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6 children’s picture books with LGBTQ+ love stories for Valentine’s Day

Share these stories about love with your kids

These sweet love stories for kids ages 2-8 tell about crushes, weddings, and other romantic tales between LGBTQ+ people. Love is love and cute Valentine’s stories for kids are all the same, whether the love is between two puppies, a boy and a girl, or two girls. All these picture books are the standard 32-40 pages with lots of illustrations and a small amount of text. Celebrate this Valentine’s Day with your children through LGBTQ+ kids’ books about love and an inclusive bookshelf!

From Archie to Zack

Archie has a crush on Zack and Zack has a crush on Archie, but neither of them is saying anything. Archie tries to write a letter to Zack to tell him how he feels, but it’s not coming out right. Will they ever find out how they feel? Written and illustrated by Vincent X. Kirsch.

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Cinderelliot: A Scrumptious Fairytale

This two-boy spin on the classic Cinderella fairy tale will delight anyone who enjoys baking. A fairy godfather and step-siblings complete the gender-bending of the tale that focuses on a cake-baking contest instead of a ball. Written by Mark Ceilley and Rachel Smoka-Richardson, illustrated by Stephanie Laberis.

Love, Violet

This is a sweet Valentine’s-themed book where Violet wants to give the perfect Valentine to Mira but gets shy when the moment arrives. This book won the coveted Stonewall Book Award from the American Library Association in 2023. Written by Charlotte Sullivan Wild, illustrated by Charlene Chua.

Prince & Knight

A prince’s parents set out to find him a princess, but he can’t find what he’s looking for. While fighting off a dragon, a knight who comes to help turns out to be just what he wanted. Written by Daniel Haack, illustrated by Stevie Lewis.

Uncle Bobby’s Wedding

This widely acclaimed book tells the story of young Chloe, who’s concerned about her uncle marrying a man. Not because he is marrying another man, but because she is worried he won’t have as much attention for her anymore. She finds she is actually gaining a second uncle — more love instead of less. Written by Sarah S. Brannen, illustrated by Lucia Soto.

Worm Loves Worm

These two gender-neutral worms want to get married, but who will be the groom and who will be the bride? They show that it doesn’t matter, because they just want to get married, no matter how things have always been done. Written by J.J. Austrian, illustrated by Mike Curato.

A mother reading her young child a bedtime story

Whether your kids are LGBTQ+, have LGBTQ+ parents or other family members, or have LGBTQ+ friends or teachers, or you’re raising them to be inclusive, kind, open-minded, and educated community members, these picture books make all kinds of representation normal. The stories stand on their own, no matter the gender of the characters. These six LGBTQ+ kids’ books about love are perfect for Valentine’s Day.

Editors' Recommendations

These books will teach your toddler to talk about their feelings
Toddler having a grumpy day? Sit down and read all about it
Girl with glasses holding book

It's hard enough for grown-ups to talk about their feelings. Asking a toddler to understand and cohesively express complicated emotions is a bit of a lofty request. At times, it can feel like a completely futile one. Happiness, sadness, excitement, and nervousness are more than just vocabulary words for a little one to learn. These are emotions that have real mental and physical manifestations in kids and adults. They can make our hearts race, our palms sweat, and our tears fall. It's not easy for toddlers to wrap their little brains around how feelings impact their bodies and minds. It's confusing, to say the least. Adults are still trying to fully understand their emotions.
One way to help your little one process their feelings and find the right words to use when expressing them is through reading. Nothing puts things into perspective like a little parent-child story-time session. So, curl up together on the couch, cuddle in, and calmly flip through a few sweet, silly, and meaningful books that seek to define and describe how our feelings affect everything we do.
Not sure what children's books make for a great read on the subject of feelings? We've rounded up 10 toddler books about feelings to help you teach your child to channel and express their emotions in a productive way. Whether your tyke is going through a difficult behavioral stage, exploring new friendships, or struggling with change, these feeling books for toddlers can help your kiddos identify and navigate all those confounding emotions and hard-to-articulate thoughts going through their heads.

Best feeling books for toddlers
Reading to kids is a great way to spend quality time and help them down the road to becoming a lifelong reader. It's also a perfect pick for teaching toddlers about their feelings. Add these feeling books to your library for bedtime or anytime reads.
Lots of Feelings, by Shelly Rotner
A picture is worth a thousand words, especially when you're trying to explain a difficult concept to a child. This is one of our favorite books about emotions for toddlers. It offers real-life photographs of children to show the facial expressions that accompany common feelings. It's a great way to give kiddos visual cues to help them express their feelings and decode those of the people around them.

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7 stellar picture books about LGBTQ+ history to help educate your kids
Help kids learn about LGBTQ history with these amazing picture books
Kind Like Marsha and Pride books

LGBTQ+ history may sound like a grown-up topic at first to some parents, but it's actually very accessible with these picture books. Just like women's history or Black history, it's about sharing the stories of inspiring historical figures in age-appropriate ways. Skilled authors sharing identity, joy, pride, and courage will enhance your children's educational foundation and open-mindedness for interacting with all kinds of friends and families.

Before the 2010s, no books on LGBTQ+ history existed for children. Today, there are over fifty. We've combed through them to bring you the very best picture books we recommend for sharing with kids ages three to nine in honor of LGBTQ+ History Month, celebrated in October in the U.S.

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7 great kids’ books featuring LGBTQ+ characters to add to your child’s bookshelf
Three kids sitting and reading books

Children learn about the world through many avenues, but one in their life every day is the books they read at home. The more diverse the representation in these books, the more their minds will be ready to accept anyone they meet. Millions of children have LGBTQ+ family members or are LGBTQ+ themselves, so kids of any identity should see these kids reflected in their books.

You may need to go out of your way to make sure your bookshelf is appropriately diverse, but this list makes finding those titles easy. Each one of these picture books for babies through elementary school students has one or more LGBTQ+ characters woven into a story that makes a great book on its own. They don't take an educational tone, but rather share engaging and colorful tales that any child will love -- while also happening to incorporate LGBTQ+ people.
A Plan for Pops

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