“Dear George, with Love”: Reading All Boys Aren’t Blue Through a Lens of Critical Love Amidst Rampant Book Bans

Amidst increasing book bans centering Queer folk and People of Color, this critical content analysis employs a framework of love to examine how George M. Johnson’s memoir-manifesto All Boys Aren’t Blue counters hegemonic narratives. After defining love across scholarship, the authors identify two tenets of love, self-examination and storytelling, as incremental to how Johnson’s story serves as an entry point for young people to see themselves and others in loving, authentic ways. The authors invite teachers and students to read this text through a lens of love as it exemplifies how stories can be leveraged to honor all lived experiences.