The Rainbow Room

Tom Spanbauer's latest book, Now is the Hour, is the twenty-first century parallel to Mark Twain's The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn. Rigby John, the protagonist of Spanbauer's novel, is not much different from Twain's Huck Finn. Both young heroes do not fit neatly within the rigid rules of their societies. Huck is an orphan, and Rigby John might as well be one. Both characters are ridiculed by their peers for their differences, both observe the hypocrisies of religion, family values, and authority figures, and both must navigate through extremely violent worlds to find a peaceful place for themselves.

The most striking resemblance between Huck Finn and Rigby John is in their friendships with misunderstood, potentially dangerous men of color. Anyone who has read Huck Finn's story will always remember his travels with Jim, the runaway slave, and how Huck slowly began to see Jim as a friend and an equal. When Huck tore up the notice for Jim's reward, he decided that he was destined to go to Hell anyway, and that he was Jim's equal. In conservative Pocatello, Idaho, Rigby John encounters "Queer George", a Native American man despised by the white community. Rigby's relationship with George spans from fear to hatred to curiosity to love. While Jim teaches Huck what it means to be human, George takes it one step further. George teaches Rigby John what it means to love, and how to love oneself. Most importantly, George teaches Rigby John to love himself as a gay young man...something that Rigby John attempted to dodge and deny his entire life. In embracing George and his true self, Rigby John finds his peace.

Now is the Hour is a true coming out and coming of age story. Like The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, it belongs on the young adult shelf as well as the adult fiction section. Unfortunately, Now is the Hour will probably never make it into the young adult librarian's hands, and certainly not into the school librarian's office, because the novel is marketed to the adult market. Some reviews of Now is the Hour identify Rigby John as a gay teenager, others leave out this fact completely. Is the reviewer's decision to gloss over Rigby John's identity intended to lure heterosexual readers into reading the book, or to make librarians more likely to select the book for their collections?

Should Now is the Hour find a place in the YA section, it will enjoy the same dubious honor as The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn as being a frequently banned book. So many communities will be up in arms over one gentle boy's victory over schoolyard bullies, an abusive father, and the sentiments of a racist, homophobic town. This is just the troublesome sort of book that all teenagers should read in high school English class, in the hope that future generations will see all of their classmates as equal Americans.

To request Lambda Literary Foundation's review of Now is the Hour, as well as an interview with Tom Spanbauer, click here.

According to Literacy Matters, young adult literature

has developed into its own field for students spanning the ages of 10 to 21. YAL includes literature that has been specifically written for and marketed to young adolescents, as well as "anything young adults are reading of their own free will."

The umbrella term "adolescent literature" describes all of the forms of fiction: short stories, poetry, and literary essays. It also may include a variety of nonfiction forms, such as diaries, journals, biographies, and autobiographies. (www.literacymatters.org)

According to Wikipedia.com, young adult literature

"includes all works which are written for, published for, marketed to, or consumed by young adults, or books with themes that young adults might find interesting. A more strict definition of the term, however, defines young adult literature as that literature which deals with issues of adolescence, coming of age, and maturation into an adult. Occasionally the entire genre is stigmatized as problem novels, those books which focus on a child coping with an issue of concern to society or teens, such as eating disorders, sexuality, or drugs" (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Young_adult_literature)

One would think that the National Council of Teachers of English (NCTE) or the American Libraries Association (ALA) would provide a definition of young adult literature, but neither organization devoted to the promotion of literacy and reading materials for young adults dares to do so. NCTE defines adolescent literacy, and the types of materials that adolescents should read in order to increase their comprehension skills. Both organizations provide "recommended reading lists" for teachers, librarians, and teens, without offering a definition of the genre.

These definitions of young adult literature are critical to collection development and selection policies for young adult materials, particularly when selecting LGBTQI materials. Many novels about LGBTQI young adults end up in the adult fiction section. These novels may address the coming out process or the first sexual experience of a young LGBTQI person. They may address surviving prostitution, substance abuse, or some form of child abuse. They may address life with same sex parents. These stories are very real for many young adults who want to know if they are normal, or if any other people exist who are like them.

In many parts of the United States, public and school librarians face the challenge of providing appropriate materials for their young readers while satisfying "the needs of the community". How does a well-meaning librarian in a small religious community address the needs of a gay teen, should he be bold enough to approach the Reference Desk?

