The first thing we'll focus on is Ally Week. Ally Week started in 2005 by the Gay Straight Lesbian Education Network (GLSEN). Franklin Middle School in Champaign, where I used to work, participated in that first Ally Week, thanks to the backing of a few supportive staff members, but mostly due to the fact that students who were allies of LGBTQ friends and family members brought it to our attention.
Here's my method for this awesome display. I consulted the winners and honorees for the Stonewall Book Award, which was first awarded in 1971. I also went to your good friend and mine, Goodreads Listopia. There was a list for Popular YA LGBT Books. Finally, I consulted our friends at the University of Illinois Center for Children's Books' LGBTQ Teens List. (If you're a librarian and haven't checked out the plethora of Bibliographies on the CCB Website, you NEED to. I think that might be a future post!) I started cross-checking titles from the three lists with what we have at Uni and what developed was my favorite, most well-rounded display yet.
The display includes popular fiction YA reads, a couple of classics (like, Annie on My Mind), contemporary classic LGBTQ authors (David Levithan), short story and essay collections, and non-fiction. I know we have more books in our collection, but I pulled as many as I could fit in our display area.
It is vitally important to make every student welcome, at home, comfortable in the library. I hope the students I work with always see me as an ally, and not just because it's Ally Week or because I have a display up for a few weeks with books centered upon them or there needs. I am excited to share this display and these books with the Uni students. I will continue my celebration of Ally Week no matter where I might end up, and I also hope to compile a reading list of LGBTQ literature for the Uni Library.
That's all for Ally Week...for now. Next up, we'll explore Teen Read Week and the shenanigans we have planned.
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