Ramona Blue

Teenager Ramona "Blue" – named for her bright blue hair – has a difficult life living in a trailer park in post-Katrina Eulogy, Mississippi , and trying to support her father, her pregnant sister, and her soon-to-arrive niece. She has always known that she is a lesbian and has a summer fling with Grace, who won’t break up with her boyfriend, but when her childhood friend Freddie moves back to town she falls in love with him and she starts to question who she really is and the nature of love. This engaging coming-of-age novel for grades 9-11 would work as a literature circle, independent, or class novel, and focuses on relationships, sexual orientation, friendships, identity, and self-acceptance.