White Rabbit by Caleb Roehrig

White Rabbit is a young adult mystery novel by Caleb Roehrig. If this novel had featured your stereotypical scooby-squad protagonists I would have suggested to skip it; fortunately for us that is not the case.

White Rabbit has a very pulp feel to it: kids stumble onto a crime scene, and the kids have to figure it out before the adults do. The main story has everything you'd expect from a kid's mystery book: heaps of dead bodies, romance between leads, and a few 11th hour twists to throw the honor students in the audience off their game.

So why am I still recommending this 330pg cliché? Because of representation. The fact that the book is so cookie cutter is exactly why it's a great book to give impressionable kids. It not only addresses the stigmas attached to figuring out your own non-heteronormative sexuality at a tender age, but also addresses the very real homophobia and uncertainty people feel when they come out.

White Rabbit's a typical book you'd find battered and dog eared sticking out of a thrift store backpack on the bus. It's honestly wonderful to see a kids book written for kids that doesn't have a heavy handed message so much as it just happens to have representation and it's unashamed of itself for that selfsame reason.

I would recommend this book to any middle schooler or early high schooler, as it's an interesting read and makes the reader evaluate facts and analyze differing narratives in an easy to manage level. I would double recommend to any kids who are questioning their sexuality or who have friends who are going through that struggle.

Caleb Roehrig goes to great length to garner the audiences empathy without trying to make the character's backstories total sob stories, and for that Roehrig has my respect.