The Rainbow Round Table is part of the American Library Association. It started in 1970, and every year, it awards both the Stonewall Awards and the Rainbow Book List. The Rainbow Book list is in recognition of exceptional LGBTQ children’s and teen’s books of the previous year. It also provides an annotated list of notable LGBTQ kids’ and YA books of the previous year. For 2022, the full list includes 190 titles, selected from the 550 eligible books published last year.
In the introduction to the list, The Rainbow Round Table acknowledges the censorship queer books have seen recently:
The importance of this list (and others like it) cannot be understated, especially in a time when we are seeing a record number of efforts to ban both materials and support for LGBTQIA+ young people and their families.
It is our hope that our efforts to identify appealing and high quality queer books for youth will help young people, librarians, educators, and caregivers of all kinds to connect our readers with information and stories that are critical to their well being and growth. The suppression of these books is a detriment to all youth, and we cannot ignore the damage these challenges are having on the young people in our society.
We know that there are individuals who will try to censor these books, but we offer this carefully curated list to the multitude of youth advocates working in our communities to connect young readers to the books that they so desperately need. This collection of titles is an invitation for all readers to create a more welcoming future for everyone.
Here are their picks for the top ten LGBTQ books for kids and for teens from 2022.
2023 Rainbow Book List
Check out the full Rainbow Book List, with descriptions of 190 LGBTQ children’s and teen’s books, at the ALA Round Table website.
Find more news and stories of interest from the book world in Breaking in Books.