We Need Diverse Books!
Now, more than ever, it is important for readers both young and old to see themselves portrayed positively in media, the arts and in books.
We Need Diverse Books is an American non-profit that advocates for essential changes in the publishing industry to produce and promote literature that reflects and honours the lives of all young people. They recognise diversity as “including (but not limited to) LGBTQIA, people of colour, gender diversity, people with disabilities, and ethnic, cultural, and religious minorities”.
At Books Kinokuniya we believe that the life of the reader is enriched by access to, and the embracing of, a broad and varied range of stories and authors living different experiences. Join us in our celebration of Diverse Books by picking up something from a new author whose background is different to yours. Read about a few of our favourites below, but there are a myriad more! You can also head in store for a chat with our passionate, well-read booksellers and discover many others. We Need Diverse Books!
300,000 KissesSeán Hewitt and Luke Edward Hall
RRP $55.00
A landmark illustrated anthology of queer Ancient Greek and Roman love stories.
For centuries, evidence of queer love in the ancient world was ignored or suppressed. Even today, only a few, famous narratives are widely known – yet there’s a rich literary tradition of Greek and Roman love that extends far beyond this handful of stories. Here, the poet Sean Hewitt and painter Luke Edward Hall collect together, for the first time, forty of the most exhilarating queer tales in the classical canon and bring them newly to life. A ground-breaking anthology that changes the way we see the ancient world – and invites us to reflect on the puritanism of our own – 300,000 Kisses is a riotous celebration of desire in all its forms.
Wovenedited by Anne-Marie Te Whiu
RRP $27.99
to open up / to respond as genuinely as possible / to offer hope / we want things to change / weaving solidarity from place and history / into collective purpose (Ellen Van Neerven and Layli Long Soldier)
Following from the much-loved Guwayu anthology, this second collaboration between Red Room Poetry and Magabala Books invites some of the world’s leading First Nations poets together in poetic conversation. This collection weaves words across lands and seas, gathering collaborative threads and shining a light on First Nations poetry from Australia and across the globe.
He/She/TheySchuyler Bailar
RRP $36.99
Gender is a human experience, not just a trans experience. Every single one of us has a relationship to gender, so how can we change the way we talk about it, challenge misconceptions, and become better allies?
Schuyler Bailar is the first transgender athlete to compete on the Harvard University Swim team. His difficult choice – to transition while potentially giving up the prospect of being a national champion – was historic. HE/SHE/THEY will provide readers with essential trans and gender literacy through empowering and informative stories from his own experiences, and those of other trans and non-binary individuals around the world. This urgent, hopeful guide will cover everything from understanding what gender is and how to talk about it, to gender in the world and how to be a better ally.
HE/SHE/THEY will provide readers – no matter age or gender – with the language, education, and tools needed to help make the world a better, kinder, and safer place for all trans and gender diverse people. 2020 and 2021 saw record-breaking instances of anti-trans legislation worldwide – and the highest rates of anti-trans violence on record. HE/SHE/THEY will inspire much-needed positive change and encourage and enable personal reflection and exploration so that every human can be the most compassionate, most authentic version of themselves – and importantly, become better trans allies in the process.
Ryan and AveryDavid Levithan
RRP $19.99
When a blue-haired boy (Ryan) meets a pink-haired boy (Avery) at a dance–a queer prom–both feel an inexplicable but powerful connection. Follow them through their first ten dates as they bridge their initial shyness and fall in love–through snowstorms, groundings, meeting parents (Avery’s) and not (Ryan’s), cast parties, heartbreak, and every day and date in between.
On Earth We’re Briefly Gorgeous
Ocean Vuong
RRP $22.99
This is a letter from a son to a mother who cannot read. Written when the speaker, Little Dog, is in his late twenties, the letter unearths a family’s history that began before he was born. It tells of Vietnam, of the lasting impact of war, and of his family’s struggle to forge a new future. It serves as a doorway into parts of Little Dog’s life his mother has never known – episodes of bewilderment, fear and passion – all the while moving closer to an unforgettable revelation.
