5 New LGBTQ YA and Children’s Books Out This Week

This has been one of the most anticipated queer books of the year! I’ll quote myself, from the most anticipated LGBTQ releases of May: When Venus’s mother is killed, she teams up with the head of her coven, the Grand Witcher, to get revenge. It means brewing poisonous potions to control D.C.’s politicians, but Venus is willing to pay that price. She’s also taking care of her little sister, but her thirst for revenge might put them both in danger. This one has a bisexual main character, a nonbinary love interest, and an asexual side character (her sister).

Buckle up, because this premise has a lot going on. This is a queer, polyamorous, Latine YA retelling of Orpheus and Eurydice set in Miami…told in verse. Andres drowned in a river in São Paulo one year ago — but it didn’t stick. He made a deal with death, and now he has a new start. One day on the beach, he meets Renee and Liora. They hit it off and become a polyamorous triad, happy in their relationship, even if no one else understands it. When Liora is in a car accident and ends up in a coma, Renee has an idea: the two of them will descend into the underworld, find their girlfriend’s spirit, and reunite it with her body. Navigating the city of the dead is difficult enough, but there’s one other complication: Andres left a part of himself behind when he died, something he never wanted to see again, and it wants to reunite with him.

Robin Stevenson has been writing queer kidlit and YA for more than a decade, from YA novels like Inferno to picture books and board books like Pride Puppy! to nonfiction like Pride: Celebrating Diversity & Community. Her newest book is a guideline to the biggest events in queer history for a middle grade audience, organized in alphabetical order (P is for Pride) and illustrated throughout.

I’m loving all the Pride picture books coming out recently. This one follows a queer Black family as they attend Pride in Washington, D.C., and includes lines like, “Take up this space / With your beautiful Black self.” It also spotlights queer Black icons like Marsha P. Johnson.