My Books
Stories to empower kids and teens to be their authentic selves and change the world.
A Different Kind of Brave
Written by Lee Wind. Publishes from Interlude/Duet Press/Chicago Review Press. Out now!
Kickstarter until 6:50am Pacific on July 20, 2024 to empower 350 (or more) LGBTQIA2+ Teens with their own copy!
A Gay teen globe-trotting, high stakes adventure with the heroic courage of the James Bond movies and the ongoing romance—and Queer group of friends—of Heartstopper.
The Gender Binary Is a Big Lie
Written by Lee Wind, this nonfiction for readers age 11 and up publishes from Lerner Publishing Group/Zest Books on August 6, 2024.
Get ready to shatter those preconceived notions of a gender binary and dive deep into expressions of gender—both past and present—that reveal the gender binary really is a big lie.
Kirkus Reviews Starred Review! “An accessible, thorough, curiosity-provoking introduction to gender.”
Love of the Half-Eaten Peach
Written by Lee Wind, Illustrated by Jieting Chen. Publishes from Reycraft on September 3, 2024.
An epic and lyrical take on Yuan, Duke Ling of Wei, and his beloved, Mi Zi Xia, who shared a peach circa 500 BCE, inspiring generations of people to use the expression “Love of the Half-Eaten Peach” in Chinese to describe romantic love between men.
“Reads both like a fairytale and a slice of history, like a voyage of discovery and a story of love.” —Jane Yolen, author of Owl Moon & the How Do Dinosaurs… series
“An epic queer love story.” —Michael Genhart, PhD, author of Edie for Equality: Edie Windsor Stands Up for Love.
Red and Green and Blue and White
Written by Lee Wind, and illustrated by Caldecott Medalist Paul O. Zelinsky, published by Levine Querido.
5 Starred Trade Reviews
- Publishers Weekly
- School Library Connection
- Horn Book
- School Library Journal
- Shelf Awareness
and the New York Times review called it “Beautiful… It’s a message the world can use, throughout the year.”
No Way, They Were Gay?
Hidden Lives and Secret Loves
This nonfiction for readers age 11 and up publishes from Lerner Publishing Group/Zest Books.
A Junior Library Guild Gold Standard Selection, with strong editorial reviews from Foreword Reviews, Booklist, and Kirkus Reviews. Young Adult Nonfiction Winner of the International Literacy Association Book Awards, 2022.
Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill
Crowdfunded and author published debut YA novel.
Winner, National Indie Excellence Award for Best Book: LGBTQ For Children & Young Adults and One of Publishers Weekly’s Top Five Independently Published Middle Grade and Young Adult Books of 2018.
A Publishers Weekly “Indie Success Story.”
Over 900 copies were donated to LGBTQ Teens!
Nonfiction Writers Dig Deep: 50 Award-Winning Children’s Book Authors Share the Secret of Engaging Writing
Published in 2020 by the National Council of Teachers of English.
Lee is one of the 50 authors featured within, and his essay is titled, “How Primary Sources Saved Me (and Might Just Save the World)”
- Order a signed copy from Lee’s local indie bookstore, {pages} in CA. Add a note when purchasing if you want it personalized!
- Order a copy from Bookshop.org and support your local indie bookstore
- Order from wherever you like to buy books!
- The publisher’s page for Love of the Half-Eaten Peach
- School Library Journal called it “Stunning“, with the verdict: “A unique story that celebrates queer love and Chinese folklore, and a distinctive addition to the LGBTQIA+ shelves.”
- Watch the Highlights Foundation Instagram Live Book Birthday Celebration for Love of the Half-Eaten Peach with Cat Caleano from Highlights, Jieting Chen (our book’s amazing illustrator), and me!
- Booklist loved it, saying the text is “full of poetic turns of phrases…and striking similes” and that the illustrations “elegantly evoke the time period.” Their summary: “A tender picture book with folktale-like flourishes”
- And Foreword Reviews cheered, “this painterly picture book serves as a reminder that queer people—and queer love—have always existed.”
