God Loves Hair

Starred review from September 29, 2014
Hinduism and its institutions can heap shame on gay adolescents just as effectively as the Judeo-Christian world, Shraya's collection of short stories shows. Originally self-published in 2011, this terse, honest account of growing up gay in an East Indian family living in Canada explores layers of identityâimmigrant, male, cultural consumer, sexual being. "Maybe you should dress me up in a sari and see what I would look like as a girl," his young narrator tells his Indian aunts coyly, reveling in the jewelry and makeup that go with his costume. Later, in his teens, the boy tries to manage amorphous and confusing desires by dedicating his life to God at a religious summer school. An older adherent follows him back to his room: "Just sit next to me for a second." Caution and excuses are no help: "He grabs my face with his hands and slams his chapped lips against mine." Shraya's stripped-down prose has documentary force, and Neufeld's illustrations, with their intersecting planes of translucent color and their linoleum block-style images, add humor and bite. It's an important addition to the library of coming-out literature. Ages 12âup.

August 1, 2014
A young boy grapples with his self-image and budding homosexuality. In his debut novella, the Toronto-based Shraya explores growing up gay and religious through the character of a nameless Indo-Canadian boy who from childhood on is somewhat female-identified. The protagonist is born with "a full head of jet-black hair," coming to sport "one long, thin ponytail" as he waits until age 2 for his first haircut, receiving compliments all the while for being a "cute baby girl." Thus begins the boy's fluid-at times troubling-experience with gender, which Shraya cleverly encapsulates in the boy's experience of developing body hair alongside others in his life. His younger brother buzzes some of his off; his father demonstrates how to shave his mustache; Vicky Macker, the cool girl, wants to dye his hair red, like hers; and his mother, with whom he most closely identifies, zealously plucks her eyebrows. Throughout this brief bildungsroman, the boy negotiates his way through Canadian and Indian cultures, learning differing roles played by the sexes and often feeling comforted and occasionally frightened by the strength of his Hindu faith. Neufeld's mixed-media illustrations pair well with the scenes they depict, capturing the essence of being young with their multilayered texture and comic book-like immediacy. Running the emotional spectrum from shame to pleasure and acceptance, Shraya offers a refreshing window into the intimate struggles of youth. (Fiction. 12 & up)

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August 1, 2014

Gr 10 Up-Through 21 short stories, Shraya takes readers on an emotional journey with a boy who is discovering and developing a gender identity in a heteronormative environment. The tales recount the narrator's life growing up in a Hindu family in Canada, and how his religion, ethnicity, brown skin, hair, and family's expectations intersect. Each story is accompanied by mixed-media illustrations with comic-book appeal, that along with the work's Indian and American pop-culture references and its intersection of race and gender, bring a fresh and vibrant addition to YA LGBT literature. Whether it is through his hair "problems," relation to his family, or experiences in school, teens, as well as the older My So-Called Life generation, will find this book appealing and self-reflecting. The 2011 self-published edition garnered several accolades, including Lambda Literary Award finalist. Librarians should be on the lookout for this queer coming-of-age story that offers an endearing and honest voice, as well as a heartbreaking account of adolescence.-Sujei Lugo, Simmons College, MA

Copyright 2014 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

Starred review from August 1, 2014
Grades 9-12 *Starred Review* Originally self-published in 2011, when it was a finalist for the Lambda Literary Award, this is a kaleidoscopic collection of 21 short stories about a boy growing up in Canada, the son of Hindu immigrant parents. As a child, he loves color, longs to wear his mother's clothing, and clumsily paints his face with her lipstick. When he reaches junior high school, the teasing starts. After he is called sissy, fag, and gaylord, he finds refuge with girls ( We have more in common ), but his real sanctuary is religion. No one is an outsider here, he thinks as he turns to Hindu gods for comfort and inspiration and goes so far as to try to paint his skin blue like Lord Shiva's. Finally, he discovers a picture of Lord Shiva in which the god is depicted as being half man and half woman. I am not invisible anymore, he thinks triumphantly. The highly visual nature of the stories is enhanced by artist Neufeld's full-page color illustrations, which accompany each selection. Like the unnamed narrator of these evocative stories, the author grew up genderqueer in Canada. A book for all ages, this will be especially welcomed by contemporary genderqueer youth and twentysomethings, who will see themselves in these vividly realized pages.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2014, American Library Association.)