Liz Deskins – författare

There is a rich and varied body of literature for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, asexual/allied and intersexed young people, which can function as a mirror for LGBTQAI+ individuals and as a window for others. This resource for librarians who work with children and teens not only surveys the best in LGBTQAI+ lit but, just as importantly, offers guidance on how to share it in ways that encourage understanding and acceptance among parents, school administrators, and the wider community. Helping to fill a gap in serving this population, this guide;discusses the path to marriage equality, how LGBTQAI+ terms have changed, and reasons to share LGBTQAI+ literature with all children;presents annotated entries for a cross-section of the best LGBTQAI+ lit and nonfiction for young children, middle year students, and teens, with discussion questions and tips;offers advice on sensitive issues such as starting conversations with young people, outreach to stakeholders, and dealing with objections and censorship head on; andideas for programming and marketing.This resource gives school librarians, children’s, and YA librarians the guidance and tools they need to confidently share these books with the patrons they support.

Using the AASL Standards Framework for Learners, this book demonstrates ways to use the Shared Foundations and Domains in your instructional design while collaboratively planning personalized learning experiences with content-area educators. Incorporating contributions from secondary school librarians across the country, this resource contains 20 units rooted in the AASL Standards and tailored to foster collaboration with content areas through alignments with other sets of national standards. This ready-to-go resource, enhanced with discussion questions, rubrics, worksheets, and assessment activities, providesthree or four learning units in chapters for each Shared Foundation, each unit containing four lessons moving learners through the Domains of Think, Create, Share, and Grow;connections between the AASL Standards and other sets of national and content-area standards, highlighting opportunities to approach content area educators with collaboration ideas;tips and a template for getting started developing your own collaborative opportunities; andnumerous additional resources to aid in personalization.This tool will support school librarians and other educators working together as they strive to deliver and design creative, personalized, and authentic learning experiences using the AASL Standards.

Books for lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer/questioning, asexual, and intersex readers and their allies continue to thrive and evolve in reflection of the variety of families and individual identities today. Deemed "an essential purchase" in a starred review by School Library Journal, this matchless guide returns in an updated edition. The authors highlight the best in LGBTQIA lit for young people while also addressing urgent topics such as the rise in book challenges. Offering library workers and teachers the information and tools they need to build a diverse, inclusive collection and confidently share it with the patrons they support, this resource provides hundreds of annotated book entries, complete with author and illustrator, publisher, date of publication, descriptions of each book’s LGBTQIA representation, and helpful prompts to foster discussion; surveys the current censorship push against books with LGBTQIA topics, themes, and characters, discussing its effect on young people and how to deal with objections and book challenges head on; includes interviews with noted authors that explain not only why they write for children, but what they feel librarians and teachers should understand when working with queer children and their classmates; spotlights picture books for young children that depict kids, parents, and families with a variety of gender and sexual dynamics; introduces books for middle-grade readers, focusing on titles with young people who are questioning and finding themselves while searching for where they belong; shares books for teens that range from stories touching on mental health and other issues that develop as youth start high school to others that explore housing insecurity and other concerns that impact older teens; and shares ideas for programming and marketing, advice on outreach to stakeholders, and best practices for supporting LGBTQIA students.