Read the Rainbow this PRIDE Month!

In celebration of Pride month, we recognize and stand together with the LGBTQ+ community and the amazing creators who have contributed to queer and trans literature for young people. Fifty-one years ago, protesters at the Stonewall riots were central to the LGBTQ+ rights movement and positive change. Today, protestors across the country are coming together to call for change, showing again the power and importance of community.

We’ve compiled this reading list that includes queer and trans voices and characters. We encourage you to not only read these books, but to share them, and join in our celebration of love in its many beautiful forms.

Rock the rainbow! Don’t miss the latest goodies available in the Underlined X Out of Print BOOK NERD PRIDE collection.

19 Love Songs

By David Levithan

This anthology features stories written by David Levithan, who has created his own literary mix tape about love in all its various forms. One of the best elements of this anthology is that we get to revisit characters from his previous works, including Every Day and Two Boys Kissing. This wonderful book also includes compelling new tales that’ll make your palms sweaty and get your heart racing.

Being Jazz

By Jazz Jennings

Teen advocate and trailblazer Jazz Jennings—named one of “The 25 Most Influential Teens” of the year by Time—shares her very public transgender journey, as she inspires people to accept the differences in others while they embrace their own truths.

“[Jazz’s] touching book serves as a rallying cry for understanding and acceptance.”–Bustle

Chaotic Good

By Whitney Gardner

A 2019 Rainbow List title!

Cosplay, comic shops, and college applications collide in this illustrated novel, perfect for fans of Adam Silvera and Noelle Steveson!

Date Me, Bryson Keller

By Kevin van Whye

What If It’s Us meets To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before in Date Me, Bryson Keller, which starts off with a dare. Considered royalty at Fairvale Academy, Bryson will date a new person each week—they simply need to be the first person to ask him on Monday. When Kai Sheridan throws a curveball and asks Bryson out, he doesn’t think he will say yes. The rest is rom-com history.

Every Day Movie Tie-In Edition

By David Levithan

Every day a different body. Every day a different life. Every day in love with the same girl.

There’s never any warning about where it will be or who it will be. A has made peace with that, even established guidelines by which to live: Never get too attached. Avoid being noticed. Do not interfere. It’s all fine until the morning that A wakes up in the body of Justin and meets Justin’s girlfriend, Rhiannon. From that moment, the rules by which A has been living no longer apply. Because finally A has found someone he wants to be with—day in, day out, day after day. But can Rhiannon love someone who is destined to change every day?

Fresh Ink

By Lamar Giles

All it takes to rewrite the rules is a little fresh ink in this remarkable YA collection from thirteen of the most recognizable diverse authors writing today including Nicola Yoon, Jason Reynolds, Melissa de la Cruz, and many more, and published in partnership with We Need Diverse Books.

Girl Crushed

By Katie Heaney

Described as Leah on the Offbeat meets We Are Okay, Girl Crushed follows Quinn Ryan and the lovable roller coaster ride that is her love life: getting over exes, falling head over heels for new crushes—all the highs and lows of love.

It's a Whole Spiel

By Array

From stories of confronting their relationships with Judaism to rom-coms with a side of bagels and lox, It’s a Whole Spiel features one story after another that says yes, we are Jewish, but we are also queer, and disabled, and creative, and political, and adventurous, and anything we want to be. You will fall in love with this insightful, funny, and romantic Jewish anthology from a collection of diverse Jewish authors.

Me Myself & Him

By Chris Tebbetts

Perfect for fans of Becky Albertalli’s Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda and A. S. King’s Still Life with Tornado, this story of parallel time lines cleverly explores how our choices can change and shape us—as well as the ways in which choices don’t change the core of our being at all.

Nevertheless, We Persisted

By Array

A powerful collection of essays from actors, activists, athletes, politicians, musicians, writers, and teens, including Senator Amy Klobuchar, actress Alia Shawkat, actor Maulik Pancholy, poet Azure Antoinette, teen activist Gavin Grimm, and many, many more, each writing about a time in their youth when they were held back because of their race, gender, or sexual identity—but persisted.

