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Table of Contents
About The Book
Sky’s small town turns absolutely claustrophobic when his secret promposal plans get leaked to the entire school in this witty, “earnest, heartfelt” (Becky Albertalli, New York Times bestselling author), and ultimately hopeful debut novel for fans of What If It’s Us? and To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before.
Sky Baker may be openly gay, but in his small, insular town, making sure he was invisible has always been easier than being himself. Determined not to let anything ruin his senior year, Sky decides to make a splash at his high school’s annual beach bum party by asking his crush, Ali, to prom—and he has thirty days to do it.
What better way to start living loud and proud than by pulling off the gayest promposal Rock Ledge, Michigan, has ever seen?
Then, Sky’s plans are leaked by an anonymous hacker in a deeply homophobic e-blast that quickly goes viral. He’s fully prepared to drop out and skip town altogether—until his classmates give him a reason to fight back by turning his thirty-day promposal countdown into a school-wide hunt to expose the e-blast perpetrator.
But what happens at the end of the thirty days? Will Sky get to keep his hard-won visibility? Or will his small-town blues stop him from being his true self?
Sky Baker may be openly gay, but in his small, insular town, making sure he was invisible has always been easier than being himself. Determined not to let anything ruin his senior year, Sky decides to make a splash at his high school’s annual beach bum party by asking his crush, Ali, to prom—and he has thirty days to do it.
What better way to start living loud and proud than by pulling off the gayest promposal Rock Ledge, Michigan, has ever seen?
Then, Sky’s plans are leaked by an anonymous hacker in a deeply homophobic e-blast that quickly goes viral. He’s fully prepared to drop out and skip town altogether—until his classmates give him a reason to fight back by turning his thirty-day promposal countdown into a school-wide hunt to expose the e-blast perpetrator.
But what happens at the end of the thirty days? Will Sky get to keep his hard-won visibility? Or will his small-town blues stop him from being his true self?
Excerpt
1. Thirty Days
THIRTY DAYS
I’m standing in the shower next to Ali Rashid. The Ali Rashid. Sure, we’re both completely naked and there are plenty of other body parts my eyes could wander toward. But I can’t look away from his eyebrows, of all things. His big, bushy, glorious effing eyebrows. I’ve never even noticed another person’s before Ali’s, I don’t think. But his are different, I guess. I’ve stared at them so many times—mostly across crowded classrooms or dreamily through Instagram filters—I bet I could sketch them from memory, follicle by follicle. That’s a super weird, gay thing to admit, I know.
But hi, I’m a gay weirdo, apparently.
“Can I kiss you, Sky?” he asks.
The hazel of his eyes disappears behind long, curly eyelashes. They’re as beautiful as the brows; so jet black and thick, they could, like, sign a modeling contract all on their own, I swear. I can’t wait to tell our gaybies (gay + babies) about this moment someday—their dads’ first kiss. They’ll probably be grossed out, but that’s okay.
“Sky, let’s go!” Bree’s mom yells right outside the bathroom door. My whole body jolts awake from my daydream. Er, my… shower-dream? Yeah. That’s more like it. Let’s call it that. My Ali shower-dream. I have them from time to time.
Rattled, I reach out to grab the shower curtain to regain my balance—and the whole thing rips beneath my weight. My flailing body goes spilling out onto the bath mat like some white, scaly-ass fish caught in Lake Michigan. It seriously sounds like a bomb went off—a wet, soapy, incredibly embarrassing bomb. I yelp, more out of shock than pain.
“Oh my God!” Bree’s mom gasps on the other side of the bathroom door, as the dangling nozzle sprays water literally everywhere. Bree’s pit bulls, Thelma and Louise, start barking a few drywalls away.
“Are you okay, Sky?”
“No,” I groan. “I mean, yeah—”
But it’s too late.
The door cracks open and I see the bright red rims of Mrs. Brandstone’s glasses for a microsecond before I screech in protest, lying there totally exposed on the slippery floor. She squeals too, and slams the door shut.
I’m mortified. I am completely, totally, full-stop mortified.
This has to be a top-five most embarrassing moment, really. Way worse than when my best friend, Marshall, let out a massive fart in seventh-grade gym and ran away, leaving everyone thinking it was me.
“Don’t worry, I didn’t see anything,” Bree’s mom lies through the door. “And even if I did, I’ve seen it all anyway, honey. But hustle, please! Bree is waiting outside. You two are going to be late.”
And just like clockwork, Bree—my other best friend—starts honking her horn out in the driveway, as if the apocalypse will ensue if we’re thirty seconds late to first hour. She’s going to kill me.
“Tell her I’m coming!” I stand and turn the shower off before fixing the rod and curtain. Half the bathroom floor is covered in a puddle.
What an absolute mess. This bathroom and my life.
My guess is, Ali’s probably shower-dreaming about someone else this exact moment over at his house on Ashtyn Drive. It’s the third house from the corner; the one with the seafoam-green shutters, and the cat, Franklin, moseying around in the front window.
Yes, okay. I’m in love with Ali Rashid.
I’m not proud of it. I’m anything but proud of it. I’m annoyed of it. I’m sick of it. I wish I could snap my fingers and forget Ali Rashid even exists. But he does, and I’m hopelessly, helplessly, eternally infatuated with him, his seductive eyebrows, XXX-rated eyelashes, and the way his skin crinkles a bit when he laughs at one of my jokes. Especially when he snorts a little, too, because then I know it’s genuine.
Crushing this hard is confusing, though.
In my seventeen years on this planet, Ali’s the only boy that’s ever made me feel this way. Actually, the only person, period. Falling this hard isn’t all euphoric and heavenly, like in the four hundred million rom-coms I’ve watched way too many times to count.
Like when Lara Jean finally confesses her love to Peter on the lacrosse field in To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, and everyone gets their happiest possible ending. Or like in Booksmart, when Hope shows up on the doorstep to give Amy her phone number right before Amy bounces to Botswana for the summer. (What convenient timing.)
Okay, sure, some days it does feel like that. Some days I feel like Simon Spier on the Ferris wheel. I have my moments when I swear cupid flies in and slaughters me with his big gay arrow, and my eyes turn into heart emojis and I can’t catch my breath for a solid five seconds.
But the problem is, Ali is straight. Well, he’s probably straight.… Maybe straight? I don’t know! We’re friends-ish, but not in That Way. At least not yet. I don’t think?
Anyway.
Bree—who is now literally holding down the car horn outside so the noise is nonstop and off-the-rails annoying—believes I have a shot with him. She and the rest of the Brandstone family are the only ones who know of my Ali Rashid obsession, and I’m going to keep it that way. Well, for another thirty days, at least.
Thirty effing days.
I turn to face the cloudy bathroom mirror and swipe my hand across its slippery surface. My sopping wet sandy hair, plastered across my forehead, probably needs to be trimmed soon, and I’m pretty sure I’m getting a pimple on my nose. At least I still like my eyes—probably my favorite thing about my face (although they pale in comparison to Ali’s). Mine are the color of toffee, my mom once told me as a kid. For some reason, I never forgot that.
The mist on the mirror fades away, revealing more of my chest, and I immediately remember why I implemented my number one rule since moving in with the Brandstones: Never, ever, ever look at my reflection right after I get out of a shower. Because the hot water always makes Mars—my burn scar—look infinitely worse than he typically does.
