Show Your YA Pride: LGBTQ+ Book Displays from Around The World
Amy Diegelman’s display at Vineyard Haven Public Library, Vineyard Haven, MA.
Nicole Harris found this display in the Chesterfield County Virginia North Courthouse branch over the weekend: “I was so happy to see it there along side the YA new releases since teens flock to see what new books are available.”
My name is Emily and I’m an editor with a small publishing company here in Halifax on the east coast of Canada. I wanted to share this display from Halifax Central Library. I don’t believe they’re all YA books, but it’s so pretty. 🙂 (The sign at the top says “Happy Pride Month!”)
From Lauren Gibaldi: I work at the Alafaya Library (part of the Orange County Library System) and this is the display I made for our YA section. Like I said, most books have been checked out (yay!!!), so I’ve had to replenish daily. I’ve had it up since June 1st and we haven’t had one complaint. Fun fact: None of the Above went first. Second most popular were f/f books.
From Deby Fry: This is ours for the Gum Spring Library in South Riding, VA. We’re a part of the Loudoun County Public Library system in Virginia. The day I put it out, I heard a group of girls gathered around a table talking about some of the books they’d already read and loved, and they picked up a few to take home!
From Michelle Ross: Here’s a pic of a YA display at the Main Branch of Kanawha County Public Library in Charleston, WV. This pic was taken only a few minutes after I put the display up and someone had already grabbed two books.
I also have free, LGBTQIA+ bookmark printables available to download from my blog here.
From Renata Sancken: I have a Pride display on our digital carousel (that shows on the catalog computers throughout the library). You can view the whole carousel right here.
All displays above are from Richland Library in Columbia, South Carolina, and the titles were selected by Miciah Bennett and Thomas Maluck.
Danielle Mohlman sent this snap she grabbed of the window display in her local indie, Secret Garden Books in Seattle, Washington.
From Jessica Spotswood: This is the Pride display I made for our teen section – the Southwest Neighborhood Library of the DC Public Library. She writes: “I’m not sure if teens in this neighborhood would feel safe checking them out. But it feels important to me that we have the display and they see us celebrating Pride.”
From Nicole Brinkley: We have two displays at Oblong Books — one at our Millerton store (top) and our Rhinebeck store (bottom).
From Robin Johnsen: Here is the display from the Dyer-Schererville Branch of Lake County Public Library (Indiana). This is just the YA books side. The other side of the table has adult books and kids books.
From Rebecca Speas: Our Pride display at One More Page Books in Arlington, VA. It’s not a strictly YA display, since we tried to put up an array of genres, but we did include CARRY ON by Rainbow Rowell, WONDERS OF THE INVISIBLE WORLD by Christopher Barzak, GEORGE by Alex Gino, and LIES WE TELL OURSELVES by Robin Talley (one of our favorite local authors!)
This display was created by myself and fellow OMP staffer Amanda Quain, and we have already sold a copy of Lies We Tell Ourselves as a gift since it’s been displayed.
From Paige McGeorge at Lethbridge Public Library in Alberta, Canada: I’ve included some pics of our physical book displays, plus a shot of our featured Overdrive ebook collection. They’ve both proved very popular, which is so great to see.
Erikka set up this display at the library where she works.
From Caitlin Kenney: I work at the North Tonawanda Public Library in North Tonawanda, New York, and told my co-worker, Kelly, about your newsletter and she liked the idea, so I took a picture of her Pride display she made for the teen department. She’s had to fill it a few times already, which is great!
Via Ruth Compton: Arlington County’s Central Library in Virginia. Display created by Alex Zealand.
From Becky Canovan: This is the display in the library at the University of Dubuque. She writes, “It was a conscious choice to keep this display small so it fit in our highest traffic area of the summer, next to our printers. We also have the digital sign as part of the rotation on our screen in our entryway.”
From Rosie Bromberg: This is the current teen room display at the Poulsbo Library, part of Kitsap Regional Libraries, in Poulsbo, Washington. Of course, the books didn’t stay in rainbow order for long.
From Vee: I got a chance to make a Pride Display at Addendum Books, so I thought I’d send it your way (top image). I had a SUPER fun time making it. I have the books roughly sorted by genre. 🙂 I haven’t had a shift since I made it, so I don’t know what’s been popular, but every time I pass by the store on the bus the display gets a lot of glances.
I also got to make a resource sheet for the library I work at (Highland Park in Saint Paul)!
Display at the Alameda Free Library in Alameda, California and made by the Teen Librarian, Hallie Fields. She writes, “Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe and Honor Girl were immediately checked out before I could even photograph the display.”
From Sarah Prineas: Attached is a picture of a display that I put together in the kids section at Prairie Lights, an independent bookstore in Iowa City, Iowa. It includes a list of recommended books from a local teen reader, Luke Reynolds.
