King and the Dragonflies

When Sandy goes missing, King blames himself. If he hadn’t abandoned his best friend then maybe things would not have got to this point. Yet what was he to do, for Khalid had overheard Sandy tell King that he was gay. When King admitted that he thought he might be too, Khalid had warned him, ‘You don’t want anyone thinking you’re gay too.‘ What is King to do? He doesn’t know how to think about Sandy, or Jasmine. All he feels is completely lost without his friend, but most of all without his brother, Khalid.

There’s such an emptiness in every place that King goes without his big brother. It seems like his parents won’t talk about it, yet now their father is telling King that he loves him when he drops him off at school. He’s never done this before. King knows that Jasmine likes him. While he likes her, is it a boyfriend- girlfriend feeling? King doesn’t know. He seeks signs of Khalid in the dragonflies along the bayou. A dragonfly appeared at Khalid’s funeral, and King knows that was a sign.

King and the Dragonflies is an emotional, thought provoking story rich in confusion, considerations and opportunities for conversation. Who are we? What compels our relationships? What makes us feel the way we do, from Sheriff Sanders who is so evidently racist toward black people like King’s family? Or even to King’s father, who says that you can’t be black and gay? Bookwagon recommends this book for mature middle grade readers.