{"id":1037,"date":"2012-09-01T18:06:54","date_gmt":"2012-09-01T23:06:54","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/?p=1037"},"modified":"2013-03-01T18:09:10","modified_gmt":"2013-03-02T00:09:10","slug":"rainbow-family-collections-selecting-and-using-childrens-books-with-lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender-and-queer-content","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/rainbow-family-collections-selecting-and-using-childrens-books-with-lesbian-gay-bisexual-transgender-and-queer-content\/","title":{"rendered":"Rainbow Family Collections: Selecting and Using Children’s Books with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Content"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Cover<\/a><\/p>\n

Naidoo, Jamie Campbell. Rainbow Family Collections: Selecting and Using Children’s Books with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Content. Libraries Unlimited, 2012. Hardcover. 260p. $48.00. 978-1-59884-960-8.<\/a><\/p>\n

No excuses.\u00a0 With Naidoo’s book in hand, any librarian can provide excellent service to all children and families under the LGBTQ rainbow umbrella.<\/p>\n

Naidoo observes, \u201cLibrarians and teachers are concerned about purchasing titles written about a culture they do not understand for fear of acquiring books that are stereotypical or derogatory toward that particular culture.\u201d\u00a0 An exhaustive, annotated, and critical bibliography covers picture books, chapter books, nonfiction, media, awards and adult resources.\u00a0 Naidoo is sparing with \u201cHIGHLY RECOMMENDED\u201d and willing to critique groundbreaking stories that have not passed the test of time.\u00a0 \u201cMany LGBTQ children’s books suffer from an agenda that tries to normalize the experience of rainbow families to such an extent that storylines are didactic and characters are not multidimensional.\u201d\u00a0 His comparison of titles to others on the same topic makes it relatively simple to build a collection to fit any budget.\u00a0 I found myself agreeing with the critical assessments for every title I recognized.<\/p>\n

An overview of the history of publishing LGBTQ children’s materials is followed by standards for evaluation.\u00a0 Materials in other languages and from other cultures are incorporated.\u00a0 And recognition of how the current economy has hurt small publishers is balanced with resources in new formats.\u00a0 One result is that the gaps in topic coverage become apparent, \u201csuch as bisexual parents, elderly LGBTQ characters, and mainstream transgender characters.\u201d<\/p>\n

But selection is only part of this excellent resource.\u00a0 There is also information on programming, on how to work with children and adults, and on how to make the library welcoming and inclusive.\u00a0 Naidoo explains terminology and highlights model libraries.\u00a0 In addition, he addresses the fraught question of how to shelve and display materials by reminding us that the librarian’s goal is always findability combined with privacy.\u00a0 According to Naidoo, programming about rainbow families is no more about sexuality than programming about straight families.<\/p>\n

Four indexes provide effective access to all the contents.\u00a0 Sidebars and tools break up the highly readable text, and reference citations accompany each chapter.\u00a0 Every library that serves children and their families needs this book.<\/p>\n

Reviewer: Carolyn Caywood<\/strong>, Retired<\/p>\n

Virginia Beach Public Library<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Naidoo, Jamie Campbell. Rainbow Family Collections: Selecting and Using Children’s Books with Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Queer Content. Libraries Unlimited, 2012. Hardcover. 260p. $48.00. 978-1-59884-960-8. No excuses.\u00a0 With Naidoo’s book in hand, any librarian can provide excellent service to all children and families under the LGBTQ rainbow umbrella. Naidoo observes, \u201cLibrarians and teachers are […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1164,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[27,19],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1164"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1037"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1037\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1037"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1037"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.glbtrt.ala.org\/reviews\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1037"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}