LOVE OF THE HALF-EATEN PEACH
Inspired by a true story
Nothing is perfect. Except… Love of the Half-Eaten Peach
An epic and lyrical take on Yuan, Duke Ling of Wei, and his beloved, Mi Zi Xia, who shared a peach circa 500 BCE, inspiring generations of people to use the expression “Love of the Half-Eaten Peach” in Chinese to describe romantic love between men.
As a child Yuan is told if he wants to be a good future ruler (he will be the next Duke Ling of Wei), he must understand perfection. But how can he understand perfection if nothing is perfect? The riddle weighs on him all through his teen years. Zi Xia vows to find Yuan something perfect, and sets out on an epic quest that brings him back a year later with a single peach. It looks perfect. It feels perfect. It smells perfect… but what if it tastes terrible?
Find out how Yuan and Zi Xia solve the riddle in Love of the Half-Eaten Peach, and discover the legacy of their timeless love story.
- Order a signed copy from Lee’s local indie bookstore, {pages} in CA. Add a note when purchasing if you want it personalized!
- Order a copy from Bookshop.org and support your local indie bookstore
- Order from wherever you like to buy books!
- The publisher’s page for The Gender Binary is a Big Lie
- Get the free discussion guide
- Watch the Launch Party Webinar recording: THE GENDER BINARY IS A BIG LIE: A Celebration of Gender Diversity in History and Today! with special guests Minnesota State Representative Leigh Finke (she/her) and Seven Graham (he/they), a producer, writer, actor, creativity & holistic health coach & stand-up comic.
- ★ Starred Review from Kirkus Reviews! They cheered the book as “An accessible, thorough, curiosity-provoking introduction to gender.”
- Booklist called it “A thorough and eloquent briefing on the meaning of gender, different cultural views, and relevant terminology.”
- And Foreword Reviews called it “Edifying . . . Wind, a prevalent voice in queer spaces, amplifies gender nonconforming voices from all corners of the world . . . reveals worlds in which gender nonconformity is celebrated.”
THE GENDER BINARY IS A BIG LIE
Infinite Identities around the World
What if you discovered that the whole concept of a gender binary is an illusion?
While many people identify as men or women, that is not all there is. The idea that all humans fall into one of two gender categories is largely a construct created by those who benefit from that belief. The reality is that gender is naturally diverse, falling inside and outside of those boxes, and more expansive ideas of gender have always existed.
In the second book of the Queer History Project, The Gender Binary Is a Big Lie: Infinite Identities around the World, author Lee Wind uses historical evidence and primary sources—poetry, ancient burial sites, firsthand accounts, and news stories—to explore gender roles and identities. Gender identities and physical bodies are as diverse as the human experience. Get ready to shatter those preconceived notions of nothing but a gender binary and dive deep into expressions of gender—both past and present—that reveal the infinite variety and beauty of everyone’s gender.
- Order a signed copy from Lee’s local indie bookstore, {pages} in CA and get the two free character trading cards of Nico & Sam
- Order a copy from Bookshop.org and support your local indie bookstore
- Order from wherever you like to buy books!
- ★ Starred Review from Foreword Reviews! They wrote: “A Different Kind of Brave is a gem for young adults: not just a high-octane thriller but also a queer romance full of heart and sensuality.”
- Kirkus Reviews loved it, writing: “Thrilling. Positively thrilling.”
- Booklist praised it as “A successful action-adventure story with a suitably suspenseful, white-knuckle denouement. Fans of the genre will be pleased.”
- Read the interview with Foreword Reviews: A Conversation with Queer-Lit Champion Lee Wind
- The publisher’s page for A Different Kind of Brave
A DIFFERENT KIND OF BRAVE
Nicolas “Nico” Hall is sixteen when he escapes from Dr. H’s religious gay reprogramming institute in California. On his own, he assumes one identity after another to avoid recapture as he flees south to Peru and then to Mexico.
