Book Review: Pride: Celebrating Diversity & Community by Robin Stevenson

Publisher’s description

For LGBTQ people and their supporters, Pride events are an opportunity to honor the past, protest injustice, and celebrate a diverse and vibrant community. The high point of Pride, the Pride Parade, is spectacular and colorful. But there is a whole lot more to Pride than rainbow flags and amazing outfits. How did Pride come to be? And what does Pride mean to the people who celebrate it?

Amanda’s thoughts

First of all, let’s talk age groups. This is a great primer for kids ages 9-12. I plan to pass it along to my 4th grade son, whose favorite book is GEORGE by Alex Gino. Teens will certainly learn a lot from this book (as would adults looking for a quick crash course in LGBTQ issues), but I’d say its intended audience is more the middle school set.

This is a visually appealing, quick, and thorough look at Pride parades and celebrations, how they came to be, and what they celebrate. Stevenson covers large pieces of history and movements in accessible ways, often throwing in her own personal stories, which lend themselves to a conversational tone. The pages are covered in large, vibrant, fantastic pictures from celebrations, parades, and marches from all over the world. Pull-out quotes, smaller pictures on the sides, and text boxes with Queer Facts adorn the pages, providing extra information and helping break up the longer sections of information.

Stevenson looks at the history of discrimination, abuse, laws, resistance, fighting back, organizations (like The Mattachine Society and Daughters of Bilitis), demonstrations for basic civil rights, and the Lavender Scare of the 50s and 60s. She highlights activists, looks at changing policy and attitudes, covers the Stonewall Riot, and looks at the new groups, rallies, and marches that grew from that. She also often notes the sexism, racism, and classism within the movement and the additional discrimination and struggle many groups faced. She examines the roles of youths in various movements and looks at high school-based activism. Other chapters look at the rise of Queer Nation, marriage equality, PFLAG, community and subgroups within the community, coming out, acronyms, and pronouns. Short sections detail stories of teens coming out, trans kid, and LGBTQ families. As the title promises, Stevenson looks at Pride parades, the politics of Pride, intersectional activism and considerations, and symbols commonly seen at Pride. She includes sections here on drag queens and kings, dyke marches, trans marches, and alternative pride marches. Finally, she looks at rights, activism, and pride all around the world, covering many countries. A glossary, resources, and an index round out this title.

As you can see, Stevenson covers a lot of ground in this book. She gives just enough information to explain the significance of an event or idea without bogging young readers down with too much information. Is there a lot more to say about every single subject covered here? Of course. But this book is an excellent resource for the younger set. It gives a quick but thorough look at LGBTQ history (mainly in North America) from the 1950s on and really does focus on the activism, community, and celebration of not just Pride but the LGBTQ movement as a whole. This book is an excellent and necessary addition for all collections. Buy Stevenson’s book and pair it with Gay & Lesbian History for Kids by Jerome Pohlen, which is great for the 12 and up crew. 

Review copy courtesy of the author and publisher

ISBN-13: 9781459809932

Publisher: Orca Book Publishers

Publication date: 04/19/2016

Filed under: Book Reviews