Mars has been lurking on the left side of my chest, right over my heart, ever since the accident. He looks pretty damn bad as is, honestly, but ten minutes under some hot water? He’s a million times more fire-engine red than usual. Which makes me look like one of those characters you see about halfway through an apocalyptic zombie movie—you know, the guy who just got bitten and is on his way to becoming a cannibalistic beast? That’s me!
My mom doesn’t have big mirrors in her tiny, suffocating house, so it was easier to avoid seeing Mars when I lived there. That was one perverse advantage me and my older brother, Gus, had growing up with hardly any money, clothes, or space: fewer opportunities to accidentally catch a glimpse of Mars in a reflection. That’s not the case here at the Brandstones’, though, standing in front of a mirror the size of a classroom chalkboard.
God damn Mars.
Bree is still blowing up the car horn out in the driveway, which has now turned from being obnoxious to hilarious. She is bonkers about school stuff, in general, but especially so between seven and nine a.m., when the sugar rush from her daily hot cocoa is in full swing. I think she’s trying to honk to the rhythm of the new Ariana Grande song she’s obsessed with? I don’t know. It sounds completely absurd.
“Sky!” her mom bellows from the kitchen, now sufficiently annoyed with both me and her daughter. Thelma and Louise are going extra nuts too, barking up a storm. “Come on!”
I stifle a laugh and assure her I’m coming.
Three minutes later, I’m jumping into the passenger seat with my backpack, hair still dripping wet. “Sorry—”
Bree slams her foot onto the gas pedal. “I’m going to murder you,” she says, half serious. The car roars in reverse down the mile-long driveway. (It’s not really a mile long, but their front yard is huge.) “I wanted to get Yearbook stuff done before first hour.”
“Is it possible for you push pause on your editor-in-chief duties for one day?” I say as the car lurches into forward drive and squeals down the Brandstones’ mansion-stacked street. “I’ve had senioritis since sophomore year.”
“Believe me”—she sips her cocoa from her Thermos, peeling out of the cul-de-sac—“I know.”
If you only saw the Brandstones’ subdivision, you’d probably think Rock Ledge was a top 1 percent kind of town—but you’d be dead wrong. Because Bree lives along the coast—the only area in this zip code with money. And even then, many of the houses are just vacation homes from downstaters—not locals. Their street is nestled into its own quiet peninsula, with its own quiet private beach, with its own definitely-not-quiet stay-at-home moms. The road’s even been paved within the last decade.
The real Rock Ledge, though? Imagine the decrepit towns you see in depressing political TV ads focused on how awful the economy’s gotten, where there’s empty sidewalks in front of closed storefronts, and sad old people gathered on porches reminiscing about the good ol’ days. That’s the real Rock Ledge.
We race through a stretch of woods into the non-touristy side of town—farther inland and away from the bed-and-breakfasts selling framed maps of Lake Michigan for $800—and the sight is pretty depressing. Because in March, the snow has mostly melted around here, but the trees are still completely bare, and pee-colored grass and poop-colored mud cover just about everything.
“So.” I clear my throat. “Just so you know…”
Bree’s blues eyes burst with intrigue. “What?”
“Your mom walked in on me.…”
“Walked in on you where?”
“The bathroom.”
“What?”
“When I was in the shower.”
Bree inhales, pure shock and delight draped across her rosy, lightly freckled face. She immediately forgets about me making her late.
“I was naked,” I add.
“Well, I assume so.” Bree thrives off a good plot twist. She says she hates drama, but I’ve noticed all the people who say that are the most dramatic people I know. “Did she see anything?” Her eyes dart back and forth between me and the road, the car weaving between the peeling yellow and white lines.
“No. Well, I don’t know. She said she didn’t.”
“Please, for the love of God, don’t tell me you were masturbating.”
“Stop!”
“You totally were, weren’t you?”
“I can barely tie my shoes before eight a.m. I don’t have the motivation to do that before school, Bree.”
She ignores me, pulling her long, brown hair into a tight bun atop her head. “You were jacking off to Ali. No need to lie.” She’s steering with her knees while fixing her hair in the rearview mirror. I’m holding on for dear life.
“I was shower-dreaming about him, sure. But that’s it.”
“Shower-dreaming?” She tilts her head, confused, as we fly through an intersection. “Is that gay for ‘masturbating’?”
We come screeching into the senior parking lot right as the tardy bell for first hour is echoing across the soggy front lawn. “Meet for lunch outside Winter’s?” She jumps out of the car and sprints toward our prison of a school before I give her an answer.
“Yep,” I sigh to myself. “See you then.”
I follow in her path, much more slowly, weaving through cars toward the main entrance along with a handful of other tardy seniors with terminal senioritis. Our last semester is dying a slow, inconsequential death, so there’s been a growing number of us out here each morning avoiding our first hours with gas station coffees and increasingly loud playlists blasting across the football field. Today it’s in the dozens, and the song of choice is some country song I’ve been sick of since October.
I pass by some jock douchebags and feel their eyes judging my every move. A few of them smirk at me, and the group’s most deplorable, Cliff Norquest—naturally, their ringleader—imitates my walk to laughs.
My heart sinks.
My hips are swinging too much, I realize is what they’ve spotted. So I try to walk straighter. Like, literally and in the heterosexual sense. When you’re an openly gay kid at Rock Ledge High who reads about as straight as a curly fry, you think about these things. Constantly. Almost as much as you think about Ali Rashid’s eyebrows.
Oh, and my books. I need to carry them hanging loosely against my upper thigh with one arm—not with the bottoms of the books pressed against my hip, like Bree always carries hers. It’s a gay giveaway.
Also, my shirt! Damn it. I would have grabbed something else out of my closet had I had time to think, between Bree’s honking and Mrs. Brandstone’s yelling for me to hurry up. It’s okay to wear this shirt to, like, the movies, or to the mall, or anywhere else. But not to school. Not to this school, at least. It’s a pale pink button-up, which, if a guy like me has it on, screams gaaaaaaay. If I wear it like I’m “supposed” to wear it, I’d have it buttoned all the way up. But this isn’t Paris, France. This is Rock Ledge, Michigan.
So I undo the top button.
I know—if everyone in Rock Ledge already knows I’m gay, why does it matter? I should be allowed to wear the gay shirt. Carry the books like I want to. Walk the way I walk. But people in this town have a low threshold for different, and I don’t want to press my luck.
“Hey, idiot.” Marshall comes crashing into my right side, clasping his hand around my shoulder. He’s like a big puppy, always bouncing out of nowhere, with a smile on his face. “What’s up?”
“You’ll never guess—” I almost dive into the Mrs. Brandstone drama, but see Marshall’s track friend, Teddy, is by his side. I bite my tongue.
Nothing against Teddy—he’s nice enough—but he’s built like a bodyguard, has a voice a hundred octaves lower than mine, and gives off this intense Straight Guy Energy that makes me a bit more closed off when he’s around. If my personality were to be compared to Teddy’s using a Venn diagram, there would be no overlapping section.
Marshall gives me a look after I pause. “What won’t I guess?”
I think fast, rolling my eyes. “Just that Bree’s mad at me for making us late to first hour.”
Teddy pulls the straps of his backpack forward and looks at me curiously. “Did Brandstone already run out of tardies for the semester?”
“It’s not that,” I say.
“It’s more, she hasn’t gotten senioritis like the rest of us yet.” Marshall sighs.
