On top of this, Sandy (the sheriff’s son) comes from a white, racist family, and there are rumors that his older brother Mikey was involved in the gruesome murder of a Black man. Because Khalid is dead, King is left to reconcile his feelings of love, anger, guilt, and shame by himself, and Callender accurately describes grief as messy and complex.

Khalid tells King he cannot stay friends with Sandy because people will think King is gay too, and it is hard enough being Black. King has an added dimension to his grief – he is angry at Khalid and also afraid that Khalid would not love him if he knew King’s truth.Ī few days before Khalid dies, he overhears King’s best friend Sandy tell King he is gay. King’s beloved older brother, Khalid, has died suddenly, and King and his parents are left to deal with their grief in different ways. It is a contemporary story of King, a Black boy in a small Louisiana town. In King and the Dragonflies( Scholastic Press 2020), Kacen Callender does not shy away from difficult issues. Do I have the courage to help Sandy? Am I brave enough to tell my family and friends my own secret? Read my story to find out. I want to find him, be his friend, but I know Khalid would be angry with me. He said it was hard enough just to be black in this world.

After that, Khalid said I couldn’t be friends with Sandy cause people would think I was gay too. I think he heard me tell Sandy my secret too, but he never said. Right before Khalid died, he overheard my best friend Sandy tell me he liked boys. At night, he would talk in his sleep, telling me about stars and other universes and about being a dragonfly.

Who would believe me? I just keep hoping Khalid will make himself known to me. I knew right then Khalid had come back as a dragonfly. You see, at Khalid’s funeral, a dragonfly came right through the church window and flew up to the casket where Khalid’s body lay. “There are hundreds, maybe even thousands, just sitting on tree branches and rocks, baking in the sun, flitting over the brown water that seeps up from the dirt, zipping across the sky, showing off their ghostlike wings.” But there’s no way to know which one is my older brother Khalid. My parents said “they named me King so I’d remember who I am, where I came from.” But I don’t really want to be a king.Įvery day after school, I walk the dusty road to the bayou to see the dragonflies. My name is Kingston Reginald James but everyone calls me King.

King and the dragon flies