Am I Blue?: Coming Out from the Silence Review

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(More customer reviews)What an awesome book! "Am I Blue?" is a collection of sixteen stories dealing with what it's like to grow up as a gay or lesbian teenager. The story that came closest to me personally was M.E. Kerr's "We might as well all be strangers" because it talks about a Jewish girl who comes out to both her mother and her grandmother. Surprisingly, her grandmother is much more accepting of the girl's sexuality since she had visited Nazi Germany under Hitler and knew what it was like to feel excluded. And in a twist of irony, the girl's mother says that her grandmother would be upset if she found out - perhaps just an indication that we don't know our parents quite as well as we think that we do! As it is my family, tolerance has appeared to have skipped a generation from grandparents to grandchildren, making the generation inbetween "strangers" in the family. To quote the book... "strangers take a long time to become acquainted, especially when they come from the same family."
Another story that I liked was "Am I Blue?" by Bruce Coville since it has let me see the world in shades of blue rather than black and white. Editor Marion Dane Bauer's contribution, "Dancing Backwards", is not only well-writen, but also has a good moral: don't look to others for direction - trust yourself. Finally, "Three Mondays in July" by James Cross Giblin was just the most fascinating story in the entire book. It helped me put a good perspective on what it would have been like to grow up gay in 1951.
Overall, as I said, the book was excellent. And the best part is that you don't have to be gay to read the book or to appreciate the stories - I'd bet that straight readers would get just as much out of the book as the intended gay audience! If you're thinking about reading it - don't hesistate! It will please even the most cynical readers :)

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