Ness, Patrick. Different for Boys. Tea Bendix, Illus. Walker/Candlewick, 03/2023. 97pp. Fiction. GRADES 9 – 12. $18.99. 978-1-5362-2889-2. OUTSTANDING.
This wistful and reflective novella about identity, isolation, and the yearning to belong was originally published in the story collection Losing It (Andersen, 2010); the text has now been updated, Americanized, and illustrated with Bendix’s evocative smudgy pencil drawings. Narrator Ant Stephenson, a high school junior, is gay but stays closeted because of his school’s entrenched homophobia. Ant’s opening question is: When do boys who like boys lose their virginity? But he wants an answer that is more than just a physical act, he wants to know what will make him stop feeling lonely. This question is skillfully and richly explored and a tentative answer is arrived at through Ant’s changing relationships with three friends (all cued as white). Bendix’s moody illustrations embody the washed-out emptiness that these boys feel but cannot name. In the text, curse words, slurs, and sex acts are wittily redacted because, although they reflect real life, characters in YA books are not allowed to say them and, in a meta twist, Ant uses them to reach his own resolution.
Hayley Beale—San Francisco University High School