Rick by Alex Gino

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Rick has been best friends with Jeff all during grade school.  Jeff is nice to Rick, even restarting a game with Rick comes over so they can play together.  But when both boys start middle school Rick starts to see that Jeff sometimes acts like a jerk to other kids, especially kids from the Rainbow Spectrum club.  What Jeff doesn't know is that Rick kind of likes several of the kids in the club. As Rick gets closer to his new friends, maintaining his old friendship with Jeff gets more difficult.  

This is a sequel, of sorts, to Gino's book, George.  George, now Melissa, is one of the Rainbow Spectrum friends in this story.  In some ways I liked this story because is models how a kid who is not LBGTQ can interact in positive ways with kids who are.  There is even a discussion about preferred pronouns both in the narrative and at the end of the book.  The book also explains different ways the LBGTQ community members describe themselves; gay, lesbian, bi, poly, etc.  There were a couple of things I didn't like about the book.  It was pretty over simplified.  Jeff is the big bad homophobe, and the Spectrum kids are kind, self-assured, and inclusive.  In the end, (spoiler allert) when George decides to tell on Jeff, there is no discussion about repercussions, though in real life, if you squeal on a friend (or former friend) you are likely to be ostracized or even beat up in a back ally later. So, in a way, this felt a little more like a wish fulfillment rather than a real life story. Lastly, I don't think many kids who are 12 or 13 are as sure of their sexual identity as the Spectrum kids are.  Can you really be so sure you are bi or poly even before puberty? (223 p. 2020)