Rainbow Boys - by Alex Sanchez (Paperback)

About the Book

This ALA Best Book for Young Adults and "Publishers Weekly" Best Book of 2002 introduces Jason Carillo, a popular high school jock with a secret. When he musters up the courage to attend a nearby meeting for gay teens, he runs into two of his classmates.

Book Synopsis

A Time Best YA Book of All Time (2021)

Navigating through the intolerant world of the early aughts and their own insecurities, three teenage boys find each other and the confidence to come out of the closet in this seminal queer coming-of-age novel.

Jason Carillo is a jock with a steady girlfriend. He's on track to play ball, marry his high school sweetheart, and get as far away from his abusive dad as possible--but that's if he can get into college with his shaky math grades...and if he can stop dreaming about having sex with guys.

Kyle Meeks is definitely gay, but he's not planning on telling anyone, least of all his parents. All he wants is to keep his head down and get through high school without incident--until Jason asks him for help in math and all of a sudden, Kyle is spending long hours with a boy he's always found cute and it's getting harder and harder to keep his feelings under wraps.

Nelson Glassman is out and loud about it, but being proud of who you are doesn't mean things don't get lonely. He's got a target on his back for the school bullies to kick, and while his mom supports him, she doesn't entirely understand him. To make things worse, he and his best friend--and longtime crush--Kyle have been spending more and more time apart, and he doesn't know how to deal.

Messy, honest, and raw, Rainbow Boys follows these three boys as they come of age and come out of the closet in the early aughts in one of the most revolutionary young adult novels in the last quarter century.

Review Quotes

James Howe author of The Watcher An important, groundbreaking book, Rainbow Boys takes an honest look at gay teen life today. The characters are enormously appealing and the situations as contemporary as the evening news. This is a book that could change thinking -- and could very well change lives.

Nancy Garden author of Annie on My Mind and Good Moon Rising There are still woefully few books for young adults that explore in depth the coming-out process of young gay men. Alex Sanchez touches on nearly all the issues involved, taking his readers on a journey through the world of three gay teenagers as they struggle with virginity, sex, body image, denial, support groups, homophobia, activism, gay bashing, parental and peer reactions, Internet predators, HIV -- and love.

Patricia Nell Warren author of The Front Runner Rainbow Boys may do for high-schoolers what Heather Has Two Mommies did for grade-schoolers -- inspire acceptance of gayness in both straight students and about-to-come-out students.

About the Author

Alex Sanchez spent almost fifteen years working with youth. He is the author of the teen novels Boyfriends with Girlfriends, Bait, The God Box, Getting It, Rainbow Boys, Rainbow High, and Rainbow Road, as well as the Lambda Award-winning middle grade novel So Hard to Say. Lambda Literary honored Alex with a Jim Duggins, PhD Outstanding Mid-Career Novelists' Prize. He lives in Thailand and Hollywood, Florida. Visit him at AlexSanchez.com.