Openly Straight by Bill Konigsberg ~LGBTQ Genre~

Image from Heather Childs

Konigsberg, Bill. Openly Straight. New York: Arthur A. Levine Books, 2013. Print.

Hardcover, $17.99, ISBN-13: 978-0-545-50990-9

Annotation
Rafe attends an all boys prep school to start anew without his gay label.  Rafe decides to hide his true identity but it does not go as he planned.

Booktalk
Seamus Rafael Goldberg (Rafe) is an openly gay boy who is accepted in his small town, but he hates being defined by that fact.  Rafe decides to go to an all-boys prep school and start anew without his gay label.  Rafe discovers that it is not easy to hide apart of yourself and everyone is defined by some label, either good or bad.  This book focuses on accepting yourself and being honest with the people you care about.  See how Rafe handles being Openly Straight.

Awards 

~Sid Fleischman Award for Humor

~Amelia Elizabeth Walden Award Finalist

~Lambda Literary Award Finalist

~YALSA’s Best Fiction for Young Adults, 2014

~YALSA Teens’ Top Ten nominee, 2014

~Texas Library Association’s TAYSHAS List (Top Ten Title)

~CCBC (Cooperative Children’s Book Center, University of Wisconsin) Choices Lost, 2014

~Best Books of the Year for Children and Young Adults, Children’s Book 

~Notable Book for a Global Society Award – IRA Children’s Literature and Reading SIG

~Georgia Peach Award nominee

~North Carolina Young Adult Book Award nominee

~Capital Choices Noteworthy Books for Teens List