King and the Dragonflies by Kacen Callender

The sudden death of his older brother forces an African American boy to confront his loneliness, grief, and shame, but to ultimately own his truth and find self-acceptance.

When Khalid James, 16, overhears his younger brother Kington's white best friend Sandy Sanders secretly telling him he's gay, he tells King not to hang out with Sandy anymore. After all, King doesn't want people to think he's gay, too, does he? And King, because he loves and looks up to his brother, stops being friends with Sandy, even though he didn't want to. But King has a secret, too. Would Khalid stop loving him if he knew King's secret?

Shortly after that, Khalid suddenly dies while playing basketball. With unresolved issues, King can't let go of his brother. At the funeral, when a dragonfly suddenly flies into the church and lands on Khalid's casket. King takes it as a sign that his brother isn't really gone, he's just become a dragonfly.

And so everyday, King walks to the bayou in his Louisiana town where the dragonflies are, looking for Khalid, desperate to keep a connection with him. Later, at night, he reads the journal he had kept of the things Khalid said in his sleep, describing his vivid dreams about the different worlds he visited at night. And King takes comfort in his own dreams about Khalid.

And it's at the bayou, that he runs into Sandy Sanders, who offers to listen if King needs to talk, an offer King rejects. That night at dinner, however, King learns that Sandy Sanders has gone missing, and even though King knows he's probably the last person to see Sandy, he doesn't say anything about it - not to his parents, not even to his friends at school.

But then King discovers Sandy hiding in his backyard tent, and once again, secrets are revealed when Sandy confirms King's suspicions that his father Sheriff Sanders, whom King knows is a scary racist, is also cruel and abusive at home and Sandy is his prime target. Despite Khalid's warning not to hang out with Sandy, the two former best friends begin to talk again. When it becomes dangerous for Sandy to live in the tent, they move him into an empty, rundown fishing shack not far from where King watches the dragonflies.

There, they reignite their friendship, but when Sandy is discovered sleeping in the shack, he decides it's time to run away and wants King to come with him, King finds himself even more conflicted. To begin with, his parents, so grief stricken by Khalid's death, are beginning to move on with life and want King to do the same, but he just can't do that yet. And more and more, King is admitting to himself that he doesn't like girls the same way he likes boys. But his brother's words keep coming back to him and King knows that in a small, southern homophobic town, being gay and black isn't going to be easy. Maybe he should run away, too.

King is a 12-year-old with a lot on his plate and no one to talk to now that Khalid is gone. Kacen Callender has caught King's anger about Khalid's death, his unresolved issue of whether or not Khalid would still love him knowing King's secret, and his confusion about his sexuality so realistically it's hard to remember King is a fictional character. The family dynamics are also spot on, giving the reader just enough of a glimpse to see what a happy family the James' were before losing Khalid, and contrasting it to who they became as they processed their grief and bereavement, his mother's retreat into her grief, his father trying to hold it together and finally breaking down.

And as if Callender's well-drawn character's aren't enough, he throws in one more - a small town in Louisiana, complete with the humidity, the heat, sweaty clothes, insects, racists, and rumors. The nuanced setting added so much ambiance of King's world.

King and the Dragonflies is a thought provoking coming of age/coming out novel. King's conflicts and his confusion about how to define himself without Khalid are palpable, emotional, and moving. This is a novel not to be missed.

This book is recommended for readers age 9+
This book was an ARC provided by the publisher, Scholastic Press