“81.8% of LGBTQ+ students in our survey reported feeling unsafe in school because of at least one of their actual or perceived personal characteristics.” That’s according to The GLSEN National School Climate Survey. That means that LGBTQ+ students in your classroom have most likely felt unsafe at school at least once. And not only is unsafe the opposite of how we want students to feel because we care about them as people, but neuroscience has made it clear that when we feel unsafe, our brains struggle to perform the higher order thinking that is necessary for learning.

Adding one queer-affirming book to your classroom library won’t fix the problem. But when combined with other culture-shifting moves, it can make a difference. Read on to learn how to teach with Imogen, Obviously as an independent reading selection, a Book Club selection, or even a whole class novel. Your students who feel unsafe at school deserve it.

Title: Imogen, Obviously​

Author: Becky Albertalli

Genre: Realistic fiction

Age range: 13+

Summary: Imogen may be straight, but she is committed to being the ever-learning ally that her queer friends and little sister need. When she visits her best friend Lili—newly out but thriving with a squad of LGBTQ+ friends—for a weekend at college, Imogen gets pulled into Lili’s white lie that Imogen and Lili used to date. Suddenly seen as bi and feeling butterflies when she meets Tessa, Imogen starts to wonder if she has always truly been aware of her own feelings.

Recommend Imogen, Obviously to students who also enjoyed…

👬 Simon vs. The Homo Sapiens Agenda (same author) for the coming out story.

🏫 Rainbow Rowell’s Fangirl for the high school-to-college transition.

💌 To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before by Jenny Han for the slow-burn adorable romance.

How I’d teach it:

I haven’t read Albertalli’s complete body of work, but almost all of her books tell queer stories. And she identifies as bi. So my mind goes to an author study unit. I envision two approaches: one examining Albertalli’s writing craft moves and one analyzing the content across her books. For craft, teach students to examine Albertalli’s writing style and preferred craft moves. Then analyze a question such as: how does Albertalli’s writing style impact the queer stories she tells? This will lead students to examine her use of text threads, punchy sentences, first person narration—and more.

The second option is to more explicitly focus on content and in this case, content appropriate for a unit on sexual identity. Health teachers, I’m looking at you! You could make your ELA colleagues happy forever by teaching your content through literature. It can look like this:

1. Select passages from several of Albertalli’s books that discuss sexual identities.
2. Read them in small groups and have students put together character profiles, including how they identify.
3. Use the profiles to teach about different sexual identities—and about the variety inherent in identities.

Want to talk more about teaching with Imogen, Obviously? Please reach out!

Learn more:

• This is cute. The Albertalli super fans in your class will adore this “Which character are you?” quiz.
• Definitely share this book trailer with your students. “One girl can’t topple your entire sexuality…right?”

My Final Two Cents: I believe that knowledge leads to understanding and understanding leads to empathy. This book should be available as a mirror for your students who do see themselves in the characters. But it also should be there as a window for the students who just don’t know much about sexual identity…yet.

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