Am I Blue? by Bruce Coville

We recently read a short story called, "Am I Blue" by Bruce Coville. It's about a boy named Vincent who has to deal  with being bullied because people think he's gay. The story takes a twist when Vincent gets a fairy godfather named Melvin who helps him deal with the issue. Him himself is trying to figure that out his sexuality during the story, because he wants to know ''if he's blue". It's also the same issue Melvin had to deal with being bullied when he was alive too. As a resolution to the conflict of Vincent being bullied he uses one of his three wishes to turn everyone who's gay blue for a day so people can't ignore the fact that there are homosexual people everywhere, and it's okay. That is also one of the themes of the story.

Another theme of the story is "to be true to yourself, and just because it's said about you doesn't mean it's true." AT ALL. I think this because Butch Carrigan (the bully) calls Vincent "fruit" and other mean names because Butch thinks Vincent is gay. At one part of the story Melvin says,"the world is crawling with f*g*ts, but most of them are in hiding because they're afraid they'll get treated like you did an hour ago." After Vincent told him that word was impolite, Melvin told him that if you take back the language used to hurt you, it can't hurt you anymore.

Another theme of the story could be, "It's okay no matter who other people are." People all over the world are bullied because of how they might act or talk, but whether they are or aren't is no reason to be hurt. I read articles in the newspaper of gay marriage parades, and I think that's a good thing, nothing to be angry over. In the story they call the ability to tell if someone is gay or not "gaydar". If your darker blue  your gay, lighter blue your unsure like Vincent. after Vincent gets this ability he says, "Ms.Thorndyke, the librarian, who everyone knew was a lesbian, didn't have a trace of blue on her." Which could be a lesson on not judging people on what they might act or speak like. This is a really uplifting story about accepting who you and others really are.