Skip to main content

ENCHANTED STORIES: King and the Dragonflies

Image
By
King and the Dragonflies
By Kacen Callender
New York: Scholastic Press, 2020. Fiction.

After the unexpected death of his older brother Khalid, 12-year-old King is trying to cope with his grief as best as he can - keeping in mind his father's adage that boys don't cry, even when that's all he wants to do. Though King believes that Khalid still visits him in the form of a dragonfly, King's relationship with his brother is still complicated by his fear that Khalid wouldn't have have loved him if he knew his big secret - King thinks he might be gay. Then his former best friend Sandy, the gay, white son of the town's sheriff, disappears and King is left wondering what he is supposed to do.

This a powerful coming-of-age story about a Black boy trying to find a balance between his own feelings and pressure from family, friends, and his community. King's loving family that moves past their grief to ensure King feels their love and knows his place in their family is secure. This book deals honestly and sensitively with serious issues like homophobia, racial prejudice, and grief. The text is almost luminous - enhanced by the magical realism elements - and King's dream sequences are especially evocative.  This beautiful book is best for older middle grade readers, and would be a great book to discuss racial prejudices with young readers.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Review: The Bletchley Riddle

By
  The Bletchley Riddle By Ruta Sepetys and Steve Sheinkin New York: Viking, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC, 2024. Fiction. 392 pages. It's spring of 1940, Hitler has swept through most of Europe, and people believe England will be next. Half Polish-Jewish, half American Jakob has been recruited from Cambridge to Bletchley Park where they are working on deciphering the enigma machine. Jakob's sister Lizzie, meanwhile, is being forced to move from London to Cleveland to live with her grandmother after her mother disappeared in a 1939 attack in Poland. Lizzie manages to escape the keeper her grandmother sent for her to bring her to America and makes her way to Bletchley, where she's eventually given the task of delivering messages between departments. When secret messages begin appearing with Lizzie's belongings, she must decipher them to find the truth about her mother's past and location, while keeping the secrets away from the MI5 agent that seems a little t...
Post a Comment
Read more

Painting for Peace in Ferguson

By
Painting for Peace in Ferguson By Carol Swartout Klein Treehouse Publishing Group, 2015. Nonfiction. When the city of Ferguson was overrun with so much hate and despair that homes and businesses had to be boarded up to protect property, citizens of the community decided to bring a message of hope by painting the boarded windows. Klein’s rhyming text supports the photographs of the hundreds of artists and volunteers and their artwork as they bring the messages of peace, hope, love, and that by being united they can make a difference. A great book to show children how a community rallied to make a positive change and that even a small gesture can make a huge difference. A great discussion opener on how we should treat each other.
Post a Comment
Read more

Review: Faker

By
Faker By Gordon Korman New York: Scholastic Press, 2024. Fiction. 214 pages. 12-year-old Trey is used to starting over at a new school -- he has the routine perfectly memorized: make new friends, introduce his dad to the wealthy parents of his new friends, and "Houdini" themselves out of there before they get caught running their latest scam. Trey's dad is a master con artist, and Trey has just been promoted to full-partner. Their new scheme for the next big score brings them to the affluent suburb of Boxelder, TN where Trey's dad has cooked up a fake electric car company for investors to buy into. The only problem is that Trey is starting to grow tired of moving around and never putting down roots, especially after forming a fast friendship with Logan and developing a crush on Kaylee, a socially conscious girl in his class. As Trey longs for a normal life, is there any way he can convince his dad to get out of the family business? Gordon Korman is a perennial favorit...
Post a Comment
Read more