ALA/ALSC’s Winter 2013 edition of Children & Libraries has three articles of note:
- “Sticks, Stones, and Sneering Tones” by Kim Becnel, pp. 10-15: excellent use of research on bullying to evaluate children’s books that include bullies as characters, explaining which propose workable solutions and which perpetuate platitudes or simply demonize the bully and indulge revenge fantasy.
-  “And Tango Makes Three” by Jennifer Harvey, pp. 27-33: a discussion of And Tango Makes Three, Horton Hatches the Egg, The Cow that Laid an Egg and other picture books as a way to introduce family diversity, making the point that children are not interested in sexuality but rather in belonging and how families differ. [Note: the one paragraph about a child’s perception of “gender norms” and the feelings of gender non-conforming children appears jarring because it implies that gender and sexuality are the same thing.]
- “Over the Rainbow and Under the Radar” by Jamie Campbell Naidoo p. 34-40: creative suggestions (collections, programs, and services) for serving LGBT library users without bringing this to the attention of those who might object as well as research showing that LGBT parents with children at home live in rural areas and smaller metropolitan areas.
A special thanks to Carolyn Caywood for this information.
The September 2013 SRRT Newsletter has a two-part article about the “Safe in the Stacks” presentation at the 2013 ALA Annual Conference. Moderator Julie Winkelstein wrote one part, and Jama Shelton from Forty to None wrote the other part.
In the August 29, 2013 issue of Library Journal, member Ellen Bosman’s article, “Opening the Fiction Closet,†lists awards, bibliographies, and review sources as well as summaries of 25 current LGBT books.
