Kyle Casey Chu, aka Panda Dulce, a founding queen of Drag Story Hour, brings us the tale of rising eighth grader Derrick Chan, a basketball star at his Georgia high school, whose teammates don’t know he wears toenail polish and lip syncs in his bathroom mirror. The Chinese American Derrick is looking forward to summer basketball camp, though, until his widowed father tells him they can’t afford it. While his dad takes a job out of town, Derrick has to go stay with his grandmother Claudia, who has long been estranged from Derrick’s dad for reasons unknown.
Claudia is a free spirit whose sewing skills have helped clothe contestants for Tybee County’s Queen Bee Junior Pageant. Derrick is dazzled by her creations. His basketball footwork skills also lead him to become a stand-in for a contestant at the pageant practice one day. Gradually, he starts to realize both his love of drag and his queer identity, with a little help from two new friends, roller-derby-loving Ro and photographer Giles, who is also queer.
Derrick wants to express this new side of himself, even if it might not sit well in conservative Tybee County. But what will both his father and his old teammate (and crush) JJ think? Old family secrets come to light even as new challenges arise and Derrick tries to figure out how to face them.
While thoughtfully exploring Derrick’s emerging queer identity, Chu interweaves this with a look at issues of racism and belonging (or not) that have long simmered in the town and in the characters’ lives. And Chu’s deep understanding of drag and what it can mean are evident throughout, with lyrical phrases about the power and beauty of drag and the “dazzling feeling … of being someone worth noticing.”
At the same time, it’s notable that Derrick ultimately loves both drag and basketball; this isn’t the story of an effeminate queer boy being forced into sports, but rather that of a queer boy who comes to embrace diverse parts of himself. It’s a lovely debut novel from Chu and a recommended title.
Derrick and his family are Chinese American; Giles is Black and Ro White.
