidhean, she believes that her wish may be granted. The day that Ash meets Kaisa, the King’s Huntress, her heart begins to change. Instead of chasing fairies, Ash learns to hunt with Kaisa. Though their friendship is as delicate as a new bloom, it reawakens Ash’s capacity for love-and her desire to live. But Sidhean has already claimed Ash for his own, and she must make a choice between fairy tale dreams and true love.

BONUS: Anything by Alex Sanchez, who writes fun books featuring gay male characters in high school. I’ve always wanted to read one of his books.

GOOD AUTHORS TO CHECK OUT FOR GLBT LIT: ME Kerr, Jacqueline Woodson, Lauren Myracle, James Howe, Julie Anne Peters, and David Levithan

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