"Flyboy"

Kasey LeBlanc (he / him) is a queer, trans, Jewish and neurodivergent author who writes stories for young people. His debut young adult novel Flyboy tells the story of a closeted trans boy, his
Catholic high school, and the magical dream circus where he can finally be seen for his true self.

LeBlanc applied the Page 69 Test to Flyboy and reported the following:

By day, 17-year-old Asher Sullivan is a closeted trans boy just trying to survive senior year at his new Catholic school; by night, he soars through the air as a flying trapeze artist in the magical dream circus where he is seen for his true self.

…Or at least he will once he figures out how to free himself from his assigned role as a clown.

If a reader were to pick up Flyboy for the first time and flip to page 69, they would find Asher at the circus, having just finished another unsuccessful attempt at training to be a clown. As he sits outside the main tent, a memory comes to mind of the black-and-green bike he asked his grandparents for for his seventh birthday.

Towards the end of the page 69 into the top of page 70, Asher recalls the moment at his birthday party (having until that moment pretty much only received stereotypical “girl” gifts) when he waits for his grandparents’ gift.

When the big moment came, my grandparents made me close my eyes as they wheeled out my gift and set up the video camera to record the big moment. It’s one of my grandparents’ favorite videos of me, and one of my least. There’s a moment as I’m pulling off the wrapping paper and thanking my grandparents profusely, that I always think they’ll notice, but they never do, so blinded are they by their own perceptions of that day. It’s just a small moment, as I spot the first flash of color on the bike–bright pink and sparkly, rather than lime green and black–when my face falls, before I recover and plaster on a new smile, fake this time.

Being a clown at a magical circus is a lot like that pink bike. Almost perfect, yet completely wrong.

Even though it’s technically on page 70, I love that final line because I think it captures so much of Asher’s journey in Flyboy. In a world that wants to put him in a box and see him in a certain way, his story is one of finding the strength to break free and the confidence to live life on his own terms.

Visit Kasey LeBlanc's website.

Q&A with Kasey LeBlanc.

--Marshal Zeringue