Written by: Kacen Callender

Cover Art by: Tonya Engel

For ages: YA

Language: English

Topics Covered: POC-Centric Narratives, Family, LGBTQ, Death, Relationships, Friendship.

Summary: We got this book from a friend who received a pre-release copy from the ALA Conference!  We are so excited to have been able to both read and review the book before the release date, because it was incredible!

King’s brother, Khalid, has just died.  He died abruptly, and King’s family is in shambles.  King is also trying to reconcile with who he is as a person along with the grief consuming him.  A few months before Khalid’s death, Khalid overheard King and his friend Sandy talking late one night during a backyard camp out.  Sandy had confessed to King that he was gay, and King responded that he might be gay too.  Khalid told King the next morning that he heard them in the tent, and that King shouldn’t hang around with Sandy anymore or people would start to think that King was gay too.  So King stopped being friends with Sandy, but King misses him and is filled with guilt about the ordeal.

King is also convinced that Khalid is now a dragonfly, that he shed his human skin and is now travelling the world as a jewel-toned bug.  On his way to the bayou to look for Khalid the dragonfly, King runs into Sandy for the first time in a few months and also the first time since Khalid’s death.  They have a brief conversation, and part ways.  When Sandy turns up missing, King is worried he’ll be implicated if anyone finds out that he was possibly the last person to see Sandy.

It takes a trip to Mardi Gras, letting go of secrets, and a wonderful Auntie to help the James family become close again.  Nothing we can write about the book can do the plot justice, and convey the emotion and strength in Callender’s words.  Highly recommend, I read this in a single afternoon!

About the Author & the Cover Artist:

Born and raised in St. Thomas of the US Virgin Islands, Kacen Callender is the award-winning author of the middle-grade novels Hurricane Child and King and the Dragonflies, the young-adult novels This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story and Felix Ever After, and the adult novel Queen of the Conquered.

​Kacen was previously an Associate Editor of Little, Brown Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, where they acquired and edited novels including Tyler Johnson Was Here by Jay Coles, the New York Times bestseller Internment by Samira Ahmed, and the Stonewall Honor award-winning novel Ivy Aberdeen’s Letter to the World by Ashley Herring Blake.

​They enjoy playing RPG video games in their free time, and they really wish they had a dog.

​Kacen currently resides in Philadelphia, PA.

Tonya Engel is the cover artist for this stunning book!