“I recommend And Tango Makes Three. It’s a sweet book, based on true events, about two male penguins who hatch an egg and raise a chick together. Everyone should read it because penguins will make you happy. On a more serious note, children’s books with LGBTQ+ characters and themes disproportionately end up on these banned books lists. Professor Rachel Skrlac Lo in the Department of Education & Counseling, some of whose research looks at the representation of families in children’s literature, has written about the idea of epistemic justice– that not only is it important for children to see their own families represented in the books they read– but that having their classmates and communities be familiar with and welcoming of different family configurations means that they have equitable access to learning and social environments and experiences. See, for example,: Lo, R. S. (2016). On listening to children: Family variation in an after-school reading club. Language Arts, 94(2), 147.  Bonus penguin content: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/01/15/style/gay-penguins-australia.html“—Deborah Bishov, Subject Librarian for Communication, Education & Counseling, and Russian Studies, on her must read selection for Banned Books Week