Blackbird

First Published in 1986, Blackbird is a funny, moving, coming-of-age novel about growing up black and gay in America. The lead character, Johnnie Ray Rousseau, is a high school student upset over losing the lead role in the school staging of Romeo and Juliet. As if that weren't enough, his best friend has been beaten badly by his father, and his girlfriend is pressuring him to have sex for the first time. All the while, he's intrigued by Marshall MacNeil, whom he meets at an audition and is surely the sexiest man to walk God's green earth-at least according to Johnnie Ray. This novel of adolescent awakening is as fresh and heartfelt as it was when first published.