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Mechanics' Institute

Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection

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Cover of Girl Goddess #9.

Cover image from Open Library.

Image source

Girl Goddess #9

Creator

Francesca Lia Block

Date

Published 1996

Format

Book

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

Queer young adult fictionFrancesca Lia BlockCoded and explicit LGBT representationCensorship and accessFamily and gender
Contact About AccessBack to catalog

Overview

Girl Goddess #9 is Francesca Lia Block's 1996 HarperCollins / Joanna Cotler Books short-story collection. The local catalog identifies two stories as especially relevant: one involving a girl, her mother, her mother's lover, and a transgender parent revelation, and another involving a boyfriend coming out. Reviews and library records place the book within Block's magical-realist, Los Angeles-inflected young adult fiction. Its value in the collection is direct but complex: it is not a picture book about same-sex parents, yet it includes family, gender, sexuality, and adolescent recognition in a form that broadens the collection's map beyond early-childhood representation. It is strongest when paired with Baby Be-Bop and Block's wider queer-YA context.[7][11][1]

A Francesca Lia Block Cluster

The two Block records are strongest as a creator cluster. Girl Goddess #9 gives the collection direct family and gender material, while Baby Be-Bop gives a more famous queer-YA and censorship trail. Reading them together prevents either item from being miscast. Baby Be-Bop should not be stretched into a gay-parenting book, and Girl Goddess #9 should not be isolated from the creator network that makes its themes legible. The cluster shows how 1990s young adult fiction handled sexuality, family, and identity beyond picture-book forms.[7][2][11][1]

Magical Realism And Queer Adolescence

Block's public reputation rests partly on her lyrical, magical-realist approach to Los Angeles adolescence. Reviews of these books do not describe conventional problem novels. They describe stories where fantasy, memory, danger, style, and emotional extremity shape a young person's self-understanding. That form matters for the collection. It shows a different strategy from classroom picture books or family-diversity concept books. Queer identity appears through voice, atmosphere, desire, fear, and transformation as much as through explicit social explanation.[3][8][9][11]

Family And Gender In Girl Goddess #9

Girl Goddess #9 supplies the more direct collection relevance. The local catalog points to a story involving two mothers and a transgender parent revelation, along with another story in which a boyfriend comes out. Public reviews and library records support the book's identity as a short-story collection and place it in Block's broader field. The public record should handle older terminology carefully. The point is not to make the story a contemporary model, but to show how gender, sexuality, and family were being imagined in mid-1990s YA fiction.[1][7][8][9]

Baby Be-Bop And Access Conflict

Baby Be-Bop has the stronger censorship afterlife. ALA and NCAC records document the West Bend library dispute, where Block's queer YA became part of a public fight over youth access to LGBTQ books. That access history makes the item valuable even though it does not depict gay parents. It gives the collection a way to connect family-representation books with broader debates over queer adolescence, libraries, public pressure, and whether young readers could encounter LGBTQ interior life on library shelves.[4][5][2]

Timeline

  1. 1989Weetzie Bat beginsYALSA's Edwards context places Block's Weetzie Bat books at the start of the creator trail.[11]
  2. 1995Baby Be-BopBaby Be-Bop appeared from HarperCollins / Joanna Cotler Books.[2][3]
  3. 1996Girl Goddess #9Girl Goddess #9 appeared as a HarperCollins short-story collection.[7][8][9]
  4. 1996Lambda award contextLambda Literary records preserve award context around Baby Be-Bop.[6]
  5. 1998Dangerous Angels packagingPublishers Weekly reported Harper's effort to introduce Block's work to a wider audience.[10]
  6. 2005Edwards AwardYALSA gave Block the Margaret A. Edwards Award for the first five Weetzie Bat books.[11]
  7. 2009West Bend challengeALA and NCAC documented the West Bend library challenge involving Baby Be-Bop.[4][5]
  8. 2026Collection synthesisThe two Block records are being treated as a creator cluster rather than separate gay-parenting pages.[1]

Block Queer-YA Context

The two records are strongest as a creator cluster connecting family, gender, queer adolescence, and access conflict.

1995

Baby Be-Bop

Gay teen novel with later censorship history.

1996

Girl Goddess #9

Story collection with family and gender relevance.

2009

West Bend challenge

Public-library access dispute involving Baby Be-Bop.

Explore Connections

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

Linked records

Same creator cluster

Baby Be-Bop

The two Block records are strongest together as a creator and queer-YA context cluster.

References [7][2]

Queer YA benchmark

Annie on My Mind

Annie gives an earlier queer-YA comparison for adolescent sexuality and public access.

References [12]

Coded family YA

Libby on Wednesday

Libby connects young adult fiction, family coding, and collection provenance.

References [14]

Lesbian-mother comparison

Holly's Secret

Holly's Secret offers a clearer lesbian-mother secrecy comparison within youth fiction.

References [15]

Shared themes

Queer young adult fiction

Baby Be-Bop

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

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 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.

1996

My Dad Has HIV

A children's health explainer about a child whose father is living with HIV, published at a turning point in HIV treatment history.

Citation

Girl Goddess #9. Francesca Lia Block. HarperCollins / Joanna Cotler Books, 1996. Tarpey-Schwed LGBT Families Children's Book Special Collection, Mechanics' Institute. Collection ID: KB-188.

Showing Plain text citation format.

Sources

Cover image from Open Library.

  1. Local collection catalog record for Girl Goddess #9 · catalog
  2. Open Library ISBN record for Baby Be-Bop · library
  3. Kirkus review of Baby Be-Bop · review
  4. ALA report on West Bend library challenge · access
  5. NCAC record of West Bend library fight · access
  6. Lambda Literary Awards 1995 results · award
  7. Open Library ISBN record for Girl Goddess #9 · library
  8. Kirkus review of Girl Goddess #9 · review
  9. Publishers Weekly review of Girl Goddess #9 · review
  10. Publishers Weekly report on Harper introducing Francesca Lia Block to a wider audience · news
  11. YALSA 2005 Margaret A. Edwards Award page · ala
  12. Open Library work record for Annie on My Mind · library
  13. Open Library record for Heather Has Two Mommies · library
  14. Open Library work record for Libby on Wednesday · library
  15. Open Library record for Holly's Secret · library