The Sky Blues

February 1, 2021

Gr 9 Up-High school senior Sky's coming out led to his religious, widowed mother kicking him out. He now lives with his best friend Bree, and she's helping him plan a "promposal" for his unsuspecting crush, Ali. Together, Bree and Sky write promposal ideas on the wall of his basement room, but when a picture of the wall gets e-blasted to seniors and parents, Sky goes into a tailspin. He is already kicked out, broke, unlikely to get even a community college scholarship, and now this? But more people have his back than he would have guessed. Bree, Ali, and many others decide to help Sky stand up to and expose the bully they know sent the e-blast-but in the end, is that really what Sky wants? Sky and Bree's families are white, and Sky's other friends and found family include characters who are Iraqi American, Black, autistic, and trans. In them, the author creates memorable, believable characters who inhabit vivid settings. Couch excels at crafting believable plot twists. This book includes mild swearing, sexual references, and high school partying. VERDICT This #OwnVoices story of a gay senior's tumultuous last semester takes Sky from despair to resilience as he realizes he has more support than he thought. Recommended for fans of David Levithan.-Rebecca Moore, The Overlake Sch., Redmond, WA

Copyright 2021 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2021
When a hateful, viral email exposes a gay teen's plan to ask his crush to prom, he and his friends rally together against the bigotry in their small Michigan town. The end of senior year looms on the horizon. After Sky came out as gay over the winter holidays, his conservative Christian mother kicked him out, and he moved in with his friend Bree, a wealthy girl with a supportive family. Sky's life explodes when someone hacks into the yearbook's weekly email newsletter and spreads an Islamophobic, homophobic message about his private plans to ask another boy to prom. Apart from Sky's crush, Ali, who is Iraqi American, and Sky's best friend, Marshall, who is Black, the characters are all White. Learning to understand race and privilege plays a role in the story for Sky; early on he states that he's among the few people close enough to Marshall to joke with him about race. Later he recognizes how many details about his friend's life he is unaware of. A minor trans character also serves as a learning opportunity for Sky. The characterization overall lacks depth: Ali's family's experience living in an area filled with MAGA supporters is not developed, and Bree's autistic 12-year-old brother, who has a neurotypical twin, is depicted in a way that feels infantilizing. However, the plot is suspenseful, the resolution is hopeful, and the story has positive moments--as with the casual, nonstigmatizing acknowledgement of porn. An optimistic but unremarkable coming-of-age narrative. (Fiction. 14-18)

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March 1, 2021
Grades 9-12 Let's face it, folks: out, 17-year-old senior Sky is head over heels in love with classmate Ali Rashid. Although Ali is probably straight, Sky plans to prompose to him in 30 days. In the meantime, Sky and one of his best friends, Bree, have covered one wall of Sky's bedroom with scribbled ideas for the definitive promposal. But then someone hacks the school yearbook's system and sends out, in an e-blast, two highly personal photos, one showing the promposal wall and the other saying Iraqi Ali is gay and a terrorist (he's neither). In reaction, Sky, Bree, Sky's other best friend Marshall, and Marshall's friend Teddy put their collective heads together to plot revenge. Ah, Teddy: why does Sky (now over Ali) get butterflies in his stomach whenever Teddy is around? Stay tuned. Couch's richly plotted first novel is a delight and an excellent contribution to the mainstreaming of LGBTQ+ content. Add to the clever plot a clutch of appealing characters and you have an unqualified success.

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