A month or so ago I learned about Brent Taylor a gay teen blogger whose focus is on reviewing new LGBT young adult books over at his blog The Naughty Book Kitties. I was really inspired by his work, especially after learning about the response he received from a school librarian when seeking out LGBTQ teen books. She responded to his request by saying “This is a school library. If you are looking to read inappropriate titles, go to a book store.”
Books were one of the most important things to me when I was coming out as a teen. I still have the first LGBT teen book I bought – sneaking it out of the bookstore in my backpack and keeping it under my mattress until I left home when it was one of the things I packed. That book still lives on my bookshelf with it’s broken spine reminding me how important books were to me. In fact, just days after being kicked out I went to the library looking for a book to help me figure out how to live through this – and there was nothing. It was then that I pledged to myself that if I made it, I was going to make a book so that no other queer kid would feel alone – Kicked Out became the fulfillment of that promise.
I was thrilled that Brent was excited about Kicked Out and am thrilled that his site has posted a review of Kicked Out which you can read here, as well as an interview with me about my experiences and the process of creating Kicked Out which you can read here !