YA books featuring LGBTQIA+ characters and experiences can sometimes be challenging to locate on the library shelves, but fear not, we’ve got you covered.
Here’s what you should know: the titles in the list below don’t focus exclusively on being queer. These are love stories, coming-of-age stories, dystopian stories, adventures, murder mysteries, graphic novels, memoirs, fantasy, nonfiction and, okay, some of them are mainly about being queer. Others are about friendship. Still others are about magic. The stories are as diverse as the characters who run around in them.
If you need assistance finding a book, we love helping. Remember, these are just the titles from the YA section, so feel free to use the online catalog if you’re not finding what you’re looking for. And if you have any suggestions for new additions, we’re all ears. Come let us know! We want this collection to reflect you and your interests.
Most of all, happy reading.
*Please note, several of these titles are available as eBooks. Download the OverDrive/Libby app to read them on your digital device.
Lower Level YA Fiction (Shelved alphabetically by author’s last name)
Here’s to Us – Abertalli, Becky & Silvera, Adam
What If It’s Us – Abertalli, Becky (eBook and eAudiobook also available)
This is Why They Hate Us – Aceves, Aaron H.
Home Field Advantage – Adler, Dahlia
The Black Flamingo – Atta, Dean
The Edge of Being – Brandon, James
All That’s Left in the World – Brown, Erik
Felix Ever After – Callendar, Kacen
The Heartbreak Bakery – Capetta, A.R.
The Red Scrolls of Magic – Clare, Cassandra (eBook also available)
Naomi and Ely’s No Kiss List: A Novel – Cohn, Rachel (eBook and eAudiobook also available)
Notes from the Blender – Cook, Tish
Dreadnought – Daniels, April
Some Girls Do – Dugan, Jennifer
Pet – Emezi, Akwaeke
The Sweet Revenge of Celia Door – Finneyfrock, Karen
The Passing Playbook – Fitzsimons, Isaac
Full Disclosure – Garrett, Cameron
Me Being Me is Exactly as Insane as You Being You – Hasak-Lowy, Todd
Her Royal Highness – Hawkins, Rachel
Rust in the Root – Ireland, Justina
Yesterday is History – Jackson, Kosoko
The Extraordinaires – Klune, T.J.
Darius the Great Deserves Better – Khorram, Adib
Kiss & Tell – Khorram, Adib
The Bridge – Konigsburg, Bill
Everything Leads to You – LaCour, Nina (eBook also available)
Meet Cute Diary – Lee, Emery
She Gets the Girl – Lippincott, Rachael & Derrick, Alyson (eBook also available)
The Many Half-Lived Lives of Sam Sylvester – MacGregor, Maya
Last Night at the Telegraph Club – Lo, Malinda
Here the Whole Time – Martins, Vitor
#MurderFunding – McNeil, Gretchen
The Art of Starving – Miller, Sam
Pumpkin – Murphy, Julie
Shine – Myracle, Lauren (eBook also available)
I’ll Give You the Sun – Nelson, Jandy (eBook also available)
Nick and Charlie: A Heartstopper Novella – Oseman, Alice (eBook also available)
The Lesbiana’s Guide to Catholic School – Reyes, Sonora (eBook and eAudiobook also available)
I Hope You Get this Message – Rishi, Farah Naz
Camp – Rosen, L.C.
The Midnight Lie – Rutkoski, Marie
Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe – Sáenz, Benjamin Alire
And They Lived – Salvatore, Steven
Fans of the Impossible Life – Scelsa, Kate
The Girls I’ve Been – Sharpe, Tess
All Kinds of Other – Sie, James
They Both Die at the End – Silvera, Adam (eBook also available)
More Happy Than Not – Silvera, Adam (eBook also available)
The Gravity of Us – Stamper, Phil (eBook also available)
The Coldest Touch – Sterling, Isabel
Cemetery Boys – Thomas, Aiden (eBook and eAudiobook also available)
Kings of B’More – Thomas, R. Eric (eBook also available)
The Bone Spindle – Vedder, Leslie
Hell Followed with Us – White, Andrew Joseph
Lower Level YA Science Fiction (Shelved alphabetically by author’s last name)
The Darkness Outside Us – Schrefer, Eliot
Lower Level YA Graphic Novels (Shelved with the YA Graphic Novels by Call Number)
Flamer – Curato, Mike 741.5 C922f
Messy Roots – Gao, Laura 973.049 G159m
Heartstopper – Oseman, Alice 741.5 Os2h
Heartstopper – Volume 2 – Oseman, Alice 741.5 Os2h2
Bloom – Panetta, Kevin 741.5 P192b
The Golden Hour – Smith, Niki 741.5 Sm62g
Laura Deen Keeps Breaking Up with Me – Tamaki, Mariko 741.5 T15L
On a Sunbeam – Walden, Tillie 741.5 W144
Lower Level YA Nonfiction (Shelved with the YA Nonfiction by Call Number)
Queerfully and Wonderfully Made: A Guide for LGBTQ+ Christian Teens – 248.8 F495q
Beyond the Gender Binary – 305.3 V191b
Gay America, Struggle for Equality – 306.76 AL78g
Queer: The Ultimate LGBTQ Guide for Teens – 306.76 B411q
Trans Mission: My Quest to a Beard – Bertie, Alex 306.76 B462t
What’s the T? – 306.76 D325w
All Boys Aren’t Blue: A Memoir-Manifesto – 306.76 J632a
Falling Hard: 100 Love Poems by Teenagers – Franco, Betsy 811.6 F193
Lower Level YA Collective Biography (Shelved with the YA Collective Biography by Call Number)
No Way, They were Gay?: Hidden Lives and Secret Loves – Wind, Lee YA Collective Biography W722n
Resources
Rainbow Pride Youth Alliance – A non-profit service organization for LGBTQ+ youth and allies in the Inland Empire