Hello!Illustrated by Tony Flowers
RRP $17.99
Yiasou! That’s hello in Greek!
Or would you like to speak Chinese? What about Italian or Korean? Murinhpatha or Kaurna?
Meet 12 Australian friends who can speak different languages. They tell us how to count from 1 to 10, say hello and goodbye and lots of other words in their languages about play, food, hobbies and clothes.
Once we’ve said hello, we can watch Emiko playing the Japanese drum and Pilinh performing an Aboriginal dance. We can see how to make gnocchi with Sophia and flat bread with Amal.
This book is an introduction to 12 languages spoken most frequently in Australian homes, plus three Indigenous languages.The languages are: Chinese, Greek, Indonesian, Italian, Japanese, Kala Lagaw Ya, Kaurna, Korean, Lebanese Arabic, Murrinhpatha, Thai and Vietnamese. Illustrated in a cartoon style, the pictures add humour and fun to language learning. Each language and culture is introduced by a child character – and you might spot a koala or two …
Selamat tinggal! That’s goodbye in Indonesian!
Age range 3 to 6
Nepantla : An Anthology Dedicated to Queer Poets of Color
edited by Christopher Soto
RRP $32.99
The first major literary anthology for queer poets of colour in the United States.
In 2014, Christopher Soto and Lambda Literary Foundation founded the online journal Nepantla, with the mission to nurture, celebrate, and preserve diversity within the queer poetry community, including contributions as diverse in style and form, as the experiences of QPOC in the United States. Now, Nepantla will appear for the first time in print as a survey of poetry by queer poets of color throughout U.S. history, including literary legends such as Audre Lorde, James Baldwin, June Jordan, Ai, and Pat Parker alongside contemporaries such as Natalie Diaz, Ocean Vuong, Danez Smith, Joshua Jennifer Espinoza, Robin Coste Lewis, Joy Harjo, Richard Blanco, Erika L. Sánchez, Jericho Brown, Carl Phillips, Tommy Pico, Eduardo C. Corral, Chen Chen, and more!
Unique: What autism can teach us about difference, connection and belonging
Jodi Rodgers
RRP $34.99
Beloved star of ABC TV’s award-winning Love on the Spectrum and disability rights advocate Jodi Rodgers shares stories from her three-decade career working with the autistic community and calls for a more inclusive and accepting society where we are more empathetic and curious about all the relationships in our lives.
Jodi explores the powerful impact of embracing neurodiversity and forming meaningful connections with those around us. Each chapter highlights a different story and an aspect of human behaviour, including:
– How we perceive the world, and our own unique experience of thinking, sensing and feeling
– How we communicate our perspective to others, understand one another and express ourselves, and
– How we can better connect with one another
With dozens of moving stories, Jodi’s book will give readers a deeper understanding of and appreciation for the neurodiverse community around them. Above all, it will inspire a profound sense of belonging, revealing that we’re much more similar than we think and that all of our differences are worth celebrating.
Always Will Be edited by Mykaela Saunders
RRP $32.99
In this stunningly inventive and thought-provoking collection, Mykaela Saunders poses the question: what might country, community and culture look like in the Tweed if Gooris reasserted their sovereignty? Epic in scope, and with a diverse cast of characters, this forward-thinking collection refuses cynicism and despair. Always Will Be instead offers entertaining stories that celebrate Goori ways of being, knowing, doing – and becoming.
I’ll Let Myself InHannah Diviney
RRP $32.99
Refusing to accept the narratives, or lack thereof, that she’d been given, Hannah was determined to forge her own path in a world that wasn’t designed for her, and to be the representation she’d always wanted to see. Both deeply personal and utterly relatable, this book is a battle-cry over the voices who try to tell her who she can and can’t be, and a reminder not to wait to be invited to the table but to break the door down and demand to be heard.