Seven days older than Nico, Samuel “Sam” Jonas Solomon is a privileged Upper West Side only child who idolizes James Bond. When his heart is broken, he vows that, like Bond, he’s never going to trust in love again. Then he meets Nico, and his heart won’t listen to any logic.
Nico’s survived by living only for himself—until his love for Sam has him risking his freedom for others. And as much as Sam wants to be like 007, he discovers that James Bond is a terrible role model.
Together, Nico and Sam set out to free the other teens trapped in Dr. H’s Institute, plunging readers into perils, drama, and a long-shot chance at love. To succeed, they’ll both have to be A Different Kind of Brave.
- Order a signed copy from Lee’s local indie bookstore, {pages} in Manhattan Beach, California
- The story behind the story of “Red and Green and Blue and White”
- Order a copy from Bookshop.org and support your local indie bookstore
- Check out the website of the book’s amazing illustrator, Paul O. Zelinsky
- The publisher’s page for Red and Green and Blue and White
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★★★★★
Five Starred Trade Reviews:
- “Beautiful” — The New York Times Review
- “Affecting. This moving tribute to religious pluralism will uplift children.” — Wall Street Journal
- Sydney Taylor Award Notable Book
- Association of Jewish Libraries Best of the Year
Red and Green and Blue and White
On a block dressed up in Red and Green, one house shone Blue and White.
It’s a holiday season that both Isaac, whose family is Jewish, and Teresa, whose family is Christian, have looked forward to for months! They’ve been counting the days, playing in the snow, making cookies, drawing (Teresa) and writing poems (Isaac). They enjoy all the things they share, as well as the things that make them different.
But when Isaac’s window is smashed in the middle of the night, it seems like maybe not everyone appreciates “difference.”
Inspired by a true story, this is a tale of a community that banded together to spread light.
- The Children’s Book Committee of the Bank Street College of Education “Best Books of the Year” – Outstanding Merit
- Download the activity page and decipher a moment from Queer History
- “Entertaining, illuminating, and an accessible antidote to dominant histories.” — Kirkus Reviews
- Available everywhere books are sold!
No Way, They were Gay?
Hidden Lives and Secret Loves
From the Series Queer History Project
“History” sounds really official. Like it’s all fact. Like it’s definitely what happened.
But that’s not necessarily true. History was crafted by the people who recorded it. And sometimes, those historians were biased against, didn’t see, or couldn’t even imagine anyone different from themselves.
That means that history has often left out the stories of LGBTQIA+ people: men who loved men, women who loved women, people who loved without regard to gender, and people who lived outside gender boundaries. Historians have even censored the lives and loves of some of the world’s most famous people, from William Shakespeare and Pharaoh Hatshepsut to Cary Grant and Eleanor Roosevelt.
Join author Lee Wind for this fascinating journey through primary sources—poetry, memoir, news clippings, and images of ancient artwork—to explore the hidden (and often surprising) Queer lives and loves of two dozen historical figures.
- Hardcover, Paperback, eBook and Audiobook available everywhere books are sold
Queer as a Five-Dollar Bill
What if You Knew a Secret From History That Could Change the World?
Wyatt is fifteen, and nobody in his homophobic small town of Lincolnville, Oregon, knows that he’s gay. Not even his best friend (and accidental girlfriend) Mackenzie.
Then he discovers a secret from actual history: Abraham Lincoln was in love with another guy! Since everyone loves Lincoln, Wyatt’s sure that if the world knew about it, they would treat gay people differently and it would solve everything about his life. So Wyatt outs Lincoln online, triggering a media firestorm and conservative backlash that threaten to destroy everything he cares about.
Now Wyatt has to pretend more than ever that he’s straight (because no one will believe a gay kid saying Lincoln was gay). Only then he meets Martin, who is openly gay and who just might be the guy Wyatt’s been hoping to find. Will Wyatt stay closeted to change the world, or will he let Abraham Lincoln’s gay romance fade back into history and take his own chance at love?
This nineteenth- and twenty-first-century coming-of-age, coming out story was inspired by real historical evidence that Abraham Lincoln was in love—romantic love—with another man.