And here’s Luke Reynolds’s recommendation list:
Recommended GLBT Young Adult Books from Luke Reynolds (West High School class of ’18)- Ask Me How I Got Here by Christine Heppermann (bisexual protagonist, free verse).
- Lies My Girlfriend Told Me by Julie Anne Peters (lesbian protagonist with relationship).
- The Truth About Twinkie Pie by Kat Yeh (gay love interest and an adorable book to boot).
From Molly Wetta: Here are the displays from Lawrence (KS) Public Library. The first one is in the teen zone, the second one is by the welcome desk when you first walk into the building. The YA one has had books fly off of it – I restocked it before taking the picture.
From Robin Brenner at Brookline Public Library in Massachusetts: I put up this display on June 1st, especially to highlight the great variety of newer teen titles that have come out over the past year (although, happily, many of them were already out.) Since I took these pictures, I added a good number of our nonfiction titles as well, and almost half of them are already gone. It’s prominently displayed right outside our Teen Room, near our main elevator, and I’ve been gratified to see so many people checking out the display and grabbing titles.
From Emily Charpentier: The following blog post includes the Pinterest board version of Uxbridge High School’s in-library Pride display and a photo of the in-library display
A member of the GSA asked me to put up a display for Pride Month, though unfortunately, all books are due back for the summer tomorrow, so there isn’t much checking out going on. Definitely promised another student that I wouldn’t take down the Pinterest board so she’d still be able to see the list of books on the display later when she could check some out, though.
From Katelyn Attanasio: Here is the one I put together at Cascades Library in Potomac Falls, VA. It’s located at the front of our teen center and has been fairly popular. The books with gay male characters have been the most popular, but all of the books have been going over well. We also haven’t had any complaints about it this year!
From Angie Manfredi at Los Alamos County Library System, Los Alamos, New Mexico.
From Becky Greer at South Shore Regional Library.
Included on my display are the following books:
Adrian and the Tree of Secrets by Hubert
Alex as Well by Alyssa Brugman
Will Grayson, Will Grayson (in Spanish) by John Green & David Levithan
Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg
Letters to Our Children: Lesbian and Gay Adults Speak to the New Generation Edited by Larry Dane Brimner
What We Hide by Marthe Jocelyn
Lies We Tell Ourselves by Robin Talley
What We Left Behind by Robin Talley
Cut Both Ways by Carrie Mesrobian
Honor Girl by Maggie Thrash
On The Count of Three by Maureen Johnson
GLBTQ: The Survival Guide for Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning Teens by Kelly Huegel
The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily Danforth
Not Otherwise Specified by Hannah Moskowitz
There is also a list of the Rainbow Books with their YA selections: https://glbtrt.ala.org/rainbowbooks/archives/1207
I also put out LGBTQIA bookmarks, with a short list of books in those genres. We are down to 1 book mark, and I have already had to replace a few books like Carry On by Rainbow Rowell and I am J by Cris Beam.
From Chelsea Outlaw, a youth services associate at a library in Kansas.
From Jess Gafkowitz: I’m the new YA librarian at the Sheepshead Bay branch for the Brooklyn Public Library. Attached are two photos of my tiny YA Pride display.
From Tina Dalton: I’m sending you a photo of the YA pride display for the Cuba Circulating Library in Cuba, NY.
From Ilana Soorenko: This Pride display is in the Teen Room at our library, the Queens Library at Flushing. The display was a joint effort between myself and my coworker Christian Arffmann (he actually did the display board, and the choice of books was shared between us). So far, I’ve mostly noticed that the comics (The New Avengers, Zodiac Starforce, Catwoman, X-men) and manga (Princess Jellyfish, Strawberry Panic, His Favorite) have been the items most checked out or returned to the display, but that’s not surprising considering how heavily browsed those collections are in general.
From Kathleen Breitenbach at Hamilton Township Public Library.
From Brandi Fong: Our Pride display at the Peace Dale Library in South Kingstown, RI.
From Andi, children’s bookseller at Foyles Grand Central Birmingham: The top is a display for Pride month, and below is the small year-round section the bookstore keeps of YA LGBTQ+ titles.
From Anna Haase Krueger: Pride display at the Ramsey County Public Library in Minnesota (more adult than YA, but I’m including it anyway!).
From Katie McLain: We have two up at our library: a Pride-specific display & a rainbow colored “I can’t remember the title but the cover was…” display. I set up the Pride display, and my Reference coworker, Priscilla Resendiz, set up the rainbow colored display. These are from the Waukegan Public Library in Waukegan, IL.
From Maria Padian: Pride at Curtis Library in Brunswick, Maine!
Finally, I want to end with the display and related commentary that perhaps will be the one that requires your tissues, if you’re not already there…
And that is how you do it.
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