#ClassroomBookADay Recommendations: Read with PRIDE

A note about the postponement of this month’s post:
I was aware of, and shared, concerns brought forth the last week in March about a potential resource Follett might create. My statement from April 1st (shared instead of this post going live) is below. I have been in a 3 year #ClassroomBookADay partnership with Follett Classroom during which time neither my topics, blog posts, nor book choices have ever been censored. But, yes, I saw the irony of a Read with PRIDE themed booklist coinciding with the possible tool being created. Based on the decisions made to not continue with developing that tool, and internal conversations, I decided that continuing with this partnership was doable. A platform for being able to share more books widely, especially on topics some might be trying to censor in schools, is always a benefit for educators and kids.

April 2022
Pride Month is in June, but that doesn’t mean we should read books with LGBTQIA+ representation only in that month! Especially since many schools aren’t in session that whole month. It is vital that we provide positive, authentic representation of LGBTQIA+ people and authors/illustrators in the read alouds we choose to share with our students. When representation is excluded, that erasure can have negative impacts on all children. The identity group with the highest percentage of youth suicides is LGBTQIA+ kids. ALL young people deserve to be seen in their classrooms, especially those who are most at risk. Because all kinds of people exist in this world AND in our classrooms, ignoring that hurts everyone and dishonors people’s families and humanity. Honoring, supporting, celebrating, recognizing, and validating the full humanity and lived experiences of ALL of our students is a moral imperative of our influential work with young people. Please don’t be scared of pushback. Exposing kids to the variety of lived experiences and beliefs in this world is not harmful. Sheltering them from it is, and that leads to more hate. Let’s all commit to reading with #Pride, in June & beyond!

And an important consideration when being intentionally inclusive of LGBTQIA+ representation is to audit the type of representation a book provides.
“Children’s books that feature unicorns or talking crayons or anthropomorphic creatures are not queer rep. These books talk around queerness and not about queerness. I don’t care how much pink hair you throw on these characters.” (@MagpieLibrarian May 29, 2021)

Censoring LGBTQIA+ representation out of classroom curriculum / books / read alouds harms those whose identities are erased and sends an implicit message that they themselves are wrong. And it also harms other kids who then don’t see the full humanity of our society.

Saying “It’s not the school’s place to teach that” is offensive. And it’s wrong. Having LGBTQIA+ representation DOES NOT EQUAL teaching kids to be that identity. Unless you also believe other books teach kids to be heteronormative. Acknowledging people exist in this world is just societal fact.

Erasing or avoiding queer history and stories in the classroom actively harms young people.
Just one accepting adult can reduce suicide attempts in LGBTQ+ teens by 40% or more.
Having at least one LGBTQ-affirming space reduces suicide attempts by 35% — the strongest association being LGBTQ-affirming schools.
‍ Respecting transgender and nonbinary youth’s pronouns reduces suicide attempts by half.
‍ Gender-affirming spaces for transgender and nonbinary youth reduces suicide attempts by 25%.
1.8 million LGBTQ young people have seriously considered suicide in the U.S. in the past year.
*Statistics from The Trevor Project.

I urge you to use your #ClassroomBookADay choices intentionally to show your classroom is a space for welcoming kids in their full humanity into our schools, honoring their lived experiences, and supporting them at every step. During Pride Month and beyond.

I share some thoughts about this month’s topic, and highlight a few books, in the video below.

Follett Classroom has partnered with me to spread the #ClassroomBookADay message. As part of that, my themed picture book recommendation lists are housed in Titlewave^©, one of my favorite free databases for looking up all things related to book information! Don’t have your free account? Grab it today.