Seventh-grader Martin McLean’s mother, an artist and single Afro Latina mom, loves being center stage, but Martin would rather be in the audience. He expresses himself best at his Mathletes competitions and when in the company of his best friends Carmen and Pickle. When another student in his class teases that he might be gay, however, Martin has a panic attack. He doesn’t tell his mother what caused the panic, “It’s not that I don’t think Mom would understand. It’s more that I don’t understand,” he explains. His mother, however, astutely calls in Martin’s Tío (Uncle) Billy to stay with them for a while. Martin knows Billy is gay, but it is only when Billy takes him to a drag show that Martin discovers Billy is also a drag queen.
Martin is entranced, and with Billy’s help, becomes the fabulous queen Lottie León, and learns to express himself through drag. He doesn’t want to let anyone at school know he does this, however, afraid that they’ll think he’s gay. Pickle and Carmen already suspect he is, though, and indicate that they would be supportive. Martin still isn’t sure about himself, though; author Alyssa Zaczek clearly conveys that being gay is an internal realization not necessarily connected to wanting to do drag. At the same time, she shows us Martin starting to have a crush on an eighth-grade boy.
The main conflict of the story emerges when it turns out that Martin’s first-ever drag show is the same night as the Mathletes’ regional championship. Martin will need to reveal parts of himself that he never has in order to enlist the help of his friends and pull off both events.
A significant secondary character uses a wheelchair, was adopted from Vietnam, and is being raised Jewish. Zaczek doesn’t just slap those identities on her, however, but has her and Martin engage in a thoughtful conversation about identity, biology, and family, and makes her a significant love interest for Pickle. Zaczek also weaves in a fair amount of Spanish and Spanglish into the conversations of Martin and his family, and also includes text conversations among Martin and his friends. This makes for a textured story showing some of the various ways that language manifests itself in modern lives.
This is a fun but warm tale of coming-of-age and coming out that should appeal not only to anyone with a hankering for drag, but also to geeky math-loving kids like Martin. Not least of its lessons is that it’s possible to be both.
