LGBT Community Book by Ryan Heller

An inspiring memoir by Ryan Heller, King of Stars is the journey of a young boy balancing worlds of light and dark as he discovers himself by losing himself along the way. A modern coming of age story, King of Stars shines light on the uncomfortable. We consider the limited chapter book options with lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) characters available for upper elementary readers. While these texts all include one or more LGBT character(s), the overall representations of LGBT people and issues highlight particular normative identities and silence others. We are concerned that these representations reify neoliberal ideas about sexuality's relationship to race and class, and encourage gay assimilation into normative but problematic, nonequitable institutions. Yet we also believe that an analysis of books focusing only on representations of LGBT characters identities limits the queer potential of texts. Shop for self-help book online at best prices at https://ryanheller.com/product/king-of-stars/