Over the Rainbow: Queer Children's and Young Adult Literature

Overview

Over the Rainbow is a 2011 University of Michigan Press anthology edited by Michelle Ann Abate and Kenneth B. Kidd. It is not a storybook for children; it is an adult-facing scholarly reference work about queer children's and young adult literature. The table of contents organizes the book across canon studies, post-Stonewall youth literature, and queer readers and writers, while the collection record notes seventeen contributors and an index. The volume therefore helps the collection show how LGBTQ youth literature was being studied, sorted, and argued over by scholars by the early 2010s. Its value is connective: it can sit beside primary children's books, young adult novels, and bibliographic guides without collapsing those different kinds of evidence into one category.^[3][4][6][1]

Scholarly Field Map

The anthology's main collection role is to map a field rather than to represent a family story directly. Publisher and library records identify it as criticism, and the contents divide the volume into canon, post-Stonewall, and reader-writer sections. That architecture matters because it shows queer children's and young adult literature as a field with history, methods, disputes, and specialized contributors. The item helps readers understand why a collection of primary books also needs adult scholarly tools nearby.^[3][4][6]

Canon To Contemporary Reading

The table of contents moves from older literary canons to contemporary youth cultures. Chapters address Little Women, the Oz books, Harriet the Spy, A Separate Peace, young adult novels from 1969 to 1992, transchildren, Harry Potter fanfiction, and boys' love computer games. The range is useful evidence in itself. By 2011 queer youth-literature criticism was not limited to books already labeled LGBTQ; it also revisited canonical, popular, and digital forms through questions of reading practice and cultural context.^[4][5]

Contributor Structure

The collection record notes seventeen contributors, and the publisher contents show a multiauthor scholarly design. That structure differs from a single bibliography or author study. It brings together critics who use different periods and methods, from Claudia Nelson's sample chapter on British boys' magazine fiction to Christine Jenkins's historical chapter on young adult novels with gay and lesbian characters. The index and publication-history section further mark the book as a tool for research, teaching, and cross-reference.^[1][4][5]

Reference Shelf Role

Over the Rainbow belongs beside bibliographies and classroom guides because it explains the interpretive frameworks adults used to select, teach, and study queer youth literature. Out of the Closet and Into the Classroom and Lesbian and Gay Voices organize access, evaluation, and bibliography; this anthology adds a deeper critical layer. Together those records show that LGBTQ children's-book history is preserved not only through primary books, but also through the adult systems that named them, defended them, and analyzed them.^{[9][10][11][3]}

Timeline

1. 1969-1992Young adult history frameThe contents list Christine Jenkins's chapter on young adult novels with gay and lesbian characters and themes across this period.^[4]
2. 1979Earlier family-representation comparatorJenny Lives with Eric and Martin provides an earlier primary-book context for later scholarly discussion of queer family representation.^[16][17]
3. 1982Young adult landmarkAnnie on My Mind supplies a central YA-literature comparison for the anthology's age-band range.^[14][15]
4. 1989Heather contextHeather Has Two Mommies appears in the collection's two-mother family history and is named in an anthology chapter title.^[13][4]
5. 1992-1996Reference shelf contextOut of the Closet and Into the Classroom circulated as a school and library access resource in the wider reference shelf.^[9][10]
6. 2000Bibliographic companionLesbian and Gay Voices provides a nearby bibliography and evaluation context for queer youth literature.^[11][12]
7. 2011PublicationUniversity of Michigan Press published Over the Rainbow in hardcover and paperback records.^[3][6]
8. 2011Contents and sample chapterThe publisher made the table of contents and a sample chapter available, preserving the contributor structure.^[4][5]

Reference And Criticism Shelf

The item sits with adult-facing works that organize LGBTQ children's and young adult literature for research and selection.

Citation

Over the Rainbow: Queer Children's and Young Adult Literature. Edited by Michelle Ann Abate and Kenneth B. Kidd. University of Michigan Press, 2011. Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection, Mechanics' Institute. Collection ID: KB-172.

Sources

Cover image from University of Michigan Press.

1. Local collection catalog record for Over the Rainbow · catalog
2. Final pending packet 001 research dossier · internal
3. University of Michigan Press record for Over the Rainbow · publisher
4. University of Michigan Press table of contents PDF · publisher
5. University of Michigan Press sample chapter PDF · publisher
6. Google Books search for Over the Rainbow ISBN · library
7. Ohio State profile for Michelle Ann Abate · creator
8. Kenneth B. Kidd scholarly site · creator
9. Trove/National Library of Australia record for Out of the Closet and Into the Classroom · library
10. ERIC record for Out of the Closet and Into the Classroom · scholarship
11. Google Books search for Lesbian and Gay Voices ISBN · library
12. Children and Libraries article citing Frances A. Day · scholarship
13. Open Library record for Heather Has Two Mommies · library
14. Open Library work record for Annie on My Mind · library
15. YALSA Margaret Edwards Award page for Nancy Garden · award
16. Open Library work record for Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin · library
17. London Museum collection record for Jenny Lives with Eric and Martin · museum