Sprout, by Dale Peck   [Hardcover 2009]

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Rave Reviews (5)*

• 1) Best book I've read in 2009 - how do I do this justice??

  by Goldengate on June 03 2009
    20+ helpful votes

  So I feel a lot of pressure as I write this review. I won't even mention the ONE other review on Amazon. I'm not someone who routinely gives out 5 stars... in fact, if you click on "read other reviews" you'll see I've been a pretty tough critic lately, especially regarding the books I've read. I also get the feeling not many people will ever even hear of this book.
  
  I just finished Sprout. Wow. I also just ordered two more books by this author. Anything I write feels like a cliche: I didn't want it to end, amazing character development,I grew to love the characters and the well-worn COULDN'T PUT IT DOWN. All those things are true.
  
  So what's this book about? A teenage boy nicknamed Sprout, who happens to have green hair, and happens also to be gay. His mother dies (handled as a flashback in the book), leaving him with his alcoholic father (ok the one thing that was maybe a teeny cliche), moving from Long Island to Kansas. Very different from Long Island.
  
  This book isn't about Sprout wrestling with being gay. It's also not about him struggling for acceptance. Or even coming out to his father (his father knows). It's about Sprout dealing with his mother's death, honing his writing skills (makes me wonder if this is semi-autobiographical), falling in lust, falling in love, worrying about a future after high school. This is next-gen gay, where the protagonists' sexuality is an interesting but not a defining detail.
  
  The narrative switches from the third to the first person and back again. Lots of commentary from the narrator directly to us, the readers, fleshing out details, making wry observations on the situation that until that very second we've been reading about in third person. And did I mention the book is funny? Not laugh out loud funny, but lots of things that made me smile as I was reading, make me like the narrator more. Just to give you a flavor, if you've made it this far, here are some of the chapter titles "The margarita was the only virgin in the house," "Rural gay boy, party of one," "Like that girl in the pink coat in Schindler's List."
  
  Language? Well, the F word does make an appearance or two. Sexual situations are handled with a "fade to black" with really no details or descriptions...Probably not something that a typical high school class would read, though it might be a good alternative to "Catcher in the Rye."
  
  The story progresses well - definitely held my interest and took several twists and turns I didn't predict. Actually I couldn't predict anything - the book was one surprise after another. Fitting for a book that begins "I have a secret. And everyone knows it," which might be the all-time best start to a book ever. (Well, right after that whole In the Beginning thing..)
  
  Sprout learns more about himself. And finishes with some more questions. The ending of the book may seem abrupt to some, but for me it was perfect. First love is often messy, filled with emotion, and the author captures the highs and lows with amazing skill.
  
  This is my first gushing review of 2009 and I don't expect too many more. I really enjoyed this book. You might, too. Did I tell you I didn't want it to end?
  

• 2) Inspiring to young and old alike

  by IndyCopperTop on June 12 2009
    5+ helpful votes

  If I were allowed to rate this book 4.5 stars, I would. I suppose if I hadn't recently read The Book Thief, I might very well have rated Sprout 5 stars. But what's the meaning of a 5 star rating if we were to rate excellent books and the very best books of our age with the same rating? And, yes, I do agree this is an excellent and moving read.
  
  A boy named Daniel moves from Long Island to Kansas after the death of his mother. The father is unable to cope with the loss of his wife and decides to cash in on the equity in his home and hide away in a remote part of Kansas on a remote tract of land. He chooses to remain unemployed and in a constant drunken stupor. His son is left on his own to make sense of it all. With the help of his confidant Ruthie, Daniel dyes his hair green and takes on the nickname Sprout. The green hair seems to signify his desire to remain true to himself in a conformist culture by being as visibly different as he is in spirit. However, the green hair and nickname also represent a need to pull away from the harsh realities of his life. As he struggles with his identity and his fears, he falls in lust with the school jock and then falls in love with the school outcast.
  
  This book is far less about the destination than the journey. If this weren't the case, I would have been frustrated with the ending. We don't know how everything turns out, but we don't need to know. What we do know is that Sprout approached a very difficult life with optimism and courage when only a few were there to offer encouragement. This story is powerful inspiration to young and older readers alike.

