Dandelion Travels

September 1, 2022
Over the course of a summer spent away from home, a gay Black teen is able to stop hiding his truths. At school, Eric Wallace has been perceived as "the Angry Black Man" ever since he defended another queer student from a bully. When he is enraged, he feels overwhelmed and out of control. Around Andrea and Xavier, his friends who are very much in love with each other, Eric is haunted by a longing for Xavier that is fed by a memory of the night when they kissed. At home, Eric hides his emotions, sexuality, desire for dresses, and uncertainty about God from his preacher father and interior designer mother and tries to be "man enough / to be their son." But all his efforts to hide and pretend fall apart when he witnesses his father's infidelity. With Andrea and Xavier, Eric flies to Los Angeles, where he finds healing in the ocean, the possibility of new love, reckoning with himself, and unleashing his anger toward his father. This verse novel uses spare text in a large font with plenty of white space surrounding it to convey heavy, nuanced thoughts and emotions concerning identity, relationships, and coming-of-age. What the verse lacks in lyricism and rhythm, it makes up for in authentic and surprising content: The sparsely drawn characters feel alive on the page despite the simplicity of the poems. A strong, emotionally complex choice for reluctant readers. (Verse novel. 14-18)

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February 1, 2023

Gr 9 Up-In this novel in verse, high schooler Eric is carrying a lot. At home he feels like he has a "black cord/ wrapped around my throat." He skips school one day and catches his dad, a preacher, cheating on his mom. Gay, he has no patience for slurs and now has a reputation as an "angry black man." Eric has friends, Xavier and Andrea, but he exchanged a kiss at a party with Xavier, who is now dating Andrea, so it's awkward. When Andrea heads out to her rich uncle's beach house in California for the summer, Eric decides to defy his parents and go along. There, he has a "saltwater baptism" while swimming in the ocean and meets a cute boy at a party, leading to an intense, but doomed, fling. Through it all, he has a painful reckoning with Xavier and Andrea, goes home and receives the apology from his father that he's always wanted, and makes peace with his parents' divorce. The story, written at a second to third grade reading level, covers a lot, and much more is left between the lines. Romance is not described beyond light kissing. VERDICT An exploration of teen drama that will appeal to a wide range of high school readers.

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