Told through the voice of a 12-year-old younger brother, this is a sympathetic and supportive story of a young gay teen's coming out. Bennett has always been different, and though he is a talented athlete and musician, he has few friends. His younger brother, Matthew, watches as Bennett's eighth-grade year falls apart when he is outed by cruel classmates. At first Matthew is shocked and disgusted to learn that his brother is gay, but he overcomes his initial homophobic reaction, and so do his parents. Bennett becomes obsessed with the construction of an enormous rainbow-colored kite, a rather obvious but still effective symbol. When the hate crimes get to him, he attempts suicide, but the community rallies to his support in a moving (if perhaps unrealistic) finale. Shyer's depiction of the gay teen through his brother's eyes creates a complex portrait of one person's coming out, filtering Bennett's pain through Matthew's love. Though there is plenty of plot development, this is a character-driven story, with a cast that includes refreshingly complex adults.

Twelve-year-old Matthew narrates his gay older brother Bennett's coming out--an event precipitated by some junior-high-school bullies. Matthew and Bennett's homophobic father's conversion to tolerance is implausibly quick and clean, and the book suffers from some melodramatic telegraphing of information and the sense that Shyer is straining for a child's voice. But overall, the novel is well observed and nuanced.

Gr 7-10 Related from his younger brother's point of view, this painful story tells of lonely, "irregular" Bennett, 15, who endures the daily taunts of school bullies and the repeated lectures of his disappointed father. When he actually makes friends with a new neighbor, Jeremy, and they hatch a plan to make and fly a giant kite over their eighth-grade graduation, the family is ecstatic. But on the night of the rainbow kite's unveiling, Bennett's world explodes when a gang commits a homophobic hate crime. Dad reacts with shame and denial, Jeremy is forbidden to see Bennett, and Bennett responds by releasing his "fag flag" to the sky and jumping off a bridge. Fortunately, he is rescued, but rumors soon spread. The teen refuses to speak to anyone or attend his graduation until lesbian neighbors save the day with the perfect graduation giftan orphaned puppy, Leonardo, who is different because he has six toes. When Bennett's name is called at the ceremony, the audience bursts into applause, Jeremy and schoolmates take off their caps to reveal rainbow-colored hair, and the principal hugs Bennett, apologizing for the torment he has endured. Dad is suddenly proud, talking about a gay Leonardo da Vinci, and everyone is all smiles. This is a happy but unconvincing ending for an often heart-wrenching story. Although for a slightly older audience, Alex Sanchez's Rainbow Boys (S & S, 2001) is a more realistic look at the struggles of coming out. Betty S. Evans, Southwest Missouri State University, Springfield