Winner of the 2020 National Book Awards for Young
People’s Literature.
In a small but turbulent Louisiana town, King lost his
older brother.
To move on, he must find himself.
King is convinced his brother isn’t dead,
that he has instead turned into a dragonfly, and he searches
for Khalid down by the bayou.
Khalid visits him in turn, in King’s dreams. King must keep
these secrets to himself as he watches grief transform
his family.
It would be easier if King could talk with his best friend, Sandy.
But King had ended their friendship. Before his death, his brother
had said, “You don’t want anyone to think you’re gay too,
do you?”
But when Sandy goes missing, sparking a
town-wide search, King finds his former best friend and the two begin
an adventure as they hide Sandy down by the bayou, among the
dragonflies. As King’s friendship with Sandy is reignited,
he’s forced to confront questions about himself and the reality
of his brother’s death.
In this raw and exquisite story, we see that love can set us
all free.
The Thing About Jellyfish meets The Stars
Beneath Our Feet in this story about loss, grief, and
finding the courage to discover one's identity, from the author
of Hurricane Child and bestselling Felix Ever
After.
"This quiet novel movingly addresses toxic masculinity,
homophobia in the black community—especially related to men—fear,
and memory. Elegiac and hopeful" Kirkus Reviews
Kacen Callender is originally from Saint Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. Kacen has a BA from Sarah Lawrence College and an MFA from the New School's writing for children program. They are also the author of the young adult novel This Is Kind of an Epic Love Story and the middle grade novel Hurricane Child, winner of the Stonewall Book Award and Lambda Liter
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