Saving Kenny

A middle schooler seeks the courage to pursue his dreams amid mockery and an abusive home situation in