I just suddenly remembered this awesome book i read in primary school, "The Turbulent Term of Tyke Tyler". The main character was a total tomboy, she hates her real name "Theodora" and goes by Tyke, she "is the best climber in the school, in fact it is assumed throughout the book that the character is male until the very end when one of the teachers tell her off saying Tyke is a "naughty disobedient girl". I remember after I finshed reading this when I was about nine thinking, "wow, that's me, I guess I'm not so wierd after all." I should be more books like this, even though I'm not trans, I remember getting really down a lot of of the time when I was younger, feeling like I didn't "fit in" with other girls and everytime I read this it picked me up. What book have helped you with gender/sexuality issues? and do you think there should be more written that are aimed at kids and not just teens/adults?
this going to be a major-ass shocker: the bible yea, i know. but it made me feel like no matter what, no one could change who i was, and that God made me this awesome. my friend told me to read keeping you a secret(asha!- thats you!), which i havent read. im going to try to get it tomorrow along with the rainbow boys series which totally helped another friend of mine. and yes, more teen/young adult books should be written.
Ummm.... The Rainbow Boys Series, and So Hard to Say both by Alex Sanchez. Annie on my Mind by Nancey Garden, an amazing book!!! Recommend it to any and all lesbains!! And even though its not a book the movie Lost and Delirious starngly enough even though it is so sad and the main character ends up killing herself and it made me cry!! But now its' my fav movie ever. Hence the signature:icon_excl
I've been trying to track down Annie On My Mind for months, and had no success. "Kissing Kate" by Lauren Myracle was the one I read over and over while I was trying to come to terms with my sexuality. I emailed the author not long ago to tell her that her book had helped me come out, and she seemed pretty happy.
I'd have to say "Boy Meets Boy" By David Levithan. Not only is it really well written, it doesn't focus on homophobia like a lot of the books do. It focuses on relationships and dating, much like a book about a straight couple would. I thought it was pretty awesome. Also, "The Realm of Possibilty" by David Levithan. It's a real eye opener to a lot of things. One, that we're all connected by some small thread. And a few of the characters were gay, but they didn't struggle with it, they were happy, and more concerned with other areas in their lives. Not just their sexuality. "Lucky" by Eddie De Oliveria. It's about a guy (he's about 19 years old) who finally realizes that he is bisexual. It was really funny and addressed a lot of the things I was dealing with at the time I read it. It deals with dating, coming out, and figuring things out.
It's not really so much of a book, but poetry helped in general. Love poetry from some of the Latin poets. Horace, Catullus (When he's not moaning about Lesbia) and even Ovid on on occasion. Reading them showed me the romantic, comic and every-way-inbetween side of being gay. Or, at least, bisexual with occasional helpings of gay.
It wasn't so much a book as a fanfiction, but Depths of Memory really helped me come to terms with it.
The Tales of the Otori helped me quite a lot. So did His Dark Materials, Girl meets Boy and, strangely enough, Anne Frank. There are several passages in her diary which really sounded very lesbian to me. Maybe I was imagining it, but it still helped me.
I found some of Anne Rice's books helpful, esp. "The Vampire Armand". Most of her books do have some element of "queerness" in them and they seldom focus on the coming out aspect of it all since her vampires are almost genderless. And I discovered that this eliminated the feeling of alienation that I'd felt for most of my life, because my sexuality was "the norm" and not something considered weird.
Associated Student Bodies. A comic in which Daniel, a new college student, is accidentally placed on the "gay floor" of a dorm, only to come to realize that he's gay himself. It's by no means a perfect book. Some parts are quite sex-for-sex-sake, a few sideplots aren't interesting at all, and the ending is horribly contrived. (Seriously? A full ride? For someone you don't like?) But much of it is really well-written, and tackles some of the issues about (male) homosexuality well. (The comics are male-homosexual-centered. There's a really brief mention of lesbians, and bisexuality is not even mentioned anywhere in the book.) What's it mean to be "out"? How do you decide which path a relationship will take? How do I tell my parents? A couple of the storylines in the book - Daniel gets gay-bashed, he and his boyfriend break up - really hit me hard, which means they did a good job with them. There's a priest in the book. He's a positive character, believe it or not. 18+ only, but snag one if you like this sort of thing. Lex
