Skip to main content
Mechanics' Institute

Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection

Contact Mechanics' Institute
Out of the Closet and Into the Classroom
Image pending

Out of the Closet and Into the Classroom

Creator

Laurel A. Clyde and Marjorie Lobban

Date

1996 revised edition

Format

Collection Context

A revised bibliography and reference work on homosexuality-related books for young people.

BibliographyBooks for young peopleHomosexuality in juvenile fictionLibrary accessSelection tools
Contact About AccessBack to catalog

Overview

Out of the Closet and Into the Classroom is a 1996 revised reference work by Laurel A. Clyde and Marjorie Lobban, published by ALIA/Thorpe. The National Library of Australia records it as the second edition of a bibliography first issued in 1992. Its collection value is methodological. The book gathers and organizes fiction for young people with homosexuality-related themes, characters, and issues, and its appendices classify titles by character role, chronology, author sex, and other categories. For this collection, it helps explain how librarians and teachers could locate books about gay and lesbian lives before search interfaces and LGBTQ children's-literature bibliographies became common. It is a reference object about access, selection, and field formation. Its lack of a verified public cover image makes the reference value, not visual display, the center of the current record.[2][3][5][4]

Bibliography As Access

The work is best understood as an access tool. A bibliography can make books findable for librarians, teachers, parents, and researchers, especially when subject headings and public catalogs are uneven. Clyde and Lobban's project names and organizes a field that could otherwise remain scattered. For a collection interface, that matters because the same problem recurs digitally: users need pathways through titles, themes, identities, age ranges, and public histories, not only an alphabetical list. The item therefore belongs near books about access and selection as much as near the titles it describes.[2][5][4]

From 1992 To 1996

The National Library of Australia identifies the collection item as a second edition and notes the earlier 1992 publication. The revised-edition status matters because it shows expansion. Local catalog notes describe seventy-four additional titles in the 1996 edition; that claim needs confirmation against the held copy, but it fits the wider evidence of a rapidly growing field. A revised bibliography is not simply an updated book. It is evidence that the corpus itself was changing and needed remapping.[2][7][1]

Young People, Not Only Young Children

The title and local note can easily be narrowed too far. Public records and project descriptions indicate books for young people broadly, including adolescent fiction and picture books about families. That breadth is valuable. It lets the reference work sit between the collection's picture-book core and its YA titles. It also helps explain why a single bibliography might include books about gay parents, books with homosexual background characters, and adolescent novels about identity or desire. That broad scope is also why the title can connect picture books, adolescent novels, and professional selection debates.[3][4][2]

Categories And Appendices

The appendices are part of the intellectual object. Project abstracts describe categories such as homosexual main characters, background characters, character sex, author sex, chronological arrangement, and title counts. These categories may now feel period-specific, but they are historically useful because they show how the field was made legible to librarians and educators. For the future collection graph, this record can inform subgenres and connections without forcing every book into one rigid taxonomy. Those historical categories can inform later graph design while still allowing the final web app to use gentler public labels.[3][5][1][2]

Timeline

  1. 1989Project beginningClyde's later writings describe the project as beginning in 1989.[4][5]
  2. 1992First editionLibrary records identify a 1992 first edition.[2][8]
  3. 1996Second editionThe collection record and NLA metadata identify the 1996 second edition.[1][2]
  4. 1996Review noticeA Scan notice records the 1996 edition in a library/education review context.[7]
  5. 2001Access article contextLater Clyde/Lobban work discussed whether libraries provided access to relevant fiction.[6]
  6. 2003Project paperIFLA/IASL project papers continued the access and bibliography discussion.[5][4]
  7. 2006YA reference companionThe Heart Has Its Reasons later mapped gay, lesbian, and queer YA literature from 1969 through 2004.[18]
  8. 2008Rainbow reference contextALA's Rainbow Project selected The Heart Has Its Reasons, showing a later professional recognition pathway for reference work.[20]

Bibliography Project

The edition trail shows a field expanding quickly enough to need revision.

1989

Project begins

Later project papers describe the bibliography work beginning in 1989.

1992

First edition

ALIA/Thorpe first issued the bibliography.

1996

Second edition

The collection item is the revised second edition.

Explore Connections

Browse direct links, shared themes, and nearby publication dates.

Linked records

Reference companion

The Heart Has Its Reasons

Both records model LGBTQ literature for young readers through reference categories and bibliography.

References [2][18]

Early picture-book chronology

When Megan Went Away

The bibliography helps contextualize early lesbian-parent picture books in a wider field of books for young people.

References [15][2]

Classroom recognition

Asha’s Mums

Asha's Mums shows a classroom recognition problem that bibliography and access tools help make findable.

References [1][4]

Political access history

Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin

Both records point toward the public and library-access consequences of books about gay and lesbian families.

References [15][5]

Shared themes

Library access

Daddy's Roommate

An early picture book about a child, his divorced parents, and his father's partner Frank.

Library access

The White Swan Express

A China-adoption picture book with multiple adopting families, including a lesbian couple, and a later Singapore library-access history.

Library access

And Tango Makes Three

A Simon & Schuster picture book based on two male chinstrap penguins at the Central Park Zoo and the chick they helped hatch.

Bibliography

The Heart Has Its Reasons

A reference work mapping young adult literature with gay, lesbian, and queer content from 1969 through 2004.

Nearby dates

Published 1996

Amy asks a question--Grandma, what's a lesbian?

A Mother Courage Press book that explains lesbian identity through a child's visit with her grandmothers.

First published 1996

Daddy’s Wedding

A pre-marriage-equality picture book about a boy attending his father and Frank’s commitment ceremony.

Published 1996

Girl Goddess #9

A Francesca Lia Block young adult record used to map queer adolescence, family, gender, and access history.

Published in this edition 1996

Is Your Family Like Mine?

An early picture book in which a child with two mothers asks classmates what makes a family.

Citation

Out of the Closet and Into the Classroom. Laurel A. Clyde and Marjorie Lobban. ALIA/Thorpe / D.W. Thorpe, 1996. Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection, Mechanics' Institute. Collection ID: KB-170.

Showing Plain text citation format.

Sources

  1. Local collection catalog record for Out of the Closet and Into the Classroom · catalog
  2. Trove/National Library of Australia record · library
  3. ERIC search record for Out of the Closet and Into the Classroom · scholarship
  4. IASL proceedings paper by Laurel Clyde · scholarship
  5. ERIC record for Clyde and Lobban access paper · scholarship
  6. ERIC PDF for Clyde and Lobban access paper · scholarship
  7. Scan 1996 review notice · review
  8. AbeBooks record for first edition context · bookseller
  9. Open Library search for Out of the Closet and Into the Classroom · library
  10. Open Library search for Out of the Closet and Into the Classroom · library
  11. Google Books search for Out of the Closet and Into the Classroom · library
  12. Trove search for Out of the Closet and Into the Classroom · library
  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. Open Library ISBN record for The Heart Has Its Reasons · library
  19. UNT library record for The Heart Has Its Reasons · library
  20. ALA Rainbow Project page for The Heart Has Its Reasons · award
  21. Open Library ISBN record for The Heart Has Its Reasons · library
  22. Open Library search for The Heart Has Its Reasons · library
  23. CiNii record for The Heart Has Its Reasons · library