This short describes a moment in the life of Angus Bethune, an overweight senior in high school with four gay parents. He is elected as King of the Winter Ball, a high school dance. The queen is the pretty popular girl all high schools guys wish they had. Through the ordeal Angus finds that you can't judge by appearances.

This story deals with, albeit a bit on the extreme side, the self esteem problems many teens face. Many kids may seem to see themselves as tragically flawed while everyone else is perfect. This story plays with that train of thought.

I really enjoyed this story. I was the opposite of the main character in high school weight wise. I know overweight kids may have a skewed sense of self esteem, but the same is true for underweight kids as well. This story offers something that almost every kid can relate to. ( )

In this short story, it talks about Angus Bethune having gay parents. It tells how he gets made fun of at school because of his name. Angus tells his mom that he was named after a cow. He perceives his situation as relatively normal.

Concerns I would have if I taught this to students would be that parents would not approve of this reading material because of the parents' situation. If I were to teach this we would discuss this situation before the class read this short story. You could make connections to real life through this story. Some people choose to live their lives differently than others. I would definitely not teach this material to students who have just started high school.

I would give this story a rating of 1. I personally did not like this story. Probably the reason I did not like this story, was because of the parents. I do not believe that is right based on my beliefs. Also, I did not like how the students made fun of his name. He could not help what his parents named him. ( )