The Heart Has Its Reasons

Overview

The Heart Has Its Reasons is a 2006 reference work by Michael Cart and Christine A. Jenkins on young adult literature with gay, lesbian, and queer content from 1969 through 2004. It is not a children's story; its value in the collection is structural. The book supplies chronology, categories, evaluation criteria, bibliography, and field history for many of the YA titles around it. Its model of Homosexual Visibility, Gay Assimilation, and Queer Consciousness/Community gives collection users a way to ask how books represent queer lives, not only whether representation is present. Placed near Annie on My Mind, I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip, Baby Be-Bop, and other YA records, it becomes an interpretive instrument for the collection.^[2][3][4][5]

A Field Model

The book's central importance lies in its model for reading the field. Publisher and review sources describe a structure that traces gay, lesbian, and queer YA literature through categories such as Homosexual Visibility, Gay Assimilation, and Queer Consciousness/Community. Those categories are not neutral labels to impose automatically on every collection item, but they are historically useful. They show how two major critics organized literary representation, audience, identity, and community across several decades of young adult publishing. The categories also help prevent a flat yes-or-no treatment of representation by asking what kind of literary and social work a title performs.^[2][5]

1969 To 2004

The date range gives the record a strong chronological function. Beginning in 1969 places John Donovan's I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip near the start of the survey; ending in 2004 marks the state of the field before many later mainstream and post-marriage-equality titles. This helps the collection distinguish first-wave YA visibility, 1980s lesbian romance, 1990s queer community narratives, and early-2000s field consolidation. The reference work therefore helps map time, not only content.^[2][17][16]

Bibliography As A Tool

The local record notes secondary sources, an index, and several bibliographic apparatuses. Library and publisher records confirm bibliographical references and index material. That apparatus is part of the object's public value. For researchers, bibliographies do more than list books; they reveal what counted as a field, which titles were grouped together, and which critical questions were available at the time. This makes the item useful for a web application that will later expose connections between books. That makes the reference work a practical bridge between research notes and future interactive collection navigation.^[1][3][6][8]

Cart And Jenkins

Michael Cart and Christine A. Jenkins bring different forms of authority to the work: YA literature criticism, library work, and scholarship in library and information science. Public author records place them inside professional debates about youth reading and LGBTQ literature. Their collaboration matters because the book is both evaluative and bibliographic. It does not simply celebrate representation; it names failures, outdated titles, careful books, stereotypes, and shifts in literary strategy. Their later collaboration confirms that the 2006 volume was part of a continuing effort to describe a changing YA field.^{[2][10][7][11]}

Timeline

1. 1969Survey beginsThe book's scope begins with the period associated with early YA gay-content fiction.^[2][5]
2. 1982Annie contextAnnie on My Mind falls within the field chronology covered by Cart and Jenkins.^[16]
3. 2004Survey endpointThe subtitle names 2004 as the endpoint of the book's survey.^[2]
4. 2006PublicationScarecrow Press published The Heart Has Its Reasons.^[2][3]
5. 2008Rainbow selectionALA's Rainbow Project selected the title.^[4]
6. 2018Later continuationCart and Jenkins later extended the field discussion in Representing the Rainbow.^[11]
7. 1996Bibliography companionOut of the Closet and Into the Classroom provides a reference-work comparison for books for young people more broadly.^[18]
8. 2003Library-access projectClyde's IFLA/IASL work continued bibliography and access questions later relevant to Cart and Jenkins.^[19][20]

Reference Framework

The record situates the work as an intellectual tool for reading the YA side of the collection.

Citation

The Heart Has Its Reasons. Michael Cart and Christine A. Jenkins. Scarecrow Press, 2006. Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection, Mechanics' Institute. Collection ID: KB-169.

Sources

Cover image from Open Library.

1. Local collection catalog record for The Heart Has Its Reasons · catalog
2. Open Library ISBN record for The Heart Has Its Reasons · library
3. UNT library record for The Heart Has Its Reasons · library
4. ALA Rainbow Project page for The Heart Has Its Reasons · award
5. Project Muse review record for The Heart Has Its Reasons · review
6. CiNii record for The Heart Has Its Reasons · library
7. Google Books record for The Heart Has Its Reasons · library
8. Open Library ISBN record for The Heart Has Its Reasons · library
9. Open Library search for The Heart Has Its Reasons · library
10. University of Illinois profile for Christine Jenkins · creator
11. Google Books search for Representing the Rainbow · library
12. Open Library cover image for The Heart Has Its Reasons · image
13. Existing v3 record for Heather Has Two Mommies · internal
14. Existing v3 record for And Tango Makes Three · internal
15. Existing v3 record for When Megan Went Away · internal
16. Existing v3 record for Annie on My Mind · internal
17. Existing v3 record for I'll Get There. It Better Be Worth the Trip · internal
18. Trove/National Library of Australia record for Out of the Closet and Into the Classroom · library
19. ERIC record for Clyde and Lobban access paper · scholarship
20. IASL proceedings paper by Laurel Clyde · scholarship
21. Open Library search for Out of the Closet and Into the Classroom · library
22. Open Library search for Out of the Closet and Into the Classroom · library
23. Google Books search for Out of the Closet and Into the Classroom · library