Hello community!

1)
I hope you’ll join me, Illustrator Jieting Chen, and the Highlights Foundation’s Cat Galeano on Tuesday Sep 10 at 8:30am Pacific/11:30am Eastern for a book birthday celebration and discussion for LOVE OF THE HALF-EATEN PEACH! Just go to Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/highlightsfound/
at that day/time to join us live and ask your questions about this epic gay love story that was inspired by a true story from 2,500 years ago!

2)
Speaking of launch celebrations, if you missed the launch event for THE GENDER BINARY IS A BIG LIE, you can still watch the replay of this amazing celebration of gender diversity with Leigh Finke, Seven Graham, Maya Gonzalez, and myself by registering here.

3)
The Kickstarter results for A DIFFERENT KIND OF BRAVE are in, and we more than accomplished our goal, raising enough money to give away at least 767 copies to Queer teens – already every one of the 350 campers at Brave Trails summer programs has received their own copy! Thank you if you helped spread the word and/or support the campaign – I’m very grateful. You can watch my celebration video here.

4)
School Library Journal called THE GENDER BINARY IS A BIG LIE “Highly informative and engaging… VERDICT: A must-have for school and public libraries.”

5)
Bookriot’s review of THE GENDER BINARY IS A BIG LIE said, in part, ”This work of nonfiction explodes the idea of the gender binary, with historical records, documents, writing, and more showcasing how many different ways gender has been—and currently is—expressed. Wind’s book is the second in the Queer History Project, a must-have series for those who serve teens (& who need their own refresher on queer history!).

6)
The Dallas Voice said in their review of THE GENDER BINARY IS A BIG LIE, ”With respect and empathy, the text reveals the infinite variety and beauty of everyone’s gender.”

7)
As part of my day job for the Independent Book Publishers Association, I’m working on this very cool new initiative that’s all about going on the offense to fight book bans. For every book challenged or banned in September 2024, WE ARE STRONGER THAN CENSORSHIP aims to buy TWO (or more) books from independent publishers and donate them directly to folks affected by less public library and public school access to diverse titles. You can read more about the program in this Publishers Weekly article and at the program’s website here.

And that’s the update so far – thanks for coming along on the adventure!

The light in me recognizes and acknowledges the light in you,
Lee