Am I Blue? Reading Response

      In the story, “Am I Blue?” by Bruce Coville, there is a boy named Vince who is being bullied by Butch Carrigan for being gay, which Vince himself  is not sure whether he is gay or not. After he got beat up, a man named Melvin walks up to Vince, who is apparently  his fairy godfather. Melvin’s goal is to help Vince through the process of figuring himself out. (Being gay or not.) Vince gives Melvin three wishes, and his second wish, (first one being changing coffee into mocha), was everyone to have gaydar for 24 hours. Hence, everyone who was gay or ever had a gay experience  would be blue. Light blue to dark blue depending on how gay they were. This showed everyone that there was in fact a lot of gay people in their lives, whether they chose to believe it or not.
       Throughout this story, I noticed that the author sort of speaks through the “mentor” character, Melvin.(a.k.a the fairy godfather). Since this story is about gay bullying, there is some advice/motto/inspirational messages about bullying. For example, “They’re always assuming someone is or isn’t for all the wrong reasons.” This is saying not to judge/assume from first glance without not really knowing what is going on.
        Also, another saying/advice from Melvin was “I walk and talk the way I do because I’m not going to let anyone define me.” This meant not to change who you really are for other people. You can’t let them control you.
      One final thing that Melvin the fairy godfather said that could be secretly through the author was, “I prefer reform to vengeance”. This means that instead of getting revenge/payback, it is better to change your ways to the good/better of yourself without violence.
     Overall, I think that this story was meant to speak to the reader who might be going through the same thing that Vince was. I think this was a clever way of doing so, incorporating the story plus moral/advice together.