They start talking about track stuff as we trek through the school’s soggy front lawn, so my eyes begin to wander across campus in search of Ali. I bet he’s nearby. Seriously, sometimes it’s like I have a sixth sense—not seeing dead people, but knowing when Ali is within one hundred feet. M. Night Shyamalan would be so proud.
“Yo,” Marshall says, nudging my shoulder.
“Huh?”
He nods at Teddy, who’s apparently talking to me.
“Oh.” My neck swivels in Teddy’s direction. “Sorry.”
If it’s not my Ali shower-dreaming getting me in trouble, it’s my Ali daydreaming.
Teddy laughs. “No worries. I just asked where you got your shoes. They’re sweet.”
I look down at the ancient pair of sneakers on my feet, yellowed and speckled with mud. They’re a pair of Gus’s that he left at my mom’s forever ago. I can’t remember the last time I had the money to buy a new pair of shoes, let alone where Gus bought these ones probably, like, five years ago—but Teddy doesn’t need to hear the whole story.
“I’m not sure where these are from, actually,” I say. “But thanks.”
“Gotcha.” Teddy starts to break away from us for a different school entrance. “I have Butterton first hour. See you guys later.”
“Later,” Marshall says.
“Bye,” I add.
Once Teddy’s out of earshot, I divulge the real news.
“Oh, by the way,” I say to Marshall. “Mrs. Brandstone walked in on me naked in the bathroom this morning.”
Marshall gawks, offering me a piece of cinnamon gum. He’s the cinnamon gum guy. “Why would she do that? Was she being creepy?”
I take the gum and explain exactly what happened. Well, almost exactly. I tell him Mrs. Brandstone startled me, that the shower curtain betrayed me, and that she probably saw… everything. But I leave out the Ali shower-dreaming part for Marshall’s straight guy ears; I haven’t told him about my massive, all-consuming crush on Ali.
Marshall closes his eyes and pops them back open again to express just how wild it is to imagine that horror scene unfold. For two straight people, my best friends really are the biggest drama queens ever, I swear.
He starts cracking up and prodding me for details. “What all did she see?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you think she came in on purpose, knowing you were naked?”
“God, I hope not.”
“Did she see your ding-a-ling?”
“I’m not answering that.”
“Is that a yes?”
“No. And why are you calling it ding-a-ling? Ew.”
“Fair point, but—”
“Anyway!” I cut him off. “How did your track meet go?”
“Got murdered.” We avoid a puddle of mud that’s been steadily expanding, in its conquest to turn the entire front lawn of the school into a swamp. “Like, knife through the chest, sledgehammer to the face, poison to the lips murdered.”
“Poison to the lips? Is that a thing people say?”
“I won my races, Teddy killed it, and Ainsley ended up being able to come, though. I’m happy.”
And there she is: Ainsley. He almost made it through an entire conversation without bringing up his new (and first-ever) girlfriend. Almost.
I don’t mean to sound like a jealous crank—I’m rooting for them like a good best friend, of course—but his obsessing over her has gotten to be a bit much. It’s nothing like my obsessing over Ali. Duh. But still. It’s a bit much.
Speaking of Ali. There he is.
Hazel eyes, eyebrows, and eyelashes, my nine o’clock. I’m definitely not shower-dreaming this time. He’s leaning against the school like some GQ model, talking with his best friends, who are the luckiest people on the planet, I swear.
How is he so flawless? Like, how did X and Y chromosomes from two relatively normal humans unite to create such a perfect specimen? Science may never know, honestly. We’ll have colonized the moon before we’ve cracked the code of the Hotness of Ali Rashid, is what I’m saying. He looks so cool, too, in black denim jeans and a backward, bright-yellow hat. Wait. Does he know yellow’s my favorite color? Is he sending me some kind of sign?
Of course not. It’s just a yellow effing hat. But this is my mind on Ali Rashid.
He catches me staring and grins back. My heart melts a little. Actually, a lot. It melts a whole lot. I really like this boy. I really, really like him.
Here’s the thing. The crazy, sort of embarrassing thing.
In thirty days, I’m going to prompose to Ali Rashid. Like, I’m actually, literally, honest to God going to ask him to prom. Why? Because I’m nuts. But Bree’s helped convince me I have a real shot. A small shot? Probably. I’m not that naive. But it’s a shot.
Plus, I want to make a point.
What better way to stand up to Cliff and his cronies than to show up at prom hand in hand with one of the hottest popular guys in school? That’ll be the biggest clapback to their buffoonery in the history of clapbacks at Rock Ledge High.
I know asking Ali is a risk. A big one.
He could very well be as straight as an arrow, and I could very well end up looking like a total idiot. But what’s the quote on that poster with the basketball hoop you always see on teachers’ walls? You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take, or something like that? That’s what’s been going through my head lately. Which is so beyond cheesy and ridiculous, I know—but it’s sort of true. I have to shoot my damn shot, even though there’s a very big chance it’ll be a horrendous air ball.
I’m scared. Downright terrified. Barely able to function, the dread is so intense. But I’m a gay senior with terminal senioritis, ready to put it all on the line for the boy I think I might love.
I have thirty effing days.
THIRTY DAYS
I’m standing in the shower next to Ali Rashid. The Ali Rashid. Sure, we’re both completely naked and there are plenty of other body parts my eyes could wander toward. But I can’t look away from his eyebrows, of all things. His big, bushy, glorious effing eyebrows. I’ve never even noticed another person’s before Ali’s, I don’t think. But his are different, I guess. I’ve stared at them so many times—mostly across crowded classrooms or dreamily through Instagram filters—I bet I could sketch them from memory, follicle by follicle. That’s a super weird, gay thing to admit, I know.
But hi, I’m a gay weirdo, apparently.
“Can I kiss you, Sky?” he asks.
The hazel of his eyes disappears behind long, curly eyelashes. They’re as beautiful as the brows; so jet black and thick, they could, like, sign a modeling contract all on their own, I swear. I can’t wait to tell our gaybies (gay + babies) about this moment someday—their dads’ first kiss. They’ll probably be grossed out, but that’s okay.
“Sky, let’s go!” Bree’s mom yells right outside the bathroom door. My whole body jolts awake from my daydream. Er, my… shower-dream? Yeah. That’s more like it. Let’s call it that. My Ali shower-dream. I have them from time to time.
Rattled, I reach out to grab the shower curtain to regain my balance—and the whole thing rips beneath my weight. My flailing body goes spilling out onto the bath mat like some white, scaly-ass fish caught in Lake Michigan. It seriously sounds like a bomb went off—a wet, soapy, incredibly embarrassing bomb. I yelp, more out of shock than pain.
“Oh my God!” Bree’s mom gasps on the other side of the bathroom door, as the dangling nozzle sprays water literally everywhere. Bree’s pit bulls, Thelma and Louise, start barking a few drywalls away.
“Are you okay, Sky?”
“No,” I groan. “I mean, yeah—”
But it’s too late.
The door cracks open and I see the bright red rims of Mrs. Brandstone’s glasses for a microsecond before I screech in protest, lying there totally exposed on the slippery floor. She squeals too, and slams the door shut.
I’m mortified. I am completely, totally, full-stop mortified.
This has to be a top-five most embarrassing moment, really. Way worse than when my best friend, Marshall, let out a massive fart in seventh-grade gym and ran away, leaving everyone thinking it was me.
