Books That Make You Celebrate Pride Month
June is Pride Month, bringing with it an especially poignant and timely message this year as many books with LGBTQ+ themes, history, and messages are among those on banned-book lists.
That’s why we spoke to Lee Wind about Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill: The Podcast, which will drop thirty-six episodes in June 2023 – both a celebration of Pride and a response to the banning of Queer books, history, and information for teens now sweeping the US.
Lee Wind holds a Master’s degree in education from Harvard, and writes stories to empower kids and teens to be their authentic selves and change the world – the same books that would have changed his life as a young, gay Jewish kid.
Outside of writing, he works for the Independent Book Publishers Association as their Director of Education and Programs, and for the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators as their official blogger. He is the organizer of the Queer Kid Lit Creators community, and runs the popular blog I’m Here. I’m Queer. What the Hell Do I Read? – words his teenage self only dreamed of saying.
Upcoming titles include The Gender Binary is a Big Lie (Zest/Lerner), the YA novel A Different Kind of Brave (Duet/Chicago Review Press), and the inspired-by-Queer-History picture book Love of the Half-Eaten Peach (Reycraft). Lee lives in Los Angeles with his husband of more than 25 years, and they have a grown daughter. Visit Lee online at leewind.org
