We Need Diverse Books Day: A Reading List

April 3rd, 2025 marks the first celebration of We Need Diverse Books Day. Discover new diverse book recommendations to add to your TBRs!

April 3rd, 2025 marks the first celebration of We Need Diverse Books Day.

We Need Diverse Books Day is a celebration created by the non-profit We Need Diverse Books to highlight and promote books featuring diverse characters and written by diverse authors. Now more than ever, we need diverse books on our shelves and available for everyone in our communities, and I think that We Need Diverse Books Day is a great introduction for readers to start reading, promoting, and advocating for diverse books.

Credit: We Need Diverse Books

That being said, one of the ways I’m celebrating We Need Diverse Books Day is to provide you all with a list of book recommendations to help you get started with reading diversely or to provide new voices you may not have heard before. I will preface this recommendation list by stating that intersectionality is a crucial aspect of diverse literature and many of the books I’ve featured on this list can cross over into other categories. With this, if there’s a book with an intersectionality focus to it, I will make sure to include a footnote into what that intersectionality is.

Diverse Book Recommendations to Read All-Year Long

BIPOC Voices

Ander and Santi Were Here by Jonny Garza Villa (St. Martin’s Press, 2023)¹

• Read If You Want: YA romances that highlight the impacts of ICE in Latinx communities in Texas.

Huda F Are You? by Huda Fahmy (Dial Books, 2021)

• Read If You Want: semi-autobiographical YA graphic novels about a Muslim teen starting at a new high school post-9/11.

Indiginerds edited by Alina Pete (Iron Circus Comics, 2024)²

• Read If You Want: Indigenous teens being able to be themselves by following their passions/hobbies and how they connect their heritage to modern pop culture.

Chain-Gang All Stars by Nana Kwame Adjei-Brenyah (Pantheon, 2023)³

• Read If You Want: dystopian novels that critique the American prison system.

Indigiqueerness by Joshua Whitehead (Athabasca University Press, 2023)⁴

• Read If You Want: an introduction into Indigenous Two-Spirit identities and Indigenous literature.

Token Black Girl: A Memoir by Danielle Precod (Little A, 2022)

• Read If You Want: insightful memoirs about being a woman of color growing up in a mostly white community and later working in an inherently racist and sexist fashion/wellness industry.

Yellowface by R.F. Kuang (William Morrow, 2023)

• Read If You Want: literary satire that calls out the racism in the publishing industry as well as the harm of cultural appropriation.

LGBTQIA+ Voices

Dear Mothman by Robin Gow (Abrams Books, 2023)⁵

• Read If You Want: middle grade novels that talk about being a trans kid (in this case, a young trans boy).

Melissa by Alex Gino (Scholastic, 2015)

• Read If You Want: see reason for Dear Mothman, but you want it to be about a young trans girl.

Felix Ever After by Kacen Callender (HarperCollins, 2020)⁶

• Read If You Want: YA novels that focus on a trans teen navigating their identity and falling in love for the first time.

Loveless by Alice Oseman (HarperCollins, 2020)

• Read If You Want: coming-of-age stories that provide an introduction into asexual identities.

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Albertalli (HarperCollins, 2015)

• Read If You Want: classic YA novels with a gay protagonist.

A Quick & Easy Guide to Queer & Trans Identities by Mady G. and J.R. Zuckerberg (Oni Press, 2019)

• Read If You Want: a simple overview of the different types of queer and trans identities in an easy-to-read format.

My Government Means to Kill Me by Rasheed Newson (Flatiron Books, 2022)⁷

• Read If You Want: fictional memoirs about the real-life AIDS activist group, ACT UP.

We Could Be Rats by Emily R. Austin (Atria Books, 2025)⁸

• Read If You Want: lesbians reflecting on their upbringing in a small, conservative town.

Neurodivergent and Disabled Voices

Insignificant Events in the Life of a Cactus by Dusti Bowling (Sterling Children’s Books, 2017)

• Read If You Want: middle grade novels that provide various types of positive disability representation.

Puzzled: A Memoir About Growing Up with OCD by Pan Cooke (Rocky Pond Books, 2024)

• Read If You Want: graphic memoirs about growing up with OCD.

Interabled by Shane and Hannah Burcaw (Roaring Brook Press, 2025)

• Read If You Want: funny and informative discussions about dating and relationships for disabled people.

The Spirit Bares Its Teeth by Andrew Joseph White (Peachtree Teen, 2023)⁹

• Read If You Want: historical fantasy that shines a light on the horrors of forced institutionalization in Victorian society.

My Body is Not a Prayer Request by Amy Kenny (Brazos Press, 2022)

• Read If You Want: disability justice books with a focus on disability justice in Christianity.

Epilogue

I could go on and on about diverse books that I loved or want to read, but I think that list would be way too long if I did. Nevertheless, this list is not the end all be all and is meant to serve as a guiding point for those new to reading diverse books as well as serve as an outlet to provide a spotlight on titles that might not get as much attention compared to similar books that do get a lot of attention. I hope this list inspires you to pick up a diverse book or two and maybe you’ll find your next favorite book amongst the titles listed here.

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Thank you for reading this post! Let me know in the comments if there’s any book listed here that you’ve already read or are planning to read. And, as always, make sure to like and subscribe for more round-ups of the latest new releases and other bookish content.

Let’s Do Good With Books today and everyday!

1. This book also includes LGBTQIA+ representation.

2. This book also includes LGBTQIA+ representation.

3. This book also includes LGBTQIA+ representation.

4. This book also includes LGBTQIA+ representation.

5. This book also includes disability/neurodivergent representation.

6. This book also includes BIPOC representation.

7. This book also includes BIPOC representation.

8. This book also includes disability/neurodivergent representation.

9. This book also includes LGBTQIA+ representation.