“Don’t worry, I didn’t see anything,” Bree’s mom lies through the door. “And even if I did, I’ve seen it all anyway, honey. But hustle, please! Bree is waiting outside. You two are going to be late.”
And just like clockwork, Bree—my other best friend—starts honking her horn out in the driveway, as if the apocalypse will ensue if we’re thirty seconds late to first hour. She’s going to kill me.
“Tell her I’m coming!” I stand and turn the shower off before fixing the rod and curtain. Half the bathroom floor is covered in a puddle.
What an absolute mess. This bathroom and my life.
My guess is, Ali’s probably shower-dreaming about someone else this exact moment over at his house on Ashtyn Drive. It’s the third house from the corner; the one with the seafoam-green shutters, and the cat, Franklin, moseying around in the front window.
Yes, okay. I’m in love with Ali Rashid.
I’m not proud of it. I’m anything but proud of it. I’m annoyed of it. I’m sick of it. I wish I could snap my fingers and forget Ali Rashid even exists. But he does, and I’m hopelessly, helplessly, eternally infatuated with him, his seductive eyebrows, XXX-rated eyelashes, and the way his skin crinkles a bit when he laughs at one of my jokes. Especially when he snorts a little, too, because then I know it’s genuine.
Crushing this hard is confusing, though.
In my seventeen years on this planet, Ali’s the only boy that’s ever made me feel this way. Actually, the only person, period. Falling this hard isn’t all euphoric and heavenly, like in the four hundred million rom-coms I’ve watched way too many times to count.
Like when Lara Jean finally confesses her love to Peter on the lacrosse field in To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before, and everyone gets their happiest possible ending. Or like in Booksmart, when Hope shows up on the doorstep to give Amy her phone number right before Amy bounces to Botswana for the summer. (What convenient timing.)
Okay, sure, some days it does feel like that. Some days I feel like Simon Spier on the Ferris wheel. I have my moments when I swear cupid flies in and slaughters me with his big gay arrow, and my eyes turn into heart emojis and I can’t catch my breath for a solid five seconds.
But the problem is, Ali is straight. Well, he’s probably straight.… Maybe straight? I don’t know! We’re friends-ish, but not in That Way. At least not yet. I don’t think?
Anyway.
Bree—who is now literally holding down the car horn outside so the noise is nonstop and off-the-rails annoying—believes I have a shot with him. She and the rest of the Brandstone family are the only ones who know of my Ali Rashid obsession, and I’m going to keep it that way. Well, for another thirty days, at least.
Thirty effing days.
I turn to face the cloudy bathroom mirror and swipe my hand across its slippery surface. My sopping wet sandy hair, plastered across my forehead, probably needs to be trimmed soon, and I’m pretty sure I’m getting a pimple on my nose. At least I still like my eyes—probably my favorite thing about my face (although they pale in comparison to Ali’s). Mine are the color of toffee, my mom once told me as a kid. For some reason, I never forgot that.
The mist on the mirror fades away, revealing more of my chest, and I immediately remember why I implemented my number one rule since moving in with the Brandstones: Never, ever, ever look at my reflection right after I get out of a shower. Because the hot water always makes Mars—my burn scar—look infinitely worse than he typically does.
Mars has been lurking on the left side of my chest, right over my heart, ever since the accident. He looks pretty damn bad as is, honestly, but ten minutes under some hot water? He’s a million times more fire-engine red than usual. Which makes me look like one of those characters you see about halfway through an apocalyptic zombie movie—you know, the guy who just got bitten and is on his way to becoming a cannibalistic beast? That’s me!
My mom doesn’t have big mirrors in her tiny, suffocating house, so it was easier to avoid seeing Mars when I lived there. That was one perverse advantage me and my older brother, Gus, had growing up with hardly any money, clothes, or space: fewer opportunities to accidentally catch a glimpse of Mars in a reflection. That’s not the case here at the Brandstones’, though, standing in front of a mirror the size of a classroom chalkboard.
God damn Mars.
Bree is still blowing up the car horn out in the driveway, which has now turned from being obnoxious to hilarious. She is bonkers about school stuff, in general, but especially so between seven and nine a.m., when the sugar rush from her daily hot cocoa is in full swing. I think she’s trying to honk to the rhythm of the new Ariana Grande song she’s obsessed with? I don’t know. It sounds completely absurd.
“Sky!” her mom bellows from the kitchen, now sufficiently annoyed with both me and her daughter. Thelma and Louise are going extra nuts too, barking up a storm. “Come on!”
I stifle a laugh and assure her I’m coming.
Three minutes later, I’m jumping into the passenger seat with my backpack, hair still dripping wet. “Sorry—”
Bree slams her foot onto the gas pedal. “I’m going to murder you,” she says, half serious. The car roars in reverse down the mile-long driveway. (It’s not really a mile long, but their front yard is huge.) “I wanted to get Yearbook stuff done before first hour.”
“Is it possible for you push pause on your editor-in-chief duties for one day?” I say as the car lurches into forward drive and squeals down the Brandstones’ mansion-stacked street. “I’ve had senioritis since sophomore year.”
“Believe me”—she sips her cocoa from her Thermos, peeling out of the cul-de-sac—“I know.”
If you only saw the Brandstones’ subdivision, you’d probably think Rock Ledge was a top 1 percent kind of town—but you’d be dead wrong. Because Bree lives along the coast—the only area in this zip code with money. And even then, many of the houses are just vacation homes from downstaters—not locals. Their street is nestled into its own quiet peninsula, with its own quiet private beach, with its own definitely-not-quiet stay-at-home moms. The road’s even been paved within the last decade.
The real Rock Ledge, though? Imagine the decrepit towns you see in depressing political TV ads focused on how awful the economy’s gotten, where there’s empty sidewalks in front of closed storefronts, and sad old people gathered on porches reminiscing about the good ol’ days. That’s the real Rock Ledge.
We race through a stretch of woods into the non-touristy side of town—farther inland and away from the bed-and-breakfasts selling framed maps of Lake Michigan for $800—and the sight is pretty depressing. Because in March, the snow has mostly melted around here, but the trees are still completely bare, and pee-colored grass and poop-colored mud cover just about everything.
“So.” I clear my throat. “Just so you know…”
Bree’s blues eyes burst with intrigue. “What?”
“Your mom walked in on me.…”
“Walked in on you where?”
“The bathroom.”
“What?”
“When I was in the shower.”
Bree inhales, pure shock and delight draped across her rosy, lightly freckled face. She immediately forgets about me making her late.
“I was naked,” I add.
“Well, I assume so.” Bree thrives off a good plot twist. She says she hates drama, but I’ve noticed all the people who say that are the most dramatic people I know. “Did she see anything?” Her eyes dart back and forth between me and the road, the car weaving between the peeling yellow and white lines.
“No. Well, I don’t know. She said she didn’t.”
“Please, for the love of God, don’t tell me you were masturbating.”
“Stop!”
“You totally were, weren’t you?”
“I can barely tie my shoes before eight a.m. I don’t have the motivation to do that before school, Bree.”
She ignores me, pulling her long, brown hair into a tight bun atop her head. “You were jacking off to Ali. No need to lie.” She’s steering with her knees while fixing her hair in the rearview mirror. I’m holding on for dear life.
“I was shower-dreaming about him, sure. But that’s it.”
