#1 Gender Queer: A Memoir
by Maia Kobabe (e/em/eir)

LOCAL AUTHOR. In 2014, Maia Kobabe, who uses e/em/eir pronouns, thought that a comic of reading statistics would be the last autobiographical comic e would ever write. At the time, it was the only thing e felt comfortable with strangers knowing about em. Then e created Gender Queer. Maia's intensely cathartic autobiography charts eir journey of self-identity, which includes the mortification and confusion of adolescent crushes, grappling with how to come out to family and society, bonding with friends over erotic gayfan fiction, and facing the trauma and fundamental violation of pap smears. Started as a way to explain to eir family what it means to be nonbinary and asexual, Gender Queer is more than a personal story: It is a useful and touching guide on gender identity--what it means and how to think about it--for advocates, friends, and humans everywhere.

YG 306.76 KOBABE

#2
All Boys Aren't Blue

by George M. Johnson (they/them)

A first book by the prominent journalist and LGBTQIA+ activist shares personal essays that chronicle their childhood, adolescence and college years as a Black queer youth, exploring subjects ranging from gender identity and toxic masculinity to structural marginalization and Black joy.

Y 306.7662 JOHNSON

#3
The Bluest Eye

by Toni Morrison (she/her)

The first novel by the Nobel Prize-winning author relates the story of Pecola Breedlove, an eleven-year-old Black girl growing up in an America that values blue-eyed blondes, and the tragedy that results because of her longing to be accepted.

MORRISON

#4
Flamer

by Mike Curato (he/him)

In the summer between middle school and high school, Aiden Navarro navigates friendships, deals with bullies, and finds himself drawn to Elias, a boy he can't stop thinking about.

YG CURATO

#5 (tie)
Looking for Alaska

by John Green (he/him)

Sixteen-year-old Miles' first year at Culver Creek Preparatory School in Alabama includes good friends and great pranks, but is defined by the search for answers about life and death after a fatal car crash.

Y GREEN

#5 (tie)
The Perks of Being a Wallflower

by Stephen Chbosky (he/him)

This haunting novel about the dilemma of passivity vs. passion marks the stunning debut of a provocative voice in contemporary fiction. This is the story of what it's like to grow up in high school. More intimate than a diary, Charlie's letters are singular, hilarious, and devastating.

Y CHBOSKY

#7
Lawn Boy

by Jonathan Evison (he/him)

Faced by a life of menial prospects in the years after high school, Mike Muñoz, a young Mexican-American, attempts over and over to change his life for the better and achieve the American dream only to be stymied by social class distinctions and cultural discrimination.

EVISON/Y EVISON

#8
The Absolutely True Diary of a Part-Time Indian

by Mike Curato (he/him)

Traces the story of a budding cartoonist growing up on the Spokane Indian Reservation who leaves his troubled school to pursue an education in an all-white farm town where the only other Indian is the school mascot.

Y ALEXIE

#9
Out of Darkness

by Ashley Hope Pérez (she/her)

Loosely based on a school explosion that took place in Texas in 1937, tells the story of two teenagers--Naomi, who is Mexican, and Wash, who is black--and their dealings with race, segregation, love, and the forces that destroy people.

Y PEREZ

#10 (tie)
A Court of Mist and Fury

by Sarah J. Maas (she/her)

Retaining her human heart despite her latent High Fae powers, Feyre struggles with guilt over the deeds she performed to save Tamlin's people while navigating the Night Court's web of politics, passion and evil.

Y MAAS

#10 (tie)
Crank

by Ellen Hopkins (she/her)

Kristina Snow is the perfect daughter, but she meets a boy who introduces her to drugs and becomes a very different person, struggling to control her life and her mind.

Y HOPKINS

#10 (tie)
Me and Earl and the Dying Girl

by Jesse Andrews (he/him)

Greg has managed to become part of every social group at his Pittsburgh high school without having any friends, but his life changes when his mother forces him to befriend

Rachel, a girl he once knew in Hebrew school who has leukemia.

Y ANDREWS

#10 (tie)
This Book Is Gay

by Juno Dawson (she/her)

A British author of teen fiction offers basic information about the gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender experience, including terms, religious issues, coming out, and sex acts, for people of all orientations, including the merely curious.

Y 306.766 DAWSON

Manga: I'm in Love with the Villainess, Vol. 1 by Inori

Cute sapphic isekai manga! The main character is hilarious and deeply in love with the villainess of the story!

Book: Viuda de hierro by Xiran Jay Zhao

Trigger Warning: violence and abuse, suicide ideation, discussion and references to sexual assault.

A fictional reimagining of Wu Zetian challenging the injustices she faces in a futuristic reinterpretation of Medieval China.”

— Jodi, Teen Services Librarian

“My recommendation is Hell Followed with Us by Andrew Joseph White. This book was gruesome, heartbreaking, and disturbing in the best possible ways. Benji will do anything to escape the religious fundamentalist cult that he grew up in. In Benji's attempt to escape, he meets up with people from the Acheson LGBTQ+ Center. Benji has to work alongside them to try to prevent the world from collapsing before his body rejects humanity and takes on the form of the monster he was forced to become. The author is queer, trans, and autistic and includes strong representation for each of these identities within the book. This is definitely one that you should pick up if you like horror, dark themes, and dystopian futures. Get ready to be spooked!”

— Emily, Teen Services Librarian

“This TeenTober, I am recommending Gender Queer, a graphic memoir about growing up nonbinary and asexual by Maia Kobabe. As the #1 banned book of 2021, reading this book is an act of rebellion and celebrates the freedom to read. Kobabe is a Sonoma County resident, so reading and sharing this book helps support a local author and illustrator. LGBTQ voices not only deserve to be heard but amplified, so crack open a book and open your mind.”—

— Stuart, Teen Services Librarian

Last Night at the Telegraph Club by Malinda Lo

If you love the new A League of Their Own series, you MUST read this book!

Last Night at the Telegraph Club is a phenomenal historical fiction novel about Lily Hu, a young Chinese American teenager living in San Francisco's Chinatown in the 1950s. This is a dazzling love story between two young women set against the backdrop of the Red Scare, which actively threatens the safety and livelihood of Lily's family. In the underground lesbian bar called The Telegraph Club, Lily finds not only love, but also a sense of community, belonging, and freedom.

This book won the National Book Award for Young People's Literature (2021) and absolutely deserved it. This is my favorite young adult book that has been published in the last two years and I highly recommend it for teens and adults alike!”

— Terra, Teen Services Librarian

#GoodTrouble Action Pack

In response to the Black Lives Matter banner-burning incident that took place at the Sebastopol Library in January 2022; Sonoma County Library is offering teens the opportunity to stand up and speak out by creating posters inspired by popular social movements such as Black Lives Matter, anti-racism, free speech, anti-bullying, disability rights, climate action, and LGBTQIA+ rights.

At the end of the month, participants will be asked to share their posters which will be displayed in library branches across the county and featured on social media.

Please register for this event to receive a free #GoodTrouble Action Pack, including everything you need to make your own poster. You will receive an email notification when your pack is ready for pickup.

Free for teens in grades 7-12.