October 21st, 2014 
In the past few years, the rallying cries have increased for more books for kids and teenagers featuring diverse characters ― and authors and publishers are responding. As we see more and more books featuring characters of color, characters who are LGBT, characters who are disabled, characters who aren’t native English speakers, and other key underrepresented groups, we’re seeing more and more YA books come out featuring characters who fall into more than one of those categories.
Books like these are essential to accurately reflect the world around us. After all, it’s not as if falling into one minority group makes you any less likely to be part of another.
So here’s a list of some of my favorite characters of color in YA novels who are also LGBT, listed in the order they were released. (I’m limiting this list to protagonists, by the way. If I expanded it to include secondary characters, the list would be a lot longer, and there would be even more amazing characters on here.)
J from I Am J (2011) by Cris Beam
J is transgender, and he’s also biracial ― his mother is Puerto Rican, his father Jewish. He spends the story trying to understand what it means to be transgender and what it means to be a man, while his parents struggle to accept J the way he is. What astonished me most when reading J’s story for the first time was how real he felt ― I kept expecting to bump into him the next time I went to Starbucks. That’s how complicated and fascinating this guy is.
Aristotle & Dante (tie) from Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe (2012) by 
Benjamin Alire Saenz
I went back and forth trying to pick a favorite between these two, but I can’t ― I adore Dante’s romanticism and sincerity, but I also adore Aristotle’s beautiful narration and the complex way he thinks about his amazing family. So in the end, it’s a draw. Aristotle and Dante are both Mexican-American boys growing up in Texas who are slowly, very slowly, beginning to understand that they’re gay, and they’re in love. It’s at that same slow, gentle pace that readers discover that they’re in love with this book, too.
Sahar from If You Could Be Mine (2013) by Sara Farizan
Unlike Aristotle and Dante, Sahar and Nasrin, the two Iranian girls at the center of If You Could Be Mine, know they’re in love from the first page. Also unlike Aristotle and Dante, though, readers aren’t likely to root for these two as a couple. Although Sahar sees Nasrin only as the love of her life, readers will quickly discover that Nasrin is undeserving of Sahar’s devotion ― and the extreme measures Sahar to which is willing to go to for her, including undergoing sex reassignment surgery, which is legal in Iran despite the country’s criminalization of homosexuality. Over the course of the story, though, Sahar comes into her own, and by its end I was desperately rooting for her to find happiness ― and independence ― against seemingly impossible odds.
Stella Sweeney is an ordinary woman living an ordinary life with her husband Ryan and their two teenage kids in Dublin. She works with – or really for – her terrifyingly ambitious sister Karen in their beauty salon. Nothing to get excited about here. Nothing to make her particularly unhappy. Or happy… No-one would be interested in stealing her life. But then things started to happen… One day, Stella, attempting a good deed, causes a little car accident and faces down a bad tempered, handsome stranger. She hardly gives it much of a thought. But karma is hovering, and is about to take over, swoop in and change Stella’s life for ever. For better or worse. Suddenly Stella has a life. A thrilling glamorous one. A life that other people might start to covet… ”
Your favourite, number one best-selling comedian Miranda Hart is giving you an access-all-areas VIP backstage pass to her award-winning sitcom. The Best of Miranda contains the full scripts of Miranda’s six favourite episodes (including her original revises and annotations) so that you can, if you wish to, cast your family to re-enact choice moments in your living room. The book also includes Miranda’s own account of just what goes in to the process of writing, rehearsing and filming, hilarious gossip from the making of the sitcom, previously unpublished photographs and material which didn’t make the final edits. Other extras include recipes for Gary’s favourite cakes, cringe worthy childhood photos of our favourite comedian, a step-by-step guide to making your own Fruit Friends and Vegetapals and a Marry Gary Board Game.
Becky Brandon (nee Bloomwood) is in Hollywood! It’s as if all her life has been leading to this moment. She’s hanging out with the stars … or at least she will be, when she finally gets to meet movie superstar Sage Seymour, whom husband Luke is now managing. There’s so much to see and do! And getting Minnie through the hurdles for her A-list Hollywood pre-school will require some…er…help.
I haven’t done a Showcase Sunday post since my holiday last month (I can’t believe it’s been that long) but I finally have some goodies to show you.
