Boy meets Boy

Reason Book Chosen

I chose this book because I heard via friends and cohorts that it was a good read. Also, I have read a lot of queer books, and was told that  “this one was different”. It was quirky and spirited and not heart wrenching and depressing. This book also won the Lamdbda Literary Award.

Bibliographic Information

Author: David Levithan

Publisher: Knopf Books for Young Readers

ISBN: 0375824006

Copyright Date: 2003

Genre

Romance, magical realism

About the Author

This is Levithan’s first book. Since, he has written Nick and Nora’ Infinite playlist, which was adapted to a movie. Levithan is also the editor of PUSH, a young-adult imprint of Scholastic Press focusing on new voices and new authors and putting out cutting edge materials.

Reader’s Annotation

What happens when you are told you are “definitely gay and have a good sense of self” on your kindergarten report guard?”

Plot Summary

Paul is told on his kindergarten report card that he is “Definitely Gay and has a good sense of self.” He continues as such, forming a gay straight alliance in the sixth grade and taking boys to his fifth grade formals. He lives in a small town where all the gay and straight teens party together. Paul, now a sophomore in high school, is popular, and even wins school counsel in an election. Paul’s parents are supportive of his homosexuality, and Paul has close, quirky friends, Joni and Infinite Darlene, among others, whom he runs around town with. Although Paul exists in an imaginative gay utopia, at least once, he has to create a sanctuary for his not-out friend Tony, because Tony’s parents are overbearing and conservative Christians. Paul meets a new boy in school, Noah, their relationship develops, and Paul eventually has to deal with unresolved feelings from his past relationship with Kyle.

Critical Analysis

This book is charming, as are its quirky characters. The plot and setting are fantastical in nature and somewhat magical. Paul’s world is the world any gay teenager might invent were they to create an image of the world that they would like to inhabit. As such, it is a good example of what might exist in an ideal world.  It is refreshing to see a queer novel that does not have a struggling down and out protagonist living in an oppressive environment. This book, however, does not paint a very realistic portrait of the life of most gay teens, which some readers will find fault with.

Themes/Tags/Issues

Homosexuality, coming out, relationships, friendship, first love, 

Controversial Subject Matters

Homosexuality

Defense – It is the picture of a well-adjusted, social connected gay person. It is hopeful. It is not preachy. It is more about love than it is about sex. There are no graphic sex scenes.

Escapism/Unrealistic Portrayal

Defense: The novel’s intent is not to portray life as is for a gay teen, but to act more as a prophecy

Booktalking Ideas

Setting Hook - If you could imagine your ideal world, what would it look like? Who would be in it? Would there be painted music, conversations in gibberish? Would you have to dance with the painting of a woman at a high school dance? This is Paul’s wacky world.

Character Hook- Paul – A well adjusted, popular, gay teen

This book is not a PSA. You will not find depressed, ostracized, gay boys playing emo music in their rooms and drawing pictures of runaway maps to San Francisco.

Reading Level

 12+

Interest Level

12-17