Review of Rainbow Boys

Sanchez, Alex Rainbow boys New York: Shuster & Simon Children’s Publishing Division, 2001

Rainbow boys takes a multi-perspective look at the lives of three high school seniors as they strive to understand their place in the world as gay men. Jason starts out the story coming to an LGBT meeting and sees two kids from his school, Kyle, a shy swimmer and Nelson, the most expressively out person in their high school. As the story progresses, Jason explores his attraction to Kyle after he is rejected by his girlfriend when telling her he was questioning his sexuality. Nelson strives to compensate by looking to others to fill the void left by Kyle, who had been his secret crush/best friend. After a one night stand with Brick, an online predator, Nelson possibly contracts AIDS. Through the strength of other members of the Rainbow youth group, Nelson is able to come to terms with this possibility and with the help of Kyle, helps start a gay straight alliance at their high school.

By using language familiar to the teenage audience, the novel becomes more accessible to the reader and more believable as well. The novel takes a realistic portrayal of the way GLBTQ students are reacted to in the high school setting as well as the internalization each character takes for these reactions. The book does endanger it’s reputation by inserting the AIDS virus as being spread by a malicious older man preying on gay teens, which reinforces stereotypes. It was great to see the ways that different parents reacted differently to their son coming out so show the diversity of the situation.

As an insider writer, Alex Sanchez created a great read for teens curious about the dilemmas that gay teens face as well as the triumph associated with being able to accept yourself for who you are. Alex Sanchez was challenged as an outside by being both a Mexican immigrant as well as being gay. The amount of firsthand experience Sanchez has with this topic is proved through his fluid dialogue about the subject. This would be a good read for high school students because of the sexual themes but I believe in certain middle school classrooms, this book could be introduced as well. It would provide a useful tool in giving closeted students characters to relate to in addition to showing other students the similarities between their lives and others.