Greta and ValdinRebecca K. Reilly
RRP $34.99
Siblings Greta and Valdin have too much in common – they’re flatmates, and both make questionable choices when it comes to love. Helping them navigate queerness, multiracial identity, and the tendency of their love interests to flee, is their family- Maori-Russian-Catalonian, who are as passionate as they are eccentric. This exploration of love, family, karaoke, and the generational reverberations of colonialism will make you laugh and cry.
I Will Greet the Sun AgainKhashayar J. Khabushani
RRP $35.00
This stunning, tender novel of identity and belonging tells the story of a young man lost in his own family, his own country, and his own skin. Staring down the brutality of being a queer kid and a Muslim in America, Khashayar J. Khabushani transforms personal and national pain into an unforgettable and beautifully rendered exploration of youth, love, and family. Lyrical and open-hearted, I Will Greet the Sun Again celebrates the stories that make us who we are.
Didn’t Nobody Give a Shit What Happened to Carlotta
James Hannaham
RRP $24.99
Following her involvement in a robbery during her youth, Carlotta Mercedes has been in a men’s prison for twenty-three years. Finally released and heading home to the newly gentrified Brooklyn, she re-enters the orbit of her ambivalent son and has to adjust to life as a quasi-free woman, restricted by parole rulings and the hostility of contemporary New York. This novel is a stylish, inventive tale of belonging.
Hood FeminismMikki Kendall
RRP $22.99
All too often the focus of mainstream feminism is not on basic survival for the many, but on increasing privilege for the few. How can feminists stand in solidarity as a movement when there is a distinct likelihood that some women are oppressing others? Insightful, incendiary and ultimately hopeful, Hood Feminism is both an irrefutable indictment of a movement in flux and a clear-eyed assessment of how to save it.
Eve: How The Female Body Drove 200 Million Years of Human Evolution
Cat Bohannon
RRP $36.99
How did wet nurses drive civilization? Are women always the weaker sex? Is sexism useful for evolution? And are our bodies at war with our babies? This is an ambitious myth-busting history that answers questions scientists should have been addressing for decades in a world that has focused primarily on the male body.
At 30, I Realized I Had No Gender
Shou Arai
RRP $24.99
At age 30, Shou Arai came to a realization; they had no gender. This autobiographical manga explores Japanese culture surrounding gender, transgender issues, and the day-to-day obstacles faced by gender minorities and members of the LGBTQIA+ community with a light-hearted, comedic attitude.
Cook Like Your AncestorsMariah-Rose Marie
IMPORT $39.99
This fully illustrated cookbook provides a wonderful introduction to intuitive food preparation with less reliance on teaspoons, grams, degrees, and exact cook times, and a focus on the way humans have always cooked: by tasting, watching, smelling, listening, feeling, and remembering.
Curatorial Activism: Towards an Ethics of Curating
Maura Reilly
RRP $49.99
A handbook of new curatorial strategies based on pioneering examples of curators working to offset racial and gender disparities in the art world. Arranged in thematic sections Curatorial Activism examines exhibitions that have broken down boundaries.
The Boy from the MishGary Lonesborough
RRP $19.99
A funny and heartwarming queer Indigenous YA novel, set in a rural Australian community, about seventeen-year-old Jackson finding the courage to explore who he is, even if it scares him. Compelling, honest and beautifully written, The Boy from the Mish is about first love, identity, and the superpower of self-belief.
Tarnanthi 2023Nici Cumpston
RRP $54.95
The Tarnanthi 2023 catalogue showcases the ambitious, innovative and up-to-the-minute works of art exhibited at the acclaimed Tarnanthi Festival of contemporary Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander art. Contains more than 50 essays from artists, curators and art experts.
Minor DetailAdania Shibli
RRP $24.99
In the Naqab/Negev desert, Israeli soldiers capture and gang-rape a Palestinian girl in her teens. They kill her and bury her in the sand. Many years later a young woman in Ramallah reads about this ‘minor detail’ in a larger context, and becomes fascinated by it to the point of obsession. This novel is a compelling look at the Israel/Palestine conflict, from both the perspective of an Israeli soldier in 1949 as well as that of a young Palestinian woman.
