King and the Dragonflies (National Book Award Winner)

King and the Dragonflies (National Book Award Winner)

by Kacen Callender
King and the Dragonflies (National Book Award Winner)

King and the Dragonflies (National Book Award Winner)

by Kacen Callender

Hardcover

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Overview

Notes From Your Bookseller

When King’s brother Khalid dies unexpectedly, he’s left reeling with Khalid’s final advice to end his friendship with his best friend over rumors that he’s gay. However, he soon learns that Sandy is being abused by his father and vows to help him. Poignant, heartbreaking, but so important, King and the Dragonflies explores race, sexuality, grief and identity in a relatable way for middle-grade readers.

A 2021 Coretta Scott King Honor Book!

Winner of the 2020 National Book Award for Young People's Literature!

Winner of the 2020 Boston Globe-Horn Book Award for Fiction and Poetry!

In a small but turbulent Louisiana town, one boy's grief takes him beyond the bayous of his backyard, to learn that there is no right way to be yourself.

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Twelve-year-old Kingston James is sure his brother Khalid has turned into a dragonfly. When Khalid unexpectedly passed away, he shed what was his first skin for another to live down by the bayou in their small Louisiana town. Khalid still visits in dreams, and King must keep these secrets to himself as he watches grief transform his family.

It would be easier if King could talk with his best friend, Sandy Sanders. But just days before he died, Khalid told King to end their friendship, after overhearing a secret about Sandy-that he thinks he might be gay. "You don't want anyone to think you're gay too, do you?"

But when Sandy goes missing, sparking a town-wide search, and King finds his former best friend hiding in a tent in his backyard, he agrees to help Sandy escape from his abusive father, and the two begin an adventure as they build their own private paradise down by the bayou and among the dragonflies. As King's friendship with Sandy is reignited, he's forced to confront questions about himself and the reality of his brother's death.

The Thing About Jellyfish meets The Stars Beneath Our Feet in this story about loss, grief, and finding the courage to discover one's identity, from the author of Hurricane Child.


Product Details

ISBN-13: 9781338129335
Publisher: Scholastic, Inc.
Publication date: 02/04/2020
Pages: 272
Sales rank: 1,095,498
Product dimensions: 5.50(w) x 8.25(h) x 0.90(d)
Lexile: 830L (what's this?)
Age Range: 8 - 12 Years

About the Author

Kacen Callender is a bestselling and award-winning author of multiple novels for children, teens, and adults, including King and the Dragonflies, winner of the National Book Award, Coretta Scott King Honor, and Lambda Literary Award; and Hurricane Child, winner of the Lambda Literary Award and Stonewall Honor Award, and the bestselling novel Felix Ever After. They live in US Virgin Islands.

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