This semi-autobiographical story by Nancy Lapointe shows a mother and sister supporting Sparky as he grows from toddler to college student and eventually comes out as gay. As a toddler, he prefers to play with dolls rather than with the other boys who are hitting each other with sticks (though this feels like a choice most sensible children would make). As he gets older, we see that he also likes to play dress up in women’s clothes, read the book his gay uncles gave him, and prefers artwork to contact sports. His sister wonders if all of that means he’s gay. His mother smartly responds that none of those things make him gay. As to whether he might be, however, his mother says, “Maybe. Maybe not. He will figure it out someday, and he will probably tell us,” adding, “Sparky’s gay when he says he’s gay.” When Sparky makes a decorative food tray, his grandfather praises it and says to him, “I like your creativity. Is my favorite grandson gay?” Sparky himself replies, “I’m gay when I say I’m gay,” and notes that his grandfather likes flowers, but that doesn’t make him (the grandfather) gay. I like the point that we shouldn’t ever assume someone is gay until they tell us (though “if” instead of “when” might have made the point more clearly).
A few years later, Sparky draws a picture that says, “I like boys/I like girls,” and tells his mother he’s “confused.” She replies that that is okay, and that she had crushes on both boys and girls at his age.
Sparky is also teased and kicked by a bully. His sister explains to their mother that the bully tried to “out” Sparky in front of the whole school, but that she told the bully, “Sparky’s gay when HE says he’s gay.” Lapointe doesn’t explain what it means to “out” someone, however—and in any case, the use of the term implies that the sister still thinks Sparky is actually gay (if he was straight, he couldn’t be outed), which runs counter to the point that we shouldn’t assume what his identity is until he tells us.
In high school, Sparky dons a sparkly tux and goes to the prom with a girl who praises him for his dancing. Finally, home from his first semester in college, he tells his mother he’s dating a nurse named Daniel who is “fun and super hot”—and “Yes, I’m gay!” His mother takes him and his sister out to dinner to celebrate.
The theme of family support is strong here, and that is the best part of this book. Young readers, however, may not even know what being gay is (Lapointe never explains), and may have no idea of the stereotypes associated with it, making the sister’s and grandfather’s assumptions about why they think he’s gay rather puzzling. On the other hand, those readers who are familiar with LGBTQ identities may also wonder why Sparky’s gender creativity makes people think he’s gay, as opposed to any other queer identity. (He could have been genderqueer or bisexual, for example.) In the end, though, Sparky himself clarifies what his identity is, and that’s great—but the narrative issues, along with clunky dialog, take away from this well-intentioned story that shows a young, gender creative boy growing up to be a confident gay man.
