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.FOUR STARRED REVIEWS!BooklistSchool Library JournalPublishers WeeklyThe Horn Book 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.Author: Kacen CallenderPublisher: Scholastic PressPublished: 02/04/2020Pages: 272Binding Type: HardcoverWeight: 0.80lbsSize: 8.30h x 5.80w x 0.90dISBN: 9781338129335Audience: Ages 9-12Accelerated Reader:Reading Level: 4.9Point Value: 7Interest Level: Middle GradeQuiz #/Name: 507429 / King and the DragonfliesAward: Coretta Scott King Award - Honor BookAward: National Book Awards - WinnerAward: Boston Globe-Horn Book Awards - WinnerReview Citation(s): Kirkus Reviews 12/01/2019Publishers Weekly 12/02/2019Bulletin of Ctr for Child Bks 01/01/2020School Library Journal 01/01/2020 pg. 66Booklist 01/01/2020 pg. 93Horn Book Magazine 01/01/2020 pg. 87Shelf Awareness 11/24/2020Hornbook Guide to Children 01/01/2020 - Outstanding, Noteworthy In StyleAbout the AuthorKacen 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.
