Part comedy, part grief narrative, In
the Key of Dale is a disarming coming-of-age novel about a queer teen music
prodigy who discovers pieces of himself in places he never thought to look. Sixteen-year-old
Dale Cardigan is a loner who's managed to make himself completely invisible at
his all-boys high school. He doesn't fit with his classmates (whom he gives
nicknames in his head), his stepbrother (whom nobody at school knows he's
related to), or even his mother (who never quite sees how gifted a musician Dale
might be)--but they don't fit with him, either. And he's fine with that. To him,
high school and home are stages to endure until his real life can finally
begin. Somewhat
against his will, he befriends his classmate Rusty, who gets a rare look at
Dale's complex life outside school, but their friendship is made awkward when Dale
is uncertain whether his growing attraction to Rusty is one-sided. Still, it's
to Rusty that Dale turns when he stumbles upon a family secret that shakes
everything he thought he knew. An epistolary novel written in the form of
letters to his late father, In the Key of Dale is a beguiling,
pitch-perfect book about growing up, fitting in, and finding a way out of grief
and loneliness toward the melodic light of adulthood.
Ages 14 and up.
the Key of Dale is a disarming coming-of-age novel about a queer teen music
prodigy who discovers pieces of himself in places he never thought to look. Sixteen-year-old
Dale Cardigan is a loner who's managed to make himself completely invisible at
his all-boys high school. He doesn't fit with his classmates (whom he gives
nicknames in his head), his stepbrother (whom nobody at school knows he's
related to), or even his mother (who never quite sees how gifted a musician Dale
might be)--but they don't fit with him, either. And he's fine with that. To him,
high school and home are stages to endure until his real life can finally
begin. Somewhat
against his will, he befriends his classmate Rusty, who gets a rare look at
Dale's complex life outside school, but their friendship is made awkward when Dale
is uncertain whether his growing attraction to Rusty is one-sided. Still, it's
to Rusty that Dale turns when he stumbles upon a family secret that shakes
everything he thought he knew. An epistolary novel written in the form of
letters to his late father, In the Key of Dale is a beguiling,
pitch-perfect book about growing up, fitting in, and finding a way out of grief
and loneliness toward the melodic light of adulthood.
Ages 14 and up.
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