Recommended Ages: Gr. 3-6

Plot Summary: Riley has a class assignment to write a letter to a celebrity. Of course, she chooses to write to comedian Joy Powers, who is in a ton of videos that Riley watches often. But actually finding the right words is really difficult. Riley has questions about life and the world,

Setting:

Characters:
Riley Mayes - loves drawing, finds it difficult to write
Danny - Riley's older brother, walk to and from school together, sincere relationship where they actually talk but Riley doesn't feel comfortable sharing all of her thoughts and questions with Danny
Cate - Riley's classmate, friends with Whitney, loves Nyanland cat characters and stories
Aaron - new kid at school, has gay dads
Whitney - mean girl at school who calls Riley a lesbo as an insult

Recurring Themes: identity, friendship, belonging, fitting in, idols, crushes, family, LGBTQIA, confidence, questioning, letter writing

Controversial Issues:
pg 38 "Get ready to lose, LESBO." Whitney calls Riley a "lesbo" in a way that's meant to be mean but Riley isn't sure it's an insult

Personal Thoughts: Unfortunately the problems in the story are still based on negative opinions of those outside of the LGBTQIA community--Riley is called lesbo early in the book. However the main character explores the ideas of "am I gay?" and "is being gay bad?" in a child friendly way, using an obsession with a female celebrity as the source of the question "do I like her?" One of Riley's friends chooses to announce that she has a crush on a robot made when her friends are all obsessing about members of a boy band. These are all very much crushes and some kids are being teased for crushes with fake smooches.

On the other hand, Riley is confident and doesn't want to change, she just wants an answer to the question "am I gay?" A friend's gay dads are positive role models for her, even though their son is embarrassed and wants to share the news about his dads when kids have a chance to meet them.

Genre: realistic fiction

Pacing: fast, introspective but also friendships evolve quickly, graphic novel
Characters:
Frame:
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There's something really authentic about this book -- I don't know if it's Riley's kooky sense of humor, 5th grade friend hijinks going wrong, or Riley's general cluelessness about how to navigate her own feelings, but it rings true to me. She's just very definitely 100% herself and it's taking a while for her classroom to catch up to that. I also love the various storylines -- the friend who wants to mostly communicate in maps and cat-speak, the friend who wants to practice stunts all day -- kids being kids with all their single-mindedness. ( )

Riley Mays is in fifth grade. They love laughing and to make others laugh, they also love to draw. Their best friend moved away and now they must make new friends, especially if they’re going to talk their parents into art classes. This book is fantastic. In the beginning you didn’t know if Riley was a boy or a girl and it didn’t matter. You do find out about a fourth of the way through and that actually becomes part of the idea of this book. Who is Riley Mayes? Are they gay? Are they a lezbo? If they are will that ruin their life? Will they have friends still? Will that even matter? These are all questions that run through Riley‘s mind after being called a Lesbo. Riley realizes that maybe I am, maybe I’m not, but does it matter? This book was awesome. It fits a fifth grader so well. I think anybody could read this and learn something either about themselves or the people around them. I also think it shows that it is OK to not know who you are or be worried about who you are. If I had to compare this book to another, I would say this is gender queer for younger readers. It is not afraid to ask the questions and explore on levels appropriate for fifth grade. I loved absolutely everything about this book, however I am deathly afraid kids won’t be able to read it because of current book banning and book censorship problems in schools across our nation. Add to that problem Barnes & Noble only selling top notch authors this book could be hidden. Please don’t hide this book! Share it! Save it! Send it! Buy it! Use it! There are kids out there that need this book. And there are many people even if they do not need it will love it. ( )