“Shower-dreaming?” She tilts her head, confused, as we fly through an intersection. “Is that gay for ‘masturbating’?”
We come screeching into the senior parking lot right as the tardy bell for first hour is echoing across the soggy front lawn. “Meet for lunch outside Winter’s?” She jumps out of the car and sprints toward our prison of a school before I give her an answer.
“Yep,” I sigh to myself. “See you then.”
I follow in her path, much more slowly, weaving through cars toward the main entrance along with a handful of other tardy seniors with terminal senioritis. Our last semester is dying a slow, inconsequential death, so there’s been a growing number of us out here each morning avoiding our first hours with gas station coffees and increasingly loud playlists blasting across the football field. Today it’s in the dozens, and the song of choice is some country song I’ve been sick of since October.
I pass by some jock douchebags and feel their eyes judging my every move. A few of them smirk at me, and the group’s most deplorable, Cliff Norquest—naturally, their ringleader—imitates my walk to laughs.
My heart sinks.
My hips are swinging too much, I realize is what they’ve spotted. So I try to walk straighter. Like, literally and in the heterosexual sense. When you’re an openly gay kid at Rock Ledge High who reads about as straight as a curly fry, you think about these things. Constantly. Almost as much as you think about Ali Rashid’s eyebrows.
Oh, and my books. I need to carry them hanging loosely against my upper thigh with one arm—not with the bottoms of the books pressed against my hip, like Bree always carries hers. It’s a gay giveaway.
Also, my shirt! Damn it. I would have grabbed something else out of my closet had I had time to think, between Bree’s honking and Mrs. Brandstone’s yelling for me to hurry up. It’s okay to wear this shirt to, like, the movies, or to the mall, or anywhere else. But not to school. Not to this school, at least. It’s a pale pink button-up, which, if a guy like me has it on, screams gaaaaaaay. If I wear it like I’m “supposed” to wear it, I’d have it buttoned all the way up. But this isn’t Paris, France. This is Rock Ledge, Michigan.
So I undo the top button.
I know—if everyone in Rock Ledge already knows I’m gay, why does it matter? I should be allowed to wear the gay shirt. Carry the books like I want to. Walk the way I walk. But people in this town have a low threshold for different, and I don’t want to press my luck.
“Hey, idiot.” Marshall comes crashing into my right side, clasping his hand around my shoulder. He’s like a big puppy, always bouncing out of nowhere, with a smile on his face. “What’s up?”
“You’ll never guess—” I almost dive into the Mrs. Brandstone drama, but see Marshall’s track friend, Teddy, is by his side. I bite my tongue.
Nothing against Teddy—he’s nice enough—but he’s built like a bodyguard, has a voice a hundred octaves lower than mine, and gives off this intense Straight Guy Energy that makes me a bit more closed off when he’s around. If my personality were to be compared to Teddy’s using a Venn diagram, there would be no overlapping section.
Marshall gives me a look after I pause. “What won’t I guess?”
I think fast, rolling my eyes. “Just that Bree’s mad at me for making us late to first hour.”
Teddy pulls the straps of his backpack forward and looks at me curiously. “Did Brandstone already run out of tardies for the semester?”
“It’s not that,” I say.
“It’s more, she hasn’t gotten senioritis like the rest of us yet.” Marshall sighs.
They start talking about track stuff as we trek through the school’s soggy front lawn, so my eyes begin to wander across campus in search of Ali. I bet he’s nearby. Seriously, sometimes it’s like I have a sixth sense—not seeing dead people, but knowing when Ali is within one hundred feet. M. Night Shyamalan would be so proud.
“Yo,” Marshall says, nudging my shoulder.
“Huh?”
He nods at Teddy, who’s apparently talking to me.
“Oh.” My neck swivels in Teddy’s direction. “Sorry.”
If it’s not my Ali shower-dreaming getting me in trouble, it’s my Ali daydreaming.
Teddy laughs. “No worries. I just asked where you got your shoes. They’re sweet.”
I look down at the ancient pair of sneakers on my feet, yellowed and speckled with mud. They’re a pair of Gus’s that he left at my mom’s forever ago. I can’t remember the last time I had the money to buy a new pair of shoes, let alone where Gus bought these ones probably, like, five years ago—but Teddy doesn’t need to hear the whole story.
“I’m not sure where these are from, actually,” I say. “But thanks.”
“Gotcha.” Teddy starts to break away from us for a different school entrance. “I have Butterton first hour. See you guys later.”
“Later,” Marshall says.
“Bye,” I add.
Once Teddy’s out of earshot, I divulge the real news.
“Oh, by the way,” I say to Marshall. “Mrs. Brandstone walked in on me naked in the bathroom this morning.”
Marshall gawks, offering me a piece of cinnamon gum. He’s the cinnamon gum guy. “Why would she do that? Was she being creepy?”
I take the gum and explain exactly what happened. Well, almost exactly. I tell him Mrs. Brandstone startled me, that the shower curtain betrayed me, and that she probably saw… everything. But I leave out the Ali shower-dreaming part for Marshall’s straight guy ears; I haven’t told him about my massive, all-consuming crush on Ali.
Marshall closes his eyes and pops them back open again to express just how wild it is to imagine that horror scene unfold. For two straight people, my best friends really are the biggest drama queens ever, I swear.
He starts cracking up and prodding me for details. “What all did she see?”
“I don’t know.”
“Do you think she came in on purpose, knowing you were naked?”
“God, I hope not.”
“Did she see your ding-a-ling?”
“I’m not answering that.”
“Is that a yes?”
“No. And why are you calling it ding-a-ling? Ew.”
“Fair point, but—”
“Anyway!” I cut him off. “How did your track meet go?”
“Got murdered.” We avoid a puddle of mud that’s been steadily expanding, in its conquest to turn the entire front lawn of the school into a swamp. “Like, knife through the chest, sledgehammer to the face, poison to the lips murdered.”
“Poison to the lips? Is that a thing people say?”
“I won my races, Teddy killed it, and Ainsley ended up being able to come, though. I’m happy.”
And there she is: Ainsley. He almost made it through an entire conversation without bringing up his new (and first-ever) girlfriend. Almost.
I don’t mean to sound like a jealous crank—I’m rooting for them like a good best friend, of course—but his obsessing over her has gotten to be a bit much. It’s nothing like my obsessing over Ali. Duh. But still. It’s a bit much.
Speaking of Ali. There he is.
Hazel eyes, eyebrows, and eyelashes, my nine o’clock. I’m definitely not shower-dreaming this time. He’s leaning against the school like some GQ model, talking with his best friends, who are the luckiest people on the planet, I swear.
How is he so flawless? Like, how did X and Y chromosomes from two relatively normal humans unite to create such a perfect specimen? Science may never know, honestly. We’ll have colonized the moon before we’ve cracked the code of the Hotness of Ali Rashid, is what I’m saying. He looks so cool, too, in black denim jeans and a backward, bright-yellow hat. Wait. Does he know yellow’s my favorite color? Is he sending me some kind of sign?
Of course not. It’s just a yellow effing hat. But this is my mind on Ali Rashid.
He catches me staring and grins back. My heart melts a little. Actually, a lot. It melts a whole lot. I really like this boy. I really, really like him.
Here’s the thing. The crazy, sort of embarrassing thing.
