To try and find some good teens books that don't push the LGBTQ agenda?

[Lifeofthepartay]

Trying to get some books for my daughter who is in S1, books are either too young or they all have a blurb that alludes to the main character's sexual preferences. Would love it if anyone could recommend something your pre-teens, or young teens are reading that don't include those topics? They already get enough information about it in school and the internet.

Maybe go back a couple of decades and search older young adult fiction?

as a bisexual teen & avid reader I rarely encountered any queer characters.

still was and turned out bi. Just confused and neurotic about it until wider culture relaxed.

What does she like -
Real life
Historical
Fantasy
Sci fi
I liked books like Goodnight Mr Tom, Little House on the Prairie, Anne of Green Gables at that age.

Anything with a publication date from before the mobile phone era. So pre 2000 should be quite safe without compromising quality.

I work in a secondary school library. There are a huge number of books published for teens , there is a massive difference between books that have a range of characters with different love interests like Percy Jackson and those stories where it is all about being gay or trans. Too many to name!
Our most poplar books are wimpy kid and manga, heartstoppers which is a love story between two boys who are 15/16 and the cherub series which starts with the Recruit.
I bought Malory Towers and St Clares and they have a niche following.
I love the Dark is Rising series by Susan Cooper, the children and teens in those books are too busy fighting evil to be interested in each other.
And special shout to for the Hunger Games and the Noughts and Crosses series and the Crongton series by Alex Wheatle. All special favourites of mine. I find younger teens really enjoy gore and moralistic stories.

Don't know what age S1 is. My 11 year old is really enjoying percy jackson books and there are tons of them ( I'm really enjoying them too)

Alex Rider by Anthony Horowitz
Artemis Fowl by Eoin Colfer (and anything else he's written)
Young James Bond (I forget the author name)
Anything by Diana Wynne Jones
Twilight series by Stephanie Meyer
Harry Potter series by JK Rowling

Used to love nancy drew books as a kid

Classics - Little House on the Prairie, Little Women series, Swallows and Amazons. Plus loads of recommendations above.

There's loads out there! Also a book that deals with these issues doesn’t necessarily have “an agenda”.

Are you ok with them pushing the Heterosexual agenda?

I would understand if you were looking for books that didn't sexualise children, but to say that you are looking for books that specifically don't have LGBTQ+ characters is frankly homophobic.

YABU

You could try Enid Blyton

Dumbledore was gay, cross HP off the list.

I just googled S1, it’s the first year of secondary school so 11/12.

I think there’s a difference between books where some characters happen to be LGB (one of the hero’s friends has 2 mums, or 2 married gay men run the corner shop) & books where that’s the main focus.

As for the TQ, that’s a whole other problem.

Not openly stated in the books, later admitted off the page. I'm bi and I presumed OP just didn't want "look we're different, everyone is SO different, aren't we different? WHY AREN'T YOU DIFFERENT?? BE DIFFERENT OR YOU'RE NOT COOL!!!" rammed down her young-ish kid's throat.

You daughter could also chat to a librarian about what she’s into and get some recommendations? That’s what I did from around 9-10.
She can also learn to self direct her reading then using a library etc.
To me, many of these books recommended are nice but ‘young’ and not particularly world-expanding even putting LGBTQ issues aside.
At that age I was reading 1984, Dune and other classics. Also no lgbtq characters there from memory though those two are both heavier content. You can probably work out the right balance with a librarian though.

Try Tamora Pierce if she likes fantasy. I do remember lesbian (and maybe asexual) characters in some of her books, but the relationships emerge in the same as other types of relationships, and all are generally side plots.

It won't feel like an agenda is being forced on your child, but she'll still encounter a diverse range of relationships and characters.

What "agenda"?

Maybe the one that doesn't treat LGBT people like freaks who should be hidden away from children.

Agendas?

I can’t remember the title, but I saw a children’s book about a little girl who didn’t like long hair & dresses. So her older siblings cut her hair & dressed her in boys’ clothes.

Fine, if that had been the end of it, but Sally then became Sam & everyone celebrated ‘his’ new identity - because girls can’t like short hair & trousers. There’s a very clear agenda there and it’s a misogynist & lesbophobic one.

Worse still, later I heard about a pair of unspeakable idiots who did that to their very young daughter for real because she wanted to dress like her twin brother. Whether they’d read that book I don’t know.

This is taught to p5s in Scottish schools. I think it's the story you are referring to @EmpressaurusKitty.

https://www.transgendertrend.com/challenging-heteronormativity/

She was reading wimpy kid a few years back, at around 8 so too young for her now, same for Lottie brooks, I feel like she has t really found her genre, in shows she likes misery, but more real life not fantasy. My boy is the same and I feel like I am going to struggle as he is 8 and reading 9-12 year old books, she is also oddly specific about the titles he likes, a lot of factual/science but funny books

I didn't say that. Just that the whole story does not revolve around their sexuality, why would that should be even mentioned so much. I hardly think it needs to be relevant t the story. Never seen a book that says the journey of these heterosexual kids doing these or that, I just don't understand why all has to revolve about their sexual preferences

No, the little girl in the one I’m thinking of had dark hair & ended up in a hat & tie, & it was all set in the family home - this one looks just as bad though!

My kids (aged 8-12) love the following series (some might be a bit young, but others are definitely suitable for S1):

• Adventures on Trains
• Wings of Fire
• Murder Most Unladylike
• Montgomery Bonbon series
• Everything by Katherine Rundell and Onjali Rauf
• Tiffany Aching series by Terry Pratchett
• Warrior Cats series
• Morrigan Crow series
• Tamora Pierce

This is exactly what I meant, I have gay friends but our friendship doesn't revolve about their sexual preferences. I know I am not homophobic but I do see a tendency for wanting to label everyone as such early age. Kids are impressionable and they should be left to discover their sexuality at their own pace instead of making so much emphasis on all the options they have and they can identify as, I feel like the way there was pressure for people to not come out maybe 30 years ago, now there is pressure for everyone to label themselves and announce it to the world.