Banned LGBT Books (Part 2)

This is Part 2 of my two-part post on Banned LGBT Books.

Howl and Other Poems

Allen Ginsberg's Howl & Other Poems was originally published by City Lights Books in the fall of 1956. Subsequently seized by U.S. Customs and the San Francisco police, it was the subject of a long court trial at which a series of poets and professors persuaded the court that the book was not obscene.

Luv Ya Bunches: A Flower Power Book

What do Katie-Rose, Yasaman, Milla, and Violet have in common? Other than being named after flowers, practically nothing. Katie-Rose is a film director in training. Yasaman is a computer whiz. Milla is third in command of the A list. And Violet is the new girl in school. They’re fab girls, all of them, but they sure aren’t friends. And if evil queen bee Medusa—’scuse me, Modessa—has her way, they never will be. But this is the beginning of a new school year, when anything can happen and social worlds can collide . . . Told in Lauren Myracle’s inventive narrative style—here a fresh mix of instant messages, blog posts, screenplay, and straight narrative—Luv Ya Bunches has been called “enticing” by Publishers Weekly and received a starred review from Booklist, which called it “a fun, challenging, and gently edifying story."

Uncle Bobby's Wedding

Bobby and Jamie are getting married, but Bobby's niece Chloe is worried that she won?t be his favorite person anymore. Will Uncle Bobby still think she is special? Sarah Brannen's warm story is set in an alternative family as Uncle Bobby marries his boyfriend. Uncle Bobby?s Wedding embraces Bobby?s relationship with Jamie, but keeps its focus where it truly belongs: on an uncle and niece?s love for each other. Beautifully told and charmingly illustrated, this simple yet moving story begs to be read time and again.

It's Perfectly Normal: Changing Bodies, Growing Up, Sex, and Sexual Health (The Family Library)

Now offering a brand-new chapter focusing on safe Internet use — one of parents’ key concerns — this universally acclaimed classic by Robie H. Harris and Michael Emberley is a cutting-edge resource for kids, parents, teachers, librarians, and anyone else who cares about the well-being of tweens and teens. Providing accurate and up-to-date answers to nearly every imaginable question, from conception and puberty to birth control and AIDS, IT'S PERFECTLY NORMAL offers young people the information they need — now more than ever — to make responsible decisions and stay healthy.

Revolutionary Voices

Invisible. Unheard. Alone. Chilling words but apt to describe the isolation and alienation of queer youth. In silence and fear they move from childhood memories of repression or violence to the unknown, unmentored, landscape of queer adulthood, their voices stilled or ignored. No longer. Revolutionary Voices celebrates the hues and harmonies of the future of gay and lesbian society, presenting not a collection of stories but a collection of experiences, ideas, dreams, and fantasies expressed through prose, poetry, artwork, letters, diaries, and performance pieces.

The Color Purple 

Winner of the Pulitzer Prize and the National Book Award, The Color Purple is the moving story of a young woman’s endurance of shame and suffering to become whole and to know God. The novel became an instant classic and has been adapted into a film and musical. Paired here with The Temple of My Familiar, which the author describes as “a romance of the last 500,000 years,” this edition brings together two works that established Walker as a major voice in modern fiction.

Naked Lunch

Since its original publication in Paris in 1959, Naked Lunch has become one of the most important novels of the twentieth century. Exerting its influence on the relationship of art and obscenity, it is one of the books that redefined not just literature but American culture. For the Burroughs enthusiast and the neophyte, this volume—that contains final-draft typescripts, numerous unpublished contemporaneous writings by Burroughs, his own later introductions to the book, and his essay on psychoactive drugs—is a valuable and fresh experience of a novel that has lost none of its relevance or satirical bite.

Am I Blue?: Coming Out from the Silence

Original stories by C. S. Adler, Marion Dane Bauer, Francesca Lia Block, Bruce Coville, Nancy Garden, James Cross Giblin, Ellen Howard, M. E. Kerr, Jonathan London, Lois Lowry, Gregory Maguire, LeslÉa Newman, Cristina Salat, William Sleator, Jacqueline Woodson, and Jane Yolen . Each of these stories is original, each is by a noted author for young adults, and each honestly portrays its subject and theme--growing up gay or lesbian, or with gay or lesbian parents or friends.