Who’s Your Real Mum?Bernadette Green and Anna Zobel
RRP $24.99
When Nicholas wants to know which of Elvi’s two mums is her real mum, she gives him lots of clues. Her real mum is a circus performer, and a pirate, and she even teaches spiders the art of the web. But Nicholas still can’t work it out! Luckily, Elvi knows just how to help Nicholas understand.
The Boy from Clearwater: Book 1
Pei Yun Yu and Jian Xin Zhou
IMPORT $37.60
An incredible true story in graphic novel form that lays bare the tortured and triumphant history of Taiwan, an island claimed and fought over by many countries, through the life story of a man who lived through its most turbulent times.
VariationsTristen Harwood
RRP $69.99
This collection is committed to reorientating discussions of contemporary Australian art through sharing the experience of artists with diverse life histories, and social and cultural backgrounds. The 25 profiled artists have complex creative practices within their communities, while experiencing social marginalisation.
Social QueueKay Kerr
RRP $19.99
I thought I was nobody’s teen crush, but turns out I was just missing the signs. When Zoe Kelly starts an internship at an online media company, she can’t imagine that her first piece about her all-too-recent, non-existent, high-school dating life will go viral… Social Queue is a funny and heart-warming autistic story about deciphering the confusing signals of attraction and navigating a path to love.
When I Feel RedLily Bailey
RRP $16.99
April has always marched to the beat of her own drum, but would life be easier if she learned to fit in? Now in Year 8, as family worries and classroom romances ramp up, it feels like everyone around her is pulling away – even her best friend Ben. But when the pressure’s on, can she find a way to fit in and still be true to herself?
Bluebeard’s CastleAnna Biller
RRP $26.99
When British mystery writer Judith Moore meets Gavin, a handsome and charming baron, his love transforms her from a bitter, lonely young woman into a romance heroine overnight. After a whirlwind honeymoon, he whisks her away to a secluded castle, and she soon she finds herself trapped in a nightmare… Bluebeard gets a feminist Gothic makeover in this subversive take on the famous fairy tale from the acclaimed director of The Love Witch.
GreenAlex Gino
RRP $26.99
Middle-grade superstar author Alex Gino returns to the world they began with Melissa and Rick with Green, the story of a non-binary middle-schooler named Green who comes into their own in no small part by fighting for gender-free casting in their school’s production of The Wizard of Oz.
Nikki Hind: Dressed for Success
John Dickson, Illustrated by Chantel de Sousa
RRP $25.99
Meet Nikki Hind, the blind fashion designer with her own fashion label. Growing up, Nikki couldn’t see out of her left eye. But that didn’t stop her from dressing-up and making her own clothes. After a stroke took the vision in her right eye, she decided to do what she’d always loved: designing. Her fashion label, Blind Grit, is shown at Melbourne Fashion Week and employs people with disabilities and challenges.
The House of Hidden MeaningsRuPaul
RRP $34.99
From international drag superstar and pop culture icon RuPaul, comes a brutally honest, surprisingly poignant, and deeply intimate memoir of growing up Black, poor, and queer in a broken home, to discovering the power of performance, found family, and self-acceptance. A profound introspection of his life, relationships, and identity, this is a self-portrait of the legendary icon on the road to fame and changing the way the world thinks about drag.
The Spider and Her Demonssydney khoo
RRP $19.99
Between surviving high school and working at her aunt’s dumpling shop, all Zhi wants is to find time for her friends… and make sure no one finds out she’s half spider-demon. But when she accidentally kills and eats a man in front of the most popular girl in school, she discovers she might not be the scariest thing in the shadows. An urban fantasy spin on growing up as a second-generation immigrant, struggling under the overwhelming pressure to make others proud, while feeling trapped inside your own body.
Bodies Are CoolTyler Feder
RRP $16.99
This heart-warming, inclusive book, filled with detailed and friendly illustration is a celebration of every kind of body that exists in the world. Through an empowering, rhythmic text that is perfect for reading aloud, little ones can explore various skin tones, body shapes, hair types, and more, in an accessible way that instills body positivity and confidence.
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