Most characters have either gone through it already before the book starts or they always knew and never went through any real questioning but more of a coming to terms. Rick’s questioning is so important because there are not enough novels about questioning queerness. So if kids can learn to identify these relationships and how to deal with them early on this is a great thing.Īlong with this storyline the rest of Rick mainly focussed on Rick questioning his queerness as well as learning about the queer community and some identities within it. I think this message of dropping toxic people and friendships was really important because even as an adult this is incredibly hard. Eventually, though, Rick learns that just because someone is nice to you doesn’t mean they’re a nice person. Rick sees Jeff through rose tinted glasses and the fact that Jeff is nice to him makes Rick forgive his awful behaviour to others. I was so happy about this! And when I realised that Rick’s best friend was the one who was so horrible to Melissa in primary school I realised that it was beyond time for Rick to drop him and find new friends.īut that doesn’t happen instantly because Rick has been friends with Jeff for an incredibly long time, and they’re best friends.

Rick is kind of a companion novel to George and Melissa has a minor role in the book. I’m just glad this book exists for kids in general. And I did! Rick was just the book I thought it would be, and like George I am so glad it exists for young queer kids as well as questioning kids and kids who aren’t queer. I absolutely adored Gino’s book George so when I heard about Rick I knew I was going to read it, and I had a pretty good idea that I was going to enjoy it.

Even if it means breaking some old friendships and making some new ones.Īs they did in their groundbreaking novel George, in Rick, award-winning author Alex Gino explores what it means to search for your own place in the world … and all the steps you and the people around you need to take in order to get where you need to be. Rick wants his own life to be that … understood.

One of them leads to the school’s Rainbow Spectrum club, where kids of many genders and identities congregate, including Melissa, the girl who sits in front of Rick in class and seems to have her life together. And he hasn’t given his own identity much thought, because everyone else around him seemed to have figured it out.īut now Rick’s gotten to middle school, and new doors are opening. He’s let his father joke with him about which hot girls he might want to date even though that kind of talk always makes him uncomfortable. He’s gone along with his best friend Jeff even when Jeff’s acted like a bully and a jerk. How: A copy of this novel was provided by Scholastic Australia for review.

Books by alex gino