Odd One Out

By Nic Stone

A 2019 Rainbow List title!

From the New York Times bestselling author of Dear Martin comes an honest and touching depiction of friendship, first love, and everything in between. Perfect for fans of Love, Simon and What If It’s Us.

Pet

By Akwaeke Emezi

A 2020 Rainbow List title!

Jam has been taught that monsters no longer exist, and so she thought, until one day she meets Pet, a creature who emerges from one of her mother’s paintings to hunt a terrible monster. Jam must fight not only to protect her best friend but also to uncover the truth. How do you save the world from monsters if no one will admit they exist?

Sam & Ilsa's Last Hurrah

By Rachel Cohn, David Levithan

A 2019 Rainbow List title!

The New York Times Bestselling duo behind Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist and The Twelve Days of Dash & Lily return with twins out to throw the party of a lifetime–or at least the best party of high school!

The Beauty That Remains

By Ashley Woodfolk

A 2019 Rainbow List title!

Told from three diverse points of view, this story of life and love after loss is one Angie Thomas, author of The Hate U Give, believes “will stay with you long after you put it down.”

The Importance of Being Wilde at Heart

By R. Zamora Linmark

The perfect companion piece for fans of classic literature and TBH a good tearjerker, The Importance of Being Wilde at Heart follows one seventeen-year-old’s journey through love, from a heart-thumping crush to the devastation of heartbreak. Guided by his personal hero, the queer writer Oscar Wilde, Ken opens himself to love, even if the stakes are painfully high.

Two Boys Kissing

By David Levithan

Based on true events—and narrated by a Greek Chorus of the generation of gay men lost to AIDS—Two Boys Kissing follows Harry and Craig, two seventeen-year-olds who are about to take part in a 32-hour marathon of kissing to set a new Guinness World Record. While the two increasingly dehydrated and sleep-deprived boys are locking lips, they become a focal point in the lives of other teens dealing with universal questions of love, identity, and belonging.

Wilder Girls

By Rory Power

A feminist Lord of the Flies about three best friends living in quarantine at their island boarding school, and the lengths they go to uncover the truth of their confinement when one disappears. This fresh, new debut is a mind-bending novel unlike anything you’ve read before.

Witchlight

By Jessi Zabarsky

Love — loss — witches — this YA fantasy graphic novel has it all! This thoughtful, emotional story will entrance you with its moving story and organic artwork.

Witchlight is a wonderful adventure filled with friendship, family, falling in love, and dealing with the hardest bits of your past all along the way.

COMING SOON:

The Magic Fish

By Trung Le Nguyen

Tiến loves his family and his friends…but Tiến has a secret he’s been keeping from them, and it might change everything. An amazing YA graphic novel that deals with the complexity of family and how stories can bring us together.

Real life isn’t a fairytale. But Tiến still enjoys reading his favorite stories with his parents from the books he borrows from the local library. It’s hard enough trying to communicate with your parents as a kid, but for Tiến, he doesn’t even have the right words because his parents are struggling with their English. Is there a Vietnamese word for what he’s going through? Is there a way to tell them he’s gay?

Read the Rainbow this PRIDE Month!

19 Love Songs

By David Levithan

Being Jazz

By Jazz Jennings

Chaotic Good

By Whitney Gardner

Date Me, Bryson Keller

By Kevin van Whye

Every Day Movie Tie-In Edition

By David Levithan

Fresh Ink

By Lamar Giles

Girl Crushed

By Katie Heaney

It's a Whole Spiel

By Array

Me Myself & Him

By Chris Tebbetts

Nevertheless, We Persisted

By Array

Odd One Out

By Nic Stone

Pet

By Akwaeke Emezi

Sam & Ilsa's Last Hurrah

By Rachel Cohn, David Levithan

The Beauty That Remains

By Ashley Woodfolk

The Importance of Being Wilde at Heart

By R. Zamora Linmark

Two Boys Kissing

By David Levithan

Wilder Girls

By Rory Power

Witchlight

By Jessi Zabarsky

COMING SOON:

The Magic Fish

By Trung Le Nguyen

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