Rick by Alex Gino: An Incredibly Important Novel

What: Rick by Alex Gino

Who: Scholastic Press

When: April 21st 2020

How: A copy of this novel was provided by Scholastic Australia for review.

Rick’s never questioned much. He’s gone along with his best friend Jeff even when Jeff’s acted like a bully and a jerk. He’s let his father joke with him about which hot girls he might want to date even though that kind of talk always makes him uncomfortable. And he hasn’t given his own identity much thought, because everyone else around him seemed to have figured it out.

But now Rick’s gotten to middle school, and new doors are opening. One of them leads to the school’s Rainbow Spectrum club, where kids of many genders and identities congregate, including Melissa, the girl who sits in front of Rick in class and seems to have her life together. Rick wants his own life to be that … understood. Even if it means breaking some old friendships and making some new ones.

As they did in their groundbreaking novel George, in Rick, award-winning author Alex Gino explores what it means to search for your own place in the world … and all the steps you and the people around you need to take in order to get where you need to be.

I absolutely adored Gino’s book George so when I heard about Rick I knew I was going to read it, and I had a pretty good idea that I was going to enjoy it. And I did! Rick was just the book I thought it would be, and like George I am so glad it exists for young queer kids as well as questioning kids and kids who aren’t queer. I’m just glad this book exists for kids in general.

Rick is kind of a companion novel to George and Melissa has a minor role in the book. I was so happy about this! And when I realised that Rick’s best friend was the one who was so horrible to Melissa in primary school I realised that it was beyond time for Rick to drop him and find new friends.

But that doesn’t happen instantly because Rick has been friends with Jeff for an incredibly long time, and they’re best friends. Rick sees Jeff through rose tinted glasses and the fact that Jeff is nice to him makes Rick forgive his awful behaviour to others. Eventually, though, Rick learns that just because someone is nice to you doesn’t mean they’re a nice person. I think this message of dropping toxic people and friendships was really important because even as an adult this is incredibly hard. So if kids can learn to identify these relationships and how to deal with them early on this is a great thing.

Along with this storyline the rest of Rick mainly focussed on Rick questioning his queerness as well as learning about the queer community and some identities within it. Rick’s questioning is so important because there are not enough novels about questioning queerness. Most characters have either gone through it already before the book starts or they always knew and never went through any real questioning but more of a coming to terms. Even though Rick does pretty much figure out what his queer identity is at the end of the book, the questioning arc is still incredibly important.

As is the fact that he is aromantic asexual! There is not enough aro or ace rep in the world (although this is slowly changing) and to see it in a kid lit book just warms my heart to no end. Rick Googling it and learning about his queerness was so adorable, and seeing him defend their definitions was such a strong moment.

One of the things I loved best about Rick was the LGBTQIAP+ group at his school. They had so many discussions that really translated into learning moments for the reader because they were learning moments for Rick. There was discussion about pronouns and the word ‘preferred’, the LGBTQIAP+ acronym, the + sign, as well as the use of the term QUILTBAG and why some people might not feel 100% comfortable with it. My heart was soaring with these discussions because I was imagining kids, both queer and not, seeing that discussion for the first time and just having their eyes opened to it.

I would be remiss not to mention the relationship between Rick and his grandfather as it is really important to the book. I won’t say too much but they bond beautifully and Rick finds someone he can talk to and express his questioning of his queerness to and I wish every queer kid had someone in their family like him.

All in all, Rick was everything I wanted it to be, and more. I am infinitely glad this book exists and I hope Gino keeps writing queer books for kids because we know they need them, now and always.

© 2020, Chiara @ Books for a Delicate Eternity. All rights reserved.

trigger warning