The Young Adult Library Services Association (YALSA), an ALA Task Force, is ambitious in its goal "to advocate, promote, and strengthen service to young adults as part of the continuum of total library services". YALSA

• Advocates the young adult's right to free and equal access to materials and services, and assists librarians in handling problems of such access.
• Evaluates and promotes materials of interest to adolescents through special services, programs and publications, except for those materials designed specifically for curriculum use.
• Identifies research needs related to young adult service and communicates those needs to the library academic community in order to activate research projects.
• Stimulates and promotes the development of librarians and other staff working with young adults through formal and continuing education.
• Stimulates and promotes the expansion of young adult service among professional associations and agencies at all levels.
• Represents the interests of librarians and staff working with young adults to all relevant agencies, governmental or private, and industries that serve young adults as clients or consumers.
• Creates and maintains communication links with other units of ALA whose developments affect service to young adults. (http://www.ala.org/ala/yalsa/aboutyalsab/yalsamission.htm)

An ambitious plan indeed, when libraries, schools, teachers, librarians, parents, and communities are not on the same page when it comes to young adult LGBTQI materials and services.

Dutch children's book team Linda De Haan and Stern Nijland, creators of the classic King and King picture book, have written a sequel: King and King and Family (Tricycle Press: 2004). While the first King and King picture book continues to cause uproars in schools and public libraries across the United States, King and King and Family is receiving harsh criticism from members of the LGBTQ community as well as religious conservatives.

The King and King stories are fairy tales, told in simple language with whimsical, energetic illustrations. The word "gay" never appears in the stories, and the kings only exchange one kiss on the mouth. The target audience, preschool to second grade, does not see a problem with this arrangement. Some even empathize with the prince in the first story as he unhappily must deal with the lines of princesses who are invited to the castle by his pushy mother. King and King clearly makes the case that, if there isn't a single princess that would tickle a young man's fancy, then it's OK if he chooses a prince. His domineering mother was OK with it, too, and so they have a wedding at the end of the first book.

De Haan and Nijland, two straight women, do not understand the controversy surrounding their books. In the Netherlands, same sex marriage has been legal since 2000, and homosexual activity had been decriminalized in 1811 under the Napoleonic Code. Freedoms and rights of the LGBTQ community in the United States, however, are dictated by state governments and local prejudice, not the federal government.

Schools and public libraries in Oklahoma, Louisiana, and North Carolina that acquired King and King had to put this lovable children's book, along with any other LGBT picture book, in the adults' section, so that parents could veto their young child's selection if they happened to pull it off the shelf. The Illinois Family Institute, in response to King and King, began a mass campaign to save marriage in Illinois. Even in Lexington, Massachusetts, where same sex marriage is legal, parents who do not support same sex relationships did not want their children to read King and King in school. Wouldn't those same children learn about same sex relationships anyway, as their classmates would be likely to have LGBTQ parents?

Believe it or not, LGBTQ parents have their own concerns about King and King and Family. In this story, Kings Lee and Bertie go on their honeymoon to a tropical paradise (with their cat, who had stowed away in their luggage). When they return home, the Kings discover that a runaway princess had stowed away in their luggage, and they decide to adopt her. LGBTQ parents and book reviewers had voiced some concerns about this setup: Why didn't the Kings make any attempt to find the girl's family or return the girl to her rightful family? Why couldn't a more realistic form of adoption had taken place in the story?

Just for the record: same sex couples in the Netherlands cannot adopt children, while some states in the USA allow same sex couples, or even single LGBTQ people, to do so. Adoption, or bearing children, remains a fantasy for many of us. Back to the children's book--it is just that, a children's book and a fairy tale at that. No one questions the reality of women finding much wanted children in peach pits or the bellies of fishes in other fairy tales. The King and King stories, unlike Heather Has Two Mommies or Daddy's Roomate, do not set out to educate children about same sex people, relationships, or families...they simply bring them to life. And if we truly celebrate diversity, then we must make allowances for gentle fantasy as well.

Once upon a time, two young men decided to collect non-fiction stories written by young adults about today's LGBTQI culture and coming out experiences. They created www.queerthology.com to explain the significance of their project and to encourage LGBTQI youth 23 years old or younger to submit their work. With the support of GLSEN (the Gay/Lesbian/Straight Educators Network), these two young men--David Levithan and Billy Merrell--published an anthology called The Full Spectrum : A New Generation of Writing about Gay, Lesbian, Bisexual, Transgender, Questioning, and Other Identities (New York: Alfred A. Knopf: 2006).

Reading this anthology from beginning to end is like riding an emotional roller coaster. From shame to sass, from fear to audaciousness, the tone of each piece reflects the range of adolescent self-confidence and coming of age rituals. Some of the stories could pass as "straight" teen stories, with themes such as the first date and the first kiss, choosing colleges, and surviving dysfunctional families.

Although the anthology calls itself "The Full Spectrum", it could do with more female voices. Of 40 stories, only twelve were authored by writers who identify as female. Nevertheless, it is a noble effort, one of the first attempts to record authentic voices of LGBTQI youth.