This novel is presented as a letter from a 29-year-old author, Little Dog, to his illiterate mother. His writings flow from his youth in an abusive home, his relationship with his Vietnamese mother and grandmother, to his first job in the sweltering tobacco fields. The narrator, freed from the pressure of anyone ever reading it, pours his heart and story onto the pages. The result is a beautiful story of love, danger, family, abuse, race, class, and coming-of-age as Little Dog recalls his youth.
The Song of Achilles, written by Madeline Miller, is a fictional romance novel, set in ancient Greece. Set from the point of view of Patroclus, a young boy exiled from his home to the kingdom of the young prince Achilles, whose mother is a small god. Patroclus is one of the many boys Achilles’ father has taken in, but as Patroclus and Achilles become closer, Patroclus becomes his right-hand man. Achilles is everything Patroclus is not, strong, smart, and charismatic.
The Magic Fish is a heartwarming graphic novel that showcases beautiful parallels between the fairytales Tien reads with his parents and Tien’s own story of trying to tell his family that he’s gay. There’s a lot of difficulties in communicating with parents that don’t speak English well, and wanting to them something so important as being gay. As this young boy navigates through his own struggling Vietnamese, this book shows us that happiness can be reached even through the language barrier.
Cemetery Boys is an amazing novel that follows the story of Yadriel, a Latinx, gay, and transgender teenager, as he becomes determined to prove himself as a real brujo to his traditional family. But doing so, he accidentally summons a spirit who just so happens to be the resident “bad boy” at his school and follows Yadriel around. By helping the ghost of his schoolmate, Julian, this would be the perfect opportunity for Yadriel to prove he deserves being a Brujo in his community.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club is a historical fiction novel set in San Francisco in the 1950’s, where high-schooler Lily Hu goes through her queer awakening. Lily Hu is the “model” Chinese-American daughter, who gradually comes to realize her sense of identity as she befriends her math classmate and heads off towards a lesbian bar. Caught in the overwhelming feelings of confusion and exhilaration, the threat of risking old friendships and even her father’s deportation looms over her.
Last Night at the Telegraph Club is a story about Lily Hu in 1954 Chinatown. She’s stuck between complications with Red-Scare paranoia affecting her family, and her friend Shirley trying to set her up with Will, a boy from school that she has zero interest in. But everything gets turned upside down when Lily meets Kathleen Miller and realizes that there’s an obvious reason why she isn’t interested in Will.
Loveless, by Alice Oseman, is a realistic fiction LGBTQ+ novel about a girl who is on a path of self-discovery. Georgia Warr is eighteen and hasn't had her first kiss nor has she had a crush but she's certain that one day she will. When she starts university with her best friends and has a roommate who she idolizes, she thinks that it is her time to find the person that she will spend the rest of her life with.
Simon Vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda, by Becky Albertalli, is a realistic fiction novel. The book is about Simon Spier, a sophomore in high school, who is gay but not out. He hasn't told anyone except Blue, his secret pen pal. Neither Simon nor Blue know each other's real identities and correspond through emails. However, Simon forgets to log out of his email account on a school computer and his secret is threatened.
Heartstopper (Volume 1), by Alice Oseman, is a young adult, LGBTQ+ graphic novel. It is the story of two boys, Nick and Charlie, who meet at school and become friends. Soon, Charlie starts to fall for Nick despite thinking that he would never get what he wants. However, Nick is questioning things about himself that he had previously been sure about.
