I really enjoyed reading Eric Tribuenlla’s “Between Boys: Edward Stevenson’s Left to Themselves (1891) and the Birth of Gay Children’s Literature.” This was my second (and much more in-depth) introduction into gay children’s literature. My first was (surprisingly) with Eric when he had our class read The Boy Who Cried Fabulous. Left to Themselves and The Boy Who Cried Fabulous deal with very different topics in queer studies. As Eric points out, Left to Themselves is much more focused on the building of a homosexual and homosocial relationship, whereas The Boy Who Cried Fabulous is more focused on the acceptance of childhood queerness.
Tribunella’s response focused more on “queering the canon,” as Kidd and Abate would say. One thing I kept thinking about while reading it is how far LGBT literature has come in contemporary literature. From the article, it seems that gay children’s literature was originally more nuanced and subtle, relying heavily on the homosocial bonds and less on the actual physical/sexual relationship. For this response, I’m want to touch on some openly LGBT children and young adult books and end with a brief discussion of Adam Smith’s Grasshopper Jungle.
First, there’s this genre of picture books for the LGBT community that focus on explaining to children why their family is not heteronormative and that it is okay that theirs isn’t.
http://www.amazon.com/Tango-Makes-Three-Classic-Board/dp/1481446959
http://www.amazon.com/ABC-A-Family-Alphabet-Book/dp/0967446813/ref=zg_bs_11381_7
As I mentioned earlier, there are picture books like The Boy Who Cried Fabulous (Book Trailer: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hB0ycNKzMpU) that aim at teaching children, and adults, to accept all aspects of the child. Forgive me, I don’t’ have a copy with me so I can’t quote things specifically, but I’ll do my best. In the book, the boy thinks everything is “fabulous,” and adults begin to try and correct and “normalize” his behavior to something less flamboyant. While this text does stereotype gay children as effeminate, it does work to preach acceptance for people’s differences and to not judge them for being different than you.
Overall, there’s a lot more young literature today that is openly dealing with LGBT teenagers and their relationships: Chris Beam’s I am J; John Green and David Leviathan’s Will Grayson, Will Grayson; Maureen Johnson’s The Bermudez Triangle; and David Levithan’s Every Day. Of course, our society has come a long way since Left to Themselves was written. However, there are still texts with not openly gay characters. Andrew Smith’s Grasshopper Jungle comes to mind. (It’s a really weird/great book if you’ve never read it.)
Grasshopper Jungle focuses on the life of three teenagers in the days leading up to the “end” of the world. Austin and Robby are inseparable friends. When Austin and his girlfriend Shannon go on dates, it is always Robby who drives them places. The first sexual experience that Austin and Shannon have is in the backseat of Robby’s car on top of his clothes, and he inadvertently becomes a major participant in Austin’s first sexual encounter. The book implies the possibility of them being much more than friends when they get drunk one night, but the reader it is never truly confirmed. And even though Austin and Shannon have a makeshift relationship at the end of the book, it is Robby and Austin who spend weeks on end exploring the destroyed world alone, together.
–Kristi
