“…a significant contribution to the growing body of research, especially in that it provides numerous scenarios from multiple teachers, grade levels, and schools along with frameworks for why and how to be increasingly LGBTQ-inclusive…It is a book of great importance to all teachers and researchers regardless of their grade level, sexual orientation, gender identity and expression, or specific contexts.”
—Journal of Language and Literacy Education (JOLLE)
" Reading the Rainbow is a terrific, nuanced, practical resource that many ELA teachers should come to value. Children in their classrooms, whatever their identities, will be the better for it."
—Mombian
“In this book filled with powerful invitations and resources, Ryan and Hermann-Wilmarth, who were elementary school teachers before becoming teacher educators, invite us to enact justice in our classrooms as we honor our students’ rights and work to foster equity. They offer a compelling rationale for LGBTQ inclusion in the elementary grades as a matter of justice.”
—From the Foreword by Mariana Souto-Manning, Teachers College, Columbia University
“The field has been hungry for this book! Too often LGBTQ-inclusive curriculum is altogether absent in elementary classrooms or limited to occasional token texts. Ryan and Hermann-Wilmarth chart a new course for expanding LGBTQ-inclusive elementary classrooms by providing vision and inspiration, coupled with specific text recommendations and practice-focused, actionable strategies that will allow elementary teachers to make immediate and impactful change in their classrooms.”
—Elizabeth Dutro, University of Colorado Boulder
“Ryan and Hermann-Wilmarth’s intimate knowledge of and compassion for teachers—their challenges, restrictions, commitments, and diversity—and passion for LGBTQ students and families result in a warm and vigorous invitation for teachers to join them in the work of creating more equitable classrooms where the full humanity of students is honored.”
—Mollie V. Blackburn, Ohio State University
