Notebooks of Melanin Sun & The Eagle Kite
Book Review, May 1995

Recently the Virginia Supreme Court denied lesbian mother Sharon Bottoms custody of her three-year-old son because "active lesbianism practiced in the home may impose a burden upon a child by reason of the 'social condemnation' attached to such an arrangement."

The good justices are right: as any child of a gay parent can tell you, social condemnation is no picnic. "But that's not a reason to take me away from my mom," said the fourteen-year-old son of a lesbian, when he read the article in the paper. "It's a reason to teach people to be less prejudiced." Two wonderful new books-From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun and The Eagle Kite will help.

Melanin Sun is thirteen, African American, living in Brooklyn with his single mother, E. C.. Mel and his Mama have always been close-until E.C. falls in love with a white woman she meets at law school. First the secret, then its revelation, tear mother and son apart. "I heard (Mama) say I love you, and something inside of me went stone-cold," Mel writes in his notebook. "Maybe Mama hated men. Maybe she hated me."

Melanin suffers every emotion real-life kids in his situation face: he's jealous of his Mama's new attachment, terrified that his friends will find out and ostracize him, furious that he can't bring his new girlfriend home, worried that he himself will turn out to be gay. He tries to convince E.C. that she and Kristin are really just 'good friends;' he reminds her of the suffering white people have caused them; he retreats into sulking silence. Finally, after Mel punches out a friend who calls his mother a dyke, Mel, Kristin, and E.C. spend a day together, and reconciliation begins. "As Kristin and I sat talking, something began melting inside of me," Melanin Sun writes. "I didn't know if it would ever stop mattering what people thought. But I was sure of Mama, sure of my notebooks...sure of me. Maybe that's all that matters." This faster-than-the-speed-of-life happy ending tarnishes its credibility a bit, but Melanin Sun glows, nonetheless, with authenticity.

Liam, the fourteen-year-old narrator of The Eagle Kite, realizes that his dad is gay soon after being told that his dad has AIDS. Liam's mom says the infection came from a tainted transfusion, but Liam uncovers a buried memory: three years ago, he came upon his father embracing another man. Now Liam must cope not only with his father's illness and impending death, but with his parent's bitter separation, and their unwillingness to tell Liam the truth.

"I know how you got it!" Liam screams at his father. "I saw you on the beach with that man. You all lie. Everybody is lying, lying!" "You don't know anything," answers his father. Like Melanin Sun, Liam agonizes over how to keep his friends and his girlfriend from discovering his father's sexuality.

Like Melanin Sun, he also questions his own. "He was thinking of how it was with Delia...of the breath-stopping weight of breast and bone against him. At such a moment, he'd recall the arm reaching out to clasp his father's neck. Then he'd let go of Delia..."

Liam's father develops AIDS dementia and dies before Liam forgives him for "killing our family." And Liam loses his best friend Luther when Luther makes fun of a 'nasty faggot' they pass on the street. But in their grief and anger Liam and his mother find their way to each other and tell each other their truths, at last.

From the Notebooks of Melanin Sun and The Eagle Kite are both beautifully written and compelling books-must-reads for kids whose parents are gay or HIV-infected, and for the adults who care for them.