Me, My Dad And The End Of The Rainbow by Benjamin Dean Review.

 Hi ForeverBookers, 

How are you all doing? I hope you’re well!

I’ve just finished reading “Me, My Dad And The End Of The Rainbow,” by Benjamin Dean and I LOVED it! I read it specifically in June because it has LGBTQ+ themes as well as it being a summer contemporary.

5 Stars! 

“Me, My Dad And The End Of The Rainbow” is a middle grade story, focused on the middle grade market. This makes it easy and fun to read, while being informative of LGBTQ+ rights and themes to a younger audience. There's a leaflet that is actually in the text to read. The story id about Archie, a young boy trying to mend his family while discovering secrets long hidden about his dad.

I really enjoyed the artwork inside the book too. There isn't too much but it just adds to the story in my opinion.

The readathons I read “Me, My Dad And The End Of The Rainbow” for are:

The Cardcaptor-A-Thon - The Voice - A card that steals a character’s voice…Read a book that has a meaning beyond the story, that maybe explores a current or past issue in society… -  “Me, My Dad And The End Of The Rainbow” works for this because LGBTQ+ rights have had meaning for many years now, as they should! We’re all as significant as each other! 

Reading Rivalry - A book I’ve seen on someone else’s bookshelf - I’ve seen “Me, My Dad And The End Of The Rainbow” on Read By A Redhead’s booktube channel. She’s actually the first person I saw with the book, after hearing about it on How To Train Your Gavin’s channel.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tVF1u9FS-V4 - Read By A Redhead’s video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tarjlboYJv4 - How To Train Your Gavin’s interview with the author of “Me, My Dad And The End Of The Rainbow,” Benjamin Dean.

Whatever-You-Want-A-Thon - It hit many of the prompts for this. It has orange on the cover, which was my group’s, “The Middle-Grade Monarchs,” colour, it was the correct genre, middle grade, it was a five star prediction, as well as MANY others on the list, including there being POC rep, as Archie and his dad are black. Bell, one of Archie’s best friends is of colour too. In fact most of our main characters are of colour. It was just normal in Me, My Dad And The End Of The Rainbow, something we don’t see too much of, especially in middle grade literature.

Popsugar Reading Challenge 2021 - A book about a social justice issue - LGBTQ+ rights, as far as I know are a social justice issue, so this fits perfectly for this prompt. I really didn’t know what to read for this so I’m glad I found something entertaining, that I enjoyed.

My review below will be VERY vague because this is a middle-grade story, so first of all, the ideas are simple surrounding the novel, added to that it’s a contemporary book with no plot twists or magic to explain. I’ll just be summing the story up below and giving my thoughts on significant points, while leaving most of the plot a mystery for you to read and indulge in. 

Spoilers Below!

“Okay, so the coast is clear? Good, because I’m about to tell you some of my most secret secrets and I don’t want just anybody reading them. But, before I tell you my secrets, you have to PROMISE not to tell anybody else. Not a single soul. I mean it! This has to stay between us, okay?”

Before Archie introduces himself, he directly tells the reader to promise not to tell anyone about the events the book. I found Archie to be cute and funny. The author definitely pulled off an entertaining twelve year old protagonist from page 1 in my opinion. 

In the blurb of the book, Archie tells the reader, “My name’s Archie, and I know two things for certain:

My mum and dad kind of hate each other

They’re keeping a BIG secret from me.”

This really intrigued me. I knew what the secret was based on the other parts of the premise but for a middle-grade reader, I think this would keep them guessing as to just WHAT the big secret is, as well as normalising it for all ages. 

“I’m Archie by the way. Archie Albright. I would tell you my middle name but I’m not sure I trust you that much just yet. Maybe later.”

This is how Archie introduces himself. I thought reading from Archie’s perspective was easy and fun! He doesn’t want to let the reader know his middle name yet, not until he knows he can trust us. I thought this was cute, fun and just what a twelve year old would say or think. Will he reveal his middle name? Will he trust the reader? You’ll have to read to find out.

Archie tells his two best friends, Seb and Bell about what has happened with his parents. They see it all play out at a Parents Evening anyway but Archie gives them extra details. 

“Before we go any further, I would like to take this opportunity to pause and say how much I wish parents would stop patting us. On the head, on the back, on the shoulder. We’re not puppies that need to be stroked and told what a good boy they are. If anybody knows why parents do this, please let me know. And parents, if you’re reading this, PLEASE STOP!”

At Parents Evening Archie wishes that “parents would stop patting us.” It’s not like he’s a dog who needs a reward. He even goes so far as to ask any parents reading this book to stop patting their child. It’s clear from this quote that Archie cares about the reader, reading this book. I found this entertaining as well. It was almost as if I was best friends with Archie. 

Archie goes home humiliated by his parents as they have a fight at Parents Evening in front of everyone. He STILL doesn’t know what the problem is, himself. 

When Archie, Seb and Bell overhear an argument between Meg, Archie’s mum and Kevin, Archie’s dad and he hears his dad admit he’s gay, and it shocks him. This happens about 50 pages into the book, so quite near the start, as it’s just over 300 pages in length. The story is really about Archie’s journey to accept the fact that his dad is gay, but still no different to how he was before. He still acts exactly the same, even though Archie is scared he’ll start to be different. It’s the fear of the unknown that Archie doesn’t like. Seb and Bell help with discovering it’s nothing to be scared of as they go with Archie, on an adventure to watch the London PRIDE event. They run into MANY trouble along the way, as happens in most middle grade stories. Can they fix the problems? Or will they be stuck without any help? You’ll need to read to find out. 

This is definitely a character driven book! I loved all the characters in “Me, My Dad And The End Of The Rainbow.” They all had a distinct voice. Archie, the main character, Bell the brave best friend, Seb, the scared best friend, until the end...I won’t say what happens, but he embraces difference and change. I found Seb to be really funny. Oscar, the gay babysitter and ‘adult’ throughout most of the novel, even though he’s only 17. Oscar HAS to help Archie to get to London, as well as the Drag Queens right at the end. Each group of characters had a different job to do, and I think they all succeeded. Of course Archie’s parents both play a significant role too. His mum is upset at the beginning of the novel as she’s trying to accept that Archie’s dad is in fact gay. Does she come around to that change? While his dad is struggling with his own problems of actually being openly gay.

Overall, then, I freaking loved “Me, My Dad And The End Of The Rainbow.” It’s a very entertaining book while being informative, without dumping heaps of information on the reader. When I first heard about it on booktube, I was wondering if it would be too young for me, but it wasn’t at all. I learnt some things in fact! 

Stand by for my next review, coming soon...