In thirty days, I’m going to prompose to Ali Rashid. Like, I’m actually, literally, honest to God going to ask him to prom. Why? Because I’m nuts. But Bree’s helped convince me I have a real shot. A small shot? Probably. I’m not that naive. But it’s a shot.
Plus, I want to make a point.
What better way to stand up to Cliff and his cronies than to show up at prom hand in hand with one of the hottest popular guys in school? That’ll be the biggest clapback to their buffoonery in the history of clapbacks at Rock Ledge High.
I know asking Ali is a risk. A big one.
He could very well be as straight as an arrow, and I could very well end up looking like a total idiot. But what’s the quote on that poster with the basketball hoop you always see on teachers’ walls? You miss 100 percent of the shots you don’t take, or something like that? That’s what’s been going through my head lately. Which is so beyond cheesy and ridiculous, I know—but it’s sort of true. I have to shoot my damn shot, even though there’s a very big chance it’ll be a horrendous air ball.
I’m scared. Downright terrified. Barely able to function, the dread is so intense. But I’m a gay senior with terminal senioritis, ready to put it all on the line for the boy I think I might love.
I have thirty effing days.
Reading Group Guide
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Reading Group Guide for
The Sky Blues
By Robbie Couch
About the Book
Sky is an openly gay high school senior in a conservative Michigan town. After his promposal plans are e-blasted to the entire community, the outing sets Sky and his friends on a quest to find the perpetrator and exact revenge. But in his quest for justice, Sky finds something far more satisfying than vengeance: unexpected acceptance, true family, unconditional love, and the courage to be tough without sacrificing his identity.
Discussion Questions
1. Being mindful of uncomfortable feelings and how to process them is a recurrent theme in The Sky Blues. After Sky and Marshall see Dan in the food court, Sky notes that, “Seeing people who aren’t your friends outside school can be fatally awkward.” What do you think Sky means by this? Do you agree or disagree with his statement? Describe a time or situation you’ve experienced that felt “fatally awkward.”
2. When Sky’s best friend, Marshall, asks for advice on how to relate to his girlfriend, Sky feels uncomfortable and a little bit annoyed: “The straighter he’s gotten, the more uncomfortable I am showing my gay around him. It’s weird.” Discuss why Sky might feel weird talking about romantic relationship issues with Marshall. Do you find it easy or challenging to be honest with your friends when something they say bothers you? What advice might you have for Sky?
3. As the story opens, readers learn that Sky is figuring out how to prompose to Ali Rashid, a boy whom he has a serious crush on. Discuss the phenomenon of the promposal. What are the positives and negatives of this fad? Although the promposal doesn’t happen, what would Sky have risked had he actually asked Ali to the prom?
4. Cliff is a homophobic, insensitive jock who never passes on a chance to bully Sky and other students who are different from him in some way. Discuss the scene in health class in which Cliff feigns concern for the sexual health of the school’s gay students. How does Cliff prove himself to be “Rock Ledge’s most egregious example of an arrogant bigot”? Why doesn’t the teacher address Cliff’s behavior? Why do the other students remain silent when it’s clear that Cliff is being cruel? How are “the hate hiding behind Cliff’s nasty grin” and Sky’s mom’s “moral policing” similar”?
5. In the basement at Ali’s party, Sky and Ali are having a heart-to-heart conversation that touches on self-identity. Sky is surprised to learn that Ali hates high school, because he assumes that kids who are popular must have a different experience than his own. Ali responds by muttering, “‘Popular, what does that even mean, though?’” What does popularity mean to you? How does this high school currency play out in your school? How does popularity translate or not translate beyond high school? How does Ali’s self-imposed pressure to conform cause him to feel and make choices that betray his true self?
6. After the e-blast photo goes out showing the promposal wall, Sky wants to “disappear.” Discuss the pain that Sky must be feeling after this incident. This is an example of how social media can be weaponized to target the LGBTQIA+ community. What do you think can and should be done about cyberbullying? What would you say to Sky if you were Bree, Marshall, or Ali? More importantly, what, if anything, would you do?
7. Marshall tells Sky, “‘I’m not a random straight guy. I’m Marshall. Remember? Your best friend? You can talk to me about anything.’” How is Marshall a true friend to Sky? What character traits does he possess that make him a good friend? Discuss Marshall sharing with Sky why he doesn’t blast his music in the car. What does he mean by “avoid a mess”?
8. After Sky meets Charlie and Brian for the first time, something inside him begins to shift. How does meeting Charlie serve as the catalyst that Sky needs to stand up for himself, be honest, and realize “enough is enough”?
9. On his second visit to Charlie and Brian’s house, Sky, as Justin, is looking over Charlie’s old high school photographs. Charlie says, “‘You know, high school really did suck. . . . It’s easy for me to look back at those years fondly now. But it was terrible when I lived them. . . . That’s the danger of nostalgia. . . . Your mind wants to relish in a sugarcoated past that never actually existed.’” Charlie was a gay teenager in the 1990s, a time of extreme hatred and intolerance toward that community. How do you think it’s possible for Charlie to be able to look back fondly on his high school days? What is another way of saying “[the] mind wants to relish in a sugarcoated past”?
10. Discuss the content of Victor Bungle’s Instagram post. Do you think Sky and his friends are justified in their anger toward the post’s underlying meaning? Explain your answer.
11. Sky realizes that he misses his dad and senses that although his father is dead, he knows what his son is going through: “But it’s like he somehow knows what’s going on. It’s weird. I miss him, is what it comes down to. It’s strange missing someone you hardly even knew, though.” How can Sky miss a father he doesn’t actually remember? What questions do you think he would ask his dad if they could speak?
12. Reread the section where Dan comes out to Sky as a trans boy. Discuss the confusion that the conversation elicits. Spend time discussing the differences between gender identity and sexuality orientation, as well as words and language that are crucial to know and understand when discussing transgender issues. An excellent resource to consult on this topic is Sorted: Growing Up, Coming Out, and Finding My Place (A Transgender Memoir) by Jackson Bird. Why does Sky think Dan is “tough”?
13. Discuss the scene that takes place in Principal Burger’s office with Sky, Ali, Victor, Ms. Winter, and the principal. How can this interchange be viewed as an example of homophobia? Victor shouts that Sky and the T-shirt campaign is making the prom gay and ruining it “for the rest of us.” What is he actually saying with this statement? Who does he mean by “the rest”? Discuss Ms. Winter’s character. How is she exactly what Sky and his friends need?
14. Sky’s scar is revealed by accident. Instead of being disgusted by it, as Sky imagined he would be, Teddy calls it “badass.” How is this a turning point for Sky? “Mars” has been a symbol for Sky’s sexuality throughout the story. How does his decision not to cover it up after Dan sees it also symbolic? What does Sky mean when he thinks, “Maybe a scar is just a scar”?
15. Reread the chapter titled “Two Days.” What aspects of the scene signify betrayal? How does Gus reduce Sky to a homosexual stereotype? The summer camp that Sky’s mom uses as a condition to his returning home is called New Beginnings. It’s not explicit, but what can you infer that this camp does? How would this feel like the ultimate betrayal from a family member?
16. After Cliff confesses, Sky and Ms. Winter talk privately. She asks Sky if he’s happy about the confession. Sky isn’t sure how he feels about it, to which Ms. Winter says, “‘Sometimes justice doesn’t bring about the emotions we expect it to.’” What do you think she means by this statement? What kind of justice do you think Sky was expecting?
