It Looks Like This

by Rafi Mittlefehldt

Overview

“A haven of understanding for readers who have felt the foolish hand of ignorance trying to prevent them from knowing, being, and loving who they are.” — Kirkus Reviews

A new state, a new city, a new high school. Mike’s father has already found a new evangelical church for the family to attend, even if Mike and his little sister don’t want to go. Dad wants Mike to ditch art for sports, to toughen up, but then Mike meets Sean, another new kid, and “hey” becomes games of basketball, partnering on a French project, hanging out after school. A night at the beach. But Mike’s father is always watching. Rafi Mittlefehldt tells a wrenching tale of first love and loss that exposes the undercurrents of a tidy suburban world.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781536200430
Publisher:	Candlewick Press
Publication date:	04/10/2018
Edition description:	Reprint
Pages:	336
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 7.70(h) x 1.00(d)
Lexile:	HL690L (what's this?)
Age Range:	14 - 17 Years

About the Author

 

Editorial Reviews

It Looks Like This looks to be the debut novel of the season. Mike and Sean’s discovery of their love for each other is told with such exquisite tenderness, I could not put the book down, even when I knew that something dreadful was going to happen. Despite many obstacles, Mike comes into his own with the help of understanding friends, a few kind adults, a faithful dog, and Toby, the greatest little sister since Phoebe Caulfield. This is an extremely powerful book.
—Lesléa Newman, author of October Mourning: A Song for Matthew Shepard

It Looks Like This perfectly captures the buzzing static that hits your brain the second you realize you’re not the person your parents expect you to be. A painful, poignant story about choosing compassion over anger.
—Maggie Thrash, author-illustrator of Honor Girl, a Los Angeles Times Book Prize Finalist

The first-person narrative is easy, casual, and calm and indicative of Mike, whose quiet perceptiveness can be misconstrued by outsiders as passivity (no speech marks make the dialogue feel direct and intimate)...A haven of understanding for readers who have felt the foolish hand of ignorance trying to prevent them from knowing, being, and loving who they are.
—Kirkus Reviews

There is a grace in the slow reconciliation of Mike with his family; hard-won connections feel authentic as Mike’s dad slowly thaws long after his mother has adjusted. Mike’s wry, wise-beyond-her-years sister, Toby, is a contemporary Phoebe Caulfield, and she bears a lot of social risk to protect her big brother. There are plenty of sunny coming-out stories; this stark reminder that being gay can also still mean getting prayed over at straight camp or being shunned is also, unfortunately, part of the lived experience. It’s handled with beauty and care here, and the concluding muted hopefulness is perfectly aligned with the novel’s arc.
—Bulletin of the Center for Children's Books

Debut author Mittlefehldt’s direct style of writing cuts to the heart of Mike’s struggle to embrace his true self and to take control of his life, bringing freshness to a familiar plot. The story is propelled in small, quiet moments that steadily build toward much-deserved hope and acceptance.
—Publishers Weekly

It Looks Like This tackles first love, bullying, religion, finding yourself, and forgiveness...Mittlefehldt pens a coming-out story that does not have a happy ending, but gives hope towards a more tolerant future for Mike and his family.
—VOYA

A moving...examination of the costs of homophobia.
—School Library Journal

This first novel is a powerful, sympathetic, and insightful look at what goes through the mind of gay kids when the understanding of their identity hits. The confusion of adolescence is written about with empathy and compassion.
—School Library Connection

From the Publisher

2016-06-01
Ignorance takes a parent from powerful to pitiful in this steady coast through tragic heartbreak and retribution.Fourteen-year-old Mike is starting high school in a new city after he, his parents, and younger sister, Toby, move eastward from Wisconsin to Virginia. He has a tight circle of outsider friends, a burgeoning artistic talent, an offensive chain-smoking nemesis named Victor, and a crush on a handsome, older classmate named Sean. A French class assignment pairs Sean and Mike together, and the frissons of excitement when he is near comfortable, confident Sean commence with a regularity that thrills Mike. It's incredible and feels good and right. Then why is Sean's father casting suspicious glances? Why does Mike's ultraconservative, religious father want him to play sports so badly? And why does Toby face swift punishment in order to defend Mike from a Baptist, Bible-banging grandmother who calls him "soft"? The first-person narrative is easy, casual, and calm, indicative of Mike, whose quiet perceptiveness can be misconstrued by outsiders as passivity (no speech marks make the dialogue feel direct and intimate). Sean's race isn't explicitly identified, but his brown skin offers respite from a snow-white landscape. A haven of understanding for readers who have felt the foolish hand of ignorance trying to prevent them from knowing, being, and loving who they are. (Fiction. 14-18)

Kirkus Reviews