Freak Show

St. James, J. (2007). Freak show. New York: Dutton Children's Books. Billy Bloom is not your typical high school senior. In fact according to the students at Dwight D. Eisenhower Academy there is nothing typical or acceptable about Billy the drag queen. Billy is proud of whom he is, but the ultra-rich and ultra-conservative students are not ready to accept someone like Billy. He soon becomes the target of all the hate brewing at Eisenhower Academy until Billy befriends the most popular athlete Flip Kelly. Billy then shocks the school even further when he decides to run for homecoming queen. After announcing to the media his plans for homecoming, Billy finds a platform for teaching the students and the community about tolerance for the LGBT community. St. James’ use of Billy’s voice, point of view and humor are the novel’s strengths. Freak Show is a fiction story about sexual orientation featuring a transgender student and is therefore classified as a modern realistic fiction novel.