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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

Sarah Prager
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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.

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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.
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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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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.
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