Julie Anne Peters, Whose Young-Adult Books Caused a Stir, Dies at 71
Julie Anne Peters, whose 2004 book, “Luna,” is thought to have been the first young-adult novel with a transgender character to be released by a mainstream publisher, and whose books have been among those singled out by conservative groups in Texas and other states for removal from library shelves, died on March 21 at her home in Wheat Ridge, Colo.
She was 71. Her agent, Wendy Schmalz, did not give the cause but said the death came after a long illness. Ms. Peters’s first novel for young readers, “The Stinky Sneaker Contest” (1992), is a humorous yarn aimed at 8- to 12-year-olds, and she stuck with relatively mild subjects for a few years. “How Do You Spell Geek?" (1997), for instance, centers on eighth graders and the National Spelling Bee.
But after Ms. Peters published “Define ‘Normal,’” a more ambitious novel about the unlikely friendship between an honor student and the punk girl for whom she serves as a peer counselor, her editor, Megan Tingley, urged her to consider pushing the envelope. “There were very few books for young adults featuring L.G.B.T.Q.+ characters at the time,” Ms.
Tingley, now president and publisher of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, said by email, “so I asked her if she had ever thought of trying to write one.
