Lesbian and Gay Voices

Overview

Lesbian and Gay Voices: An Annotated Bibliography and Guide to Literature for Children and Young Adults is Frances A. Day’s 2000 reference work from Greenwood Press. In this collection, it is not a storybook but a research tool. Its value lies in helping readers see how LGBTQ children’s and young adult literature was organized, evaluated, indexed, and made teachable at the turn of the twenty-first century. Publisher records describe Nancy Garden’s foreword, evaluation guidelines, genre-arranged annotations, author profiles, appendices, bibliography, and indexes. The book received an ALA Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Book Award Honor, making it both a guide to the field and a recognized object within that field.^{[11][12][13][14]}

Reference Object

This item should be read differently from the picture books and novels around it. It does not represent a family in narrative form; it tells librarians, teachers, parents, and researchers how to locate and evaluate materials that do. That makes it a map of the collection’s subject area. A visitor can use it to understand genre categories, author profiles, indexes, and the kinds of questions people asked when selecting LGBTQ books for young readers.^[11][14]

Nancy Garden’s Foreword

Publisher records identify Nancy Garden as the foreword writer. That matters because Garden was both a creator of LGBTQ young adult fiction and a public commentator on the field’s development. Her presence connects the reference work to Annie on My Mind and to the broader history of LGBTQ youth literature. The foreword gives the book more than bibliographic utility; it ties the guide to a writer whose own work shaped the category being described.^[11][15][16]

Evaluation And Selection

The guide’s evaluation guidelines are central to its collection value. LGBTQ children’s books were often debated not only as stories, but as materials to be selected, defended, cataloged, challenged, and taught. A reference work that gives selection criteria documents that institutional labor. It helps the public see that accessibility depends on guides, bibliographies, indexes, and professional judgment as much as on the existence of the books themselves. The guide makes that labor visible.^[11][14][13]

Frances A. Day

Bloomsbury’s author page identifies Frances A. Day as a teacher and workshop leader whose work included Latino children’s literature and multicultural bibliography. That context matters because Lesbian and Gay Voices sits near her broader investment in literature, identity, and classroom access. The title is therefore not only a list of books. It is part of a professional practice of helping adults choose and discuss literature for children and young adults across identity categories.^[12][11]

Timeline

1. 1982Annie on My MindGarden’s YA novel later becomes a key context for the guide’s foreword.^[16]
2. 1995Pride PackYA LGBTQ mysteries appear within the field Day later organizes.^[2][4]
3. 2000PublicationGreenwood Press publishes Lesbian and Gay Voices.^[11]
4. 2001ALA honorThe guide receives an ALA Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, and Transgendered Book Award Honor.^[13]
5. 2000sProfessional useLibrary scholarship later cites Day’s work in evaluation contexts.^[14]
6. 2010sField memoryInterviews and memorial contexts continue to frame Garden’s role in LGBTQ YA history.^[15][16]

Citation

Lesbian and Gay Voices. Frances A. Day. Greenwood Press, 2000. Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection, Mechanics' Institute. Collection ID: KB-173.

Sources

Cover image from Open Library.

1. Local collection catalog record for Lesbian and Gay Voices · catalog
2. Open Library work record for Who Framed Lorenzo Garcia? · library
3. Internet Archive metadata for Who Framed Lorenzo Garcia? · library
4. Open Library work record for The Case of the Missing Mother · library
5. Internet Archive metadata for The Case of the Missing Mother · library
6. Lambda Literary Review on Pride Pack reissues · review
7. Nancy Garden, ALAN Review article · scholarship
8. Simon & Schuster author page for Ruth Sims · publisher
9. KQED Castro resource guide · bibliography
10. Publishers Weekly profile of Alyson Books · trade
11. Bloomsbury record for Lesbian and Gay Voices · publisher
12. Bloomsbury author page for Frances A. Day · publisher
13. ALA GLBT Book Award record · award
14. Children and Libraries article citing Day · scholarship
15. Cynthia Leitich Smith interview with Nancy Garden · interview
16. ALA Edwards Award release for Nancy Garden · award