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 an intolerant world and their own insecurities, three teenage boys find each other and the confidence to come out of the closet.

Three teenage boys, coming of age and out of the closet. Jason Carrillo is a jock with a steady girlfriend, but he can't stop dreaming about sex...with other guys. Kyle Meeks doesn't look gay, but he is. And he hopes he never has to tell anyone--especially his parents. Nelson Glassman is "out" to the entire world, but he can't tell the boy he loves that he wants to be more than just friends...

In a revealing debut novel that percolates with passion and wit, Alex Sanchez follows these very different high-school seniors as their struggles with sexuality and intolerance draw them into a triangle of love, betrayal, and ultimately, friendship.

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 Foundation honored Alex with an Outstanding Mid-Career Novelists' Prize. He lives in Thailand and Hollywood, Florida. Visit him at AlexSanchez.com.