An informative look at the history of pride celebrations and LBGTQ rights movement. Canadian focused, this work also looks at rights around the world. Short chapters peppered with many colored pictures. It did feel a bit like the book would circle back on topics. ( )

Concise, thorough primer on the LGBT community and the history of Pride. This is a great resource for kids and teens (and, heck, adults looking to learn a bit more). And... okay, I'm biased as a former homeschooled kid, but the mention of GSAs in home-learning groups warmed my heart. ( )

Being familiar with Robin Stevenson's work, and the work of the publisher (Orca Books), I was utterly thrilled to see this book announced. I was so excited to receive a copy for LibraryThing's Early Reviewers program. And I can't believe I've been so remiss in posting my review.

Despite my existing predisposition toward the book and author, I really enjoyed this book. As an adult reader, I learned tons of stuff not taught to me in school. I also appreciated how the book didn't gloss over the bad stuff, or lay blame and judgement. The facts were presented as neutrally as possible, and I think PRIDE did an excellent job at depicting this difficult and emotional history. I learned about history without having guilt unnecessarily burdened upon the wrong-doers.

Along with a difficult history, PRIDE also presented a sense of resilience and celebration. For young readers, reenforcing these points is so important; the struggles aren't just in the past, they are current and they are future, but they don't have to be dire.

Highly recommended read—for parents and children and teachers. Read together, discuss, let's help make the world a better place. ( )

Pride
*Pride, Celebrating Diversity and Community,* by Robin Stevenson (Orca Books) is geared to middle readers (8-12). I would suppose it would be perfect for a preteen who is becoming aware of LGBT relatives or even preteens who becoming aware that they are lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender. I would be remiss in my review if I didn’t note that I, someone who was seven when the Stonewall Riots happened, actually learned something from this book.

No fooling. It wasn’t something that happened in the last year or two that had slipped my attention, but the origins of gay-straight alliances, which Stevenson notes started at George Washington High School in New York City in 1972. She further cites a 1976 pamphlet from the Youth Liberation Front (her research and scope is impeccable) which exhorted gay teens to come out, a message that still needs to be heard today by people who have left their high school days behind.

Look, I understand. I started high school in 1976 and my recollections are not of an affirming space for LGBT youth (I got called “fag” by my classmates…a lot). I am not telling teens that they should come out; I’m telling everyone else that teens ought to be able to come out. I would have been horrified at though being found with with a pamphlet that said:
>”Now it is up to us, the gay students, to have the courage to come out, so that we can help our gay brothers and sisters, as well as ourselves.”

Honestly, that’s a lot to ask of a gay teen, particularly in 1976. Stevenson takes the history of the gay rights movement from Stonewall, a story that everyone should know, and brings things forward to the current day. In this, she covers the community’s struggles for which Pride has been a chance to get together and remind ourselves that we can meet our goals. Pride parades were only a decade old when the LGBT community had to face the AIDS crisis. On a happier note, she also covered the marriage marriage equality movement.

*Pride* was published in Canada, and that’s a good thing, because though the Stonewall Riots happened in New York (with other protests and disturbances happening elsewhere at about the same time), Pride doesn’t belong to New York City or even the United States. She ends the book with a look at Pride around the world, because it’s become a global phenomenon. She does not cover Iceland where Pride has become arts festival celebrated by just about everyone (Iceland has fewer than 500,000 citizens).

But that’s a quibble. This book is packed with so much great information that it seems unfair to fault a 119-page book for not being exhaustive. Someone could create a massive tome, with little room for pictures (*Pride* is lavishly illustrated with photos and other materials), but how would you get the intended audience to read it?

In the forty-six years since the first Pride march, there have been far too many people who have wished that Pride marches would just go away and the LGBT community would slink back into the closet. Not gonna happen. Stevenson makes it clear in her book that this is a community and it one with a global reach. Her book is a great way to learn more about our community. It’s a great book, even if you’re not LGBT. Or Canadian.

Stevenson's book is an utter delight and should be in the hands of middle readers everywhere, whether it is is in their school libraries or (better yet) their homes. ( )

Essentially a middle-school-level textbook structured around Pride celebrations, this provides a concise but strong grounding in LGBTQ history and contemporary LGBTQ cultures, for kids who may have no personal connection to the LGBTQ community, or who know LGBT adults, or are themselves queer or questioning. Stevenson doesn't talk down to her audience, at times tackling tough subjects like oppression, AIDS, and struggle within the LGBTQ community. She maintains a broad perspective with emphasis on the roles young people may play, buttressed by interspersed personal stories (including her own) and a survey of LGBTQ experience in countries beyond the US and her native Canada. This is clearly a labor of love, as seems to be the focus of the publisher, but Stevenson and her editorial support have maintained a high standard to tell the LGBTQ story with as much candor and integrity as the book possibly can.