17. Discuss Sky’s e-blast to the community. How is this an act of courage, honesty, and love? How would you have reacted if you had received Sky’s e-blast? What might you do to support him? Explain your answers.
18. Why does Sky wake up on day zero “feeling like myself for the first time ever”? How is the weed in the driveway a metaphor for Sky and all the other kids in Rock Ledge who feel like outsiders? Why does Sky feel like his friends are his “real” family?
19. In addition to family, discuss the following thematic aspects of The Sky Blues: acceptance, friendship, loss/grief, and identity.
Extension Activities
1. Throughout the story, Sky is reminded all too often of the ugly reality of homophobia. Work with a small group to investigate contemporary issues the LGBTQIA+ community is facing. Topics might include sexual conversion therapy, transgender bathrooms legislation, and homophobic hate crimes. Report your findings to the class, and talk about the importance of allyship and creating safe spaces.
2. Ms. Winter is a special teacher, and her students know it. Think about a teacher you’ve had thus far, including the teachers you have this year. Write an essay about that teacher, describing the positive influence they have had on your life. Alternatively, you can write the teacher a letter, also sharing why you are grateful to have had them in your life.
3. Dan asks Sky to help him form a club for gay and transgender students called GLOW (Gay, Lesbian, or Whatever). Work with a favorite teacher to help form a club or alliance for gay and trans students at your school. Here’s a resource to help get you started: https://www.glsen.org/activity/10-steps-start-your-gsa. If a club already exists, find out how you can help support them.
4. Form a class book club that features YA literature written by and about the LGBTQIA+ community. For your first read, consider Sorted: Growing Up, Coming Out, and Finding My Place (A Transgender Memoir), by Jackson Bird. (https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Sorted/Jackson-Bird/9781982130770)
5. Suicide among gay and trans youth is a serious problem. For example, the Center for Disease Control reports that, “A study of youth in grades 7–12 found that lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth were more than twice as likely to have attempted suicide as their heterosexual peers,” and the Trevor Project’s 2020 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health revealed that 40 percent of LGBTQ youth “seriously considered” suicide in the past year. Work with a trusted teacher to educate the student community on this issue and encourage conversations around mental health. The resources below provide current information:
https://www.thetrevorproject.org/resources/preventing-suicide/facts-about-suicide/
https://www.cdc.gov/msmhealth/suicide-violence-prevention.htm
https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/40-percent-lgbtq-youth-seriously-considered-suicide-past-year-survey-n1233832
This guide was created by Colleen Carroll, reading teacher, literacy specialist, curriculum writer, and children’s book author. Learn more about Colleen at www.colleencarroll.us.
This guide has been provided by Simon & Schuster for classroom, library, and reading group use. It may be reproduced in its entirety or excerpted for these purposes. For more Simon & Schuster guides and classroom materials, please visit simonandschuster.net or simonandschuster.net/thebookpantry.
The Sky Blues
By Robbie Couch
About the Book
Sky is an openly gay high school senior in a conservative Michigan town. After his promposal plans are e-blasted to the entire community, the outing sets Sky and his friends on a quest to find the perpetrator and exact revenge. But in his quest for justice, Sky finds something far more satisfying than vengeance: unexpected acceptance, true family, unconditional love, and the courage to be tough without sacrificing his identity.
Discussion Questions
1. Being mindful of uncomfortable feelings and how to process them is a recurrent theme in The Sky Blues. After Sky and Marshall see Dan in the food court, Sky notes that, “Seeing people who aren’t your friends outside school can be fatally awkward.” What do you think Sky means by this? Do you agree or disagree with his statement? Describe a time or situation you’ve experienced that felt “fatally awkward.”
2. When Sky’s best friend, Marshall, asks for advice on how to relate to his girlfriend, Sky feels uncomfortable and a little bit annoyed: “The straighter he’s gotten, the more uncomfortable I am showing my gay around him. It’s weird.” Discuss why Sky might feel weird talking about romantic relationship issues with Marshall. Do you find it easy or challenging to be honest with your friends when something they say bothers you? What advice might you have for Sky?
3. As the story opens, readers learn that Sky is figuring out how to prompose to Ali Rashid, a boy whom he has a serious crush on. Discuss the phenomenon of the promposal. What are the positives and negatives of this fad? Although the promposal doesn’t happen, what would Sky have risked had he actually asked Ali to the prom?
4. Cliff is a homophobic, insensitive jock who never passes on a chance to bully Sky and other students who are different from him in some way. Discuss the scene in health class in which Cliff feigns concern for the sexual health of the school’s gay students. How does Cliff prove himself to be “Rock Ledge’s most egregious example of an arrogant bigot”? Why doesn’t the teacher address Cliff’s behavior? Why do the other students remain silent when it’s clear that Cliff is being cruel? How are “the hate hiding behind Cliff’s nasty grin” and Sky’s mom’s “moral policing” similar”?
5. In the basement at Ali’s party, Sky and Ali are having a heart-to-heart conversation that touches on self-identity. Sky is surprised to learn that Ali hates high school, because he assumes that kids who are popular must have a different experience than his own. Ali responds by muttering, “‘Popular, what does that even mean, though?’” What does popularity mean to you? How does this high school currency play out in your school? How does popularity translate or not translate beyond high school? How does Ali’s self-imposed pressure to conform cause him to feel and make choices that betray his true self?
6. After the e-blast photo goes out showing the promposal wall, Sky wants to “disappear.” Discuss the pain that Sky must be feeling after this incident. This is an example of how social media can be weaponized to target the LGBTQIA+ community. What do you think can and should be done about cyberbullying? What would you say to Sky if you were Bree, Marshall, or Ali? More importantly, what, if anything, would you do?
7. Marshall tells Sky, “‘I’m not a random straight guy. I’m Marshall. Remember? Your best friend? You can talk to me about anything.’” How is Marshall a true friend to Sky? What character traits does he possess that make him a good friend? Discuss Marshall sharing with Sky why he doesn’t blast his music in the car. What does he mean by “avoid a mess”?
8. After Sky meets Charlie and Brian for the first time, something inside him begins to shift. How does meeting Charlie serve as the catalyst that Sky needs to stand up for himself, be honest, and realize “enough is enough”?
9. On his second visit to Charlie and Brian’s house, Sky, as Justin, is looking over Charlie’s old high school photographs. Charlie says, “‘You know, high school really did suck. . . . It’s easy for me to look back at those years fondly now. But it was terrible when I lived them. . . . That’s the danger of nostalgia. . . . Your mind wants to relish in a sugarcoated past that never actually existed.’” Charlie was a gay teenager in the 1990s, a time of extreme hatred and intolerance toward that community. How do you think it’s possible for Charlie to be able to look back fondly on his high school days? What is another way of saying “[the] mind wants to relish in a sugarcoated past”?
10. Discuss the content of Victor Bungle’s Instagram post. Do you think Sky and his friends are justified in their anger toward the post’s underlying meaning? Explain your answer.
11. Sky realizes that he misses his dad and senses that although his father is dead, he knows what his son is going through: “But it’s like he somehow knows what’s going on. It’s weird. I miss him, is what it comes down to. It’s strange missing someone you hardly even knew, though.” How can Sky miss a father he doesn’t actually remember? What questions do you think he would ask his dad if they could speak?
