South Asian Children’s Book of the Month: Blue Boy

By Anila Akram @mailatale

“Blue Boy”

By Rakesh Satyal

Ages 12+

There are many children, tween, teen and adult stories dedicated to the challenges associated with adjusting to North American life as a second or first generation immigrant. But I find that no matter how many of these kinds of stories I read, they never get boring. There is usually something unique or compelling that changes the nature of the story. “Blue Boy” is top on that list. I should preface with a warning: it is controversial. It’s not easy to digest. But it’s brilliant nonetheless. It’s not a traditional immigrant story – it has less to do with migration and cultural upheaval and more to do with connecting with one’s heritage – or, connecting with any heritage or culture that speaks to who you want to be.

Kiran is a sixth-grade boy in Cincinnati, Ohio. By all accounts, he’s a normal boy – smart, high achieving and respectful. His parents are what you could call “classic” immigrants: his mother is an observant homemaker and his father a well-meaning, though cheap and authoritative figure.

Kiran has secrets: homosexual feelings that he can’t seem to suppress, despite his best efforts. He has an affinity for make-up and dress, and when his mother catches him cross-dressing with her things, he comes up with a valiant defense: he was costuming himself as the blue-skinned Hindu god-prince Krishna, for a school project.

The teasing at school – about his background and his “flamboyance” – become worse, and Kiran falls deeper and deeper into the fantasy that he is in fact the long awaited 10^th reincarnation of Krishna. He becomes fascinating by religious studies and starts to see more and more similarities between himself and the blue-skinned god.

This is not so much a coming of age story as it is a screenshot of a young boy’s life.  The author treads water carefully, and is aware that the main character, though struggling with his identity, is only 12. He has a long way to go before he can find answers, but he is certainly not too young to start asking questions.

Anila Akram is co-founder at Mailatale.ca,

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