• 3) Most Eccentric Book Likely to Be Banned This Year

  by paisleymonsoon on July 04 2009
    4+ helpful votes

  It shouldn't take too long for this to make teen banned book lists across America. It's well-written, so it's probably going to be passed around high school friends quite quickly. However, it has more innuedo to profanity and sex than any novel I've read in a while. Yes, I said "innuendo". Sometimes double entendre and allusion gives you enough of a picture to not have to be reading the actual thing. And this was the author's intention. The back cover says that "Sprout has a secret. It's not what you think -- he'll tell you he's gay." I assumed this meant that his sexuality wasn't going to be a focus of the book. I was wrong.
  
  I have to say that I fell in love with the writer's ideas for eccentric characters in this book. Daniel (a.k.a. Sprout) is a talented writer with green hair. He loves word play. I love word play. Thus, Sprout was instantly cast in my mind as a character who could have been my high school best friend (except that my real best friend in high school wasn't gay). Sprout's dad has moved them from Long Island to Kansas to deal with his newly found widowdom. Dad's idea of landscaping includes planting vines to cover their small trailer and planting rows upon rows of dead trees with their roots up in the air instead of in the ground. Sprout's English teacher invites Sprout over to her house to practice his essay-writing and serves him alcohol and profanity (both of which he declines). It seems, however, that she's really invited him over to get closer to one of the subjects of his writing (and it's not Sprout).
  
  The author has a real talent for creating memorable and distinct characters and has a real talent for using words in the most effective way possible. Even though the storyline of the book didn't pick up intensity until the last half of the book, I barely noticed because I was so busy absorbing the nice words. While the novel is basically a "coming of age story" about a gay teenage boy, it's not as generic and cliche as it sounds. It's also about love found and love lost, but that, too, seems to not do justice to the writing and characters which bring this novel to life.

• 4) A refreshing take on gay teenagers!

  by C. R. Swanson on June 03 2009
    3+ helpful votes

  There is too often a theme in gay fiction. That theme is tragedy. I know this comes from the fact that so many gay people have lead rather effed up lives, but I can't help but wonder what sort of message it sends young gay people growing up today. If you see something like Torchsong Trilogy, do you then believe all you have to look forward to is being gay-bashed? What about some of the AIDS sagas of the 1980's and `90's? Gay fiction tends to be tragic because the lives of so many gay people have been tragic.
  
  But please note the use of the phrase "have been". It's a new world now. 2009, and being gay is pretty ok, unless you have the misfortune to live in some of the less-enlightened parts of our great nation. The titular character of this novel, Sprout, has that misfortune, living in Kansas, a place which contains the infamous Westboro Baptist Church.
  
  Sprout is a character that I didn't see often in gay fiction when I was growing up back in the late 1980's. He's not especially conflicted about being gay. He doesn't go out of his way to hide it from people, but he doesn't rub their faces in it, either. Rather he just goes about his life like any overly-intellectual teenage boy in a place where intellect is not prized (you know, high school).
  
  Sprout's story is one that's a bit different from standard gay fiction, and thank goodness for that. Sprout doesn't catch AIDS and doesn't kill himself, which are two major pluses. Nor does he get gay-bashed. His boyfriend doesn't commit suicide. All in all, this is a far more positive depiction of gay life than most of what gay teens get exposed to. That it's well-written, entertaining and damn funny all help. It's the kind of book I'd like to write some day (actually, the kind that I'm about 25% finished with writting).
  
  This is a very, very good book and one that anyone trying to come to grips with their sexuality ought to read. I'd say that straight teen boys and girls could benefit by reading it, too, but though this is 2009, our world is what it is, and I'm not naive enough to think anyone but the gay boys will read it.
  
  Still, what a read those fortunate few will have.

• 5) The next generation of gay coming-of-age tales?

  by Phelps Gates on June 15 2009
    3+ helpful votes

  I'm about 50 years older than the target audience for this YA title, but found it absorbing, and suspect that most teens, especially gay ones, would enjoy it. The protagonist/narrator comes across as rather annoying at first. He seems like a graduate student trapped in a highschooler's body, and his idea of light reading is to work his way through the dictionary. But he gradually grows on you, and the book picks up steam in the second half, leading to a powerful conclusion.
  
  Is it fair to say that this represents the second generation of novels about gay youth? The narrator takes his sexuality for granted, without agonizing about whether he's gay or not. And the plot doesn't take the cliche route of making him a crusader for gay rights at school. He's gay, and if people don't like it, too bad. Let us hope that this is the future.
  
  There's also a good deal of detail on how to dye your hair green, should you be inclined to do so. Is this the future, as well?? I'm less enthusiastic about this trend!