12. Reread the section where Dan comes out to Sky as a trans boy. Discuss the confusion that the conversation elicits. Spend time discussing the differences between gender identity and sexuality orientation, as well as words and language that are crucial to know and understand when discussing transgender issues. An excellent resource to consult on this topic is Sorted: Growing Up, Coming Out, and Finding My Place (A Transgender Memoir) by Jackson Bird. Why does Sky think Dan is “tough”?
13. Discuss the scene that takes place in Principal Burger’s office with Sky, Ali, Victor, Ms. Winter, and the principal. How can this interchange be viewed as an example of homophobia? Victor shouts that Sky and the T-shirt campaign is making the prom gay and ruining it “for the rest of us.” What is he actually saying with this statement? Who does he mean by “the rest”? Discuss Ms. Winter’s character. How is she exactly what Sky and his friends need?
14. Sky’s scar is revealed by accident. Instead of being disgusted by it, as Sky imagined he would be, Teddy calls it “badass.” How is this a turning point for Sky? “Mars” has been a symbol for Sky’s sexuality throughout the story. How does his decision not to cover it up after Dan sees it also symbolic? What does Sky mean when he thinks, “Maybe a scar is just a scar”?
15. Reread the chapter titled “Two Days.” What aspects of the scene signify betrayal? How does Gus reduce Sky to a homosexual stereotype? The summer camp that Sky’s mom uses as a condition to his returning home is called New Beginnings. It’s not explicit, but what can you infer that this camp does? How would this feel like the ultimate betrayal from a family member?
16. After Cliff confesses, Sky and Ms. Winter talk privately. She asks Sky if he’s happy about the confession. Sky isn’t sure how he feels about it, to which Ms. Winter says, “‘Sometimes justice doesn’t bring about the emotions we expect it to.’” What do you think she means by this statement? What kind of justice do you think Sky was expecting?
17. Discuss Sky’s e-blast to the community. How is this an act of courage, honesty, and love? How would you have reacted if you had received Sky’s e-blast? What might you do to support him? Explain your answers.
18. Why does Sky wake up on day zero “feeling like myself for the first time ever”? How is the weed in the driveway a metaphor for Sky and all the other kids in Rock Ledge who feel like outsiders? Why does Sky feel like his friends are his “real” family?
19. In addition to family, discuss the following thematic aspects of The Sky Blues: acceptance, friendship, loss/grief, and identity.
Extension Activities
1. Throughout the story, Sky is reminded all too often of the ugly reality of homophobia. Work with a small group to investigate contemporary issues the LGBTQIA+ community is facing. Topics might include sexual conversion therapy, transgender bathrooms legislation, and homophobic hate crimes. Report your findings to the class, and talk about the importance of allyship and creating safe spaces.
2. Ms. Winter is a special teacher, and her students know it. Think about a teacher you’ve had thus far, including the teachers you have this year. Write an essay about that teacher, describing the positive influence they have had on your life. Alternatively, you can write the teacher a letter, also sharing why you are grateful to have had them in your life.
3. Dan asks Sky to help him form a club for gay and transgender students called GLOW (Gay, Lesbian, or Whatever). Work with a favorite teacher to help form a club or alliance for gay and trans students at your school. Here’s a resource to help get you started: https://www.glsen.org/activity/10-steps-start-your-gsa. If a club already exists, find out how you can help support them.
4. Form a class book club that features YA literature written by and about the LGBTQIA+ community. For your first read, consider Sorted: Growing Up, Coming Out, and Finding My Place (A Transgender Memoir), by Jackson Bird. (https://www.simonandschuster.com/books/Sorted/Jackson-Bird/9781982130770)
5. Suicide among gay and trans youth is a serious problem. For example, the Center for Disease Control reports that, “A study of youth in grades 7–12 found that lesbian, gay, and bisexual youth were more than twice as likely to have attempted suicide as their heterosexual peers,” and the Trevor Project’s 2020 National Survey on LGBTQ Youth Mental Health revealed that 40 percent of LGBTQ youth “seriously considered” suicide in the past year. Work with a trusted teacher to educate the student community on this issue and encourage conversations around mental health. The resources below provide current information:
https://www.thetrevorproject.org/resources/preventing-suicide/facts-about-suicide/
https://www.cdc.gov/msmhealth/suicide-violence-prevention.htm
https://www.nbcnews.com/feature/nbc-out/40-percent-lgbtq-youth-seriously-considered-suicide-past-year-survey-n1233832
This guide was created by Colleen Carroll, reading teacher, literacy specialist, curriculum writer, and children’s book author. Learn more about Colleen at www.colleencarroll.us.
This guide has been provided by Simon & Schuster for classroom, library, and reading group use. It may be reproduced in its entirety or excerpted for these purposes. For more Simon & Schuster guides and classroom materials, please visit simonandschuster.net or simonandschuster.net/thebookpantry.
About The Author
Anita Lashey
Robbie Couch writes young adult fiction. If I See You Again Tomorrow, his New York Times bestselling third novel, has received starred reviews from Publishers Weekly, Booklist, and the Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books. Robbie’s debut, The Sky Blues, was a Junior Library Guild selection. Robbie is originally from small-town Michigan and lives in Los Angeles.
Product Details
- Publisher: Simon & Schuster Books for Young Readers (October 5, 2022)
- Length: 352 pages
- ISBN13: 9781534477865
- Ages: 12 - 99
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Raves and Reviews
A JUNIOR LIBRARY GUILD SELECTION
"The author creates memorable, believable characters who inhabit vivid settings. Couch excels at crafting believable plot twists... Recommended for fans of David Levithan."
– School Library Journal
"Earnest, heartfelt, and sincerely moving. Robbie Couch writes with real honesty and compassion about love, family, and friendship in all their beautiful complexity."
– Becky Albertalli, New York Times bestselling author of Simon vs the Homo Sapiens Agenda
"Packed with twists, turns, and a whole lotta love, The Sky Blues tugged at my gay-from-the-Midwest heartstrings. Ready for more from Robbie!"
– Tyler Oakley, author of the New York Times bestseller Binge
"The Sky Blues is the first book I’ve read that so fully encapsulates the dynamics of growing up queer during adolescence, without falling into the usual dramatic tropes - it’s a perfect snapshot. This story is so pure and filled with hope that I never wanted it to end."
– Kevin McHale, actor ("Glee")
"This story is filled with shadows and light, struggles and wins, and with characters we can all relate to."
– Sarah Butland, Imagination Captured
"You’ll root for Sky... and have the joy of watching him overcome setbacks and find his own strength. This is a highly recommended book, especially to fans of Albertalli’s Simon books who want the same kind of feel."
– Online Eccentric Librarian
"An optimistic... coming-of-age narrative."
– Kirkus Reviews
"Debut author Couch structures the book as a promposal countdown, building suspense and showing how Sky... realizes he’s braver than he thinks, and claps back to the bullies, improving school culture and finding his community along the way."
– Publishers Weekly
Awards and Honors
- Georgia Peach Book Award for Teen Readers Nominee
- ALA Alex Award
- Kansas NEA Reading Circle List High School Title
- Nene Award Nominee (HI)
- Bank Street Best Children's Book of the Year Selection Title
Resources and Downloads
High Resolution Images
- Book Cover Image (jpg): The Sky Blues Trade Paperback 9781534477865
- Author Photo (jpg): Robbie Couch Anita Lashey(0.1 MB)
Any use of an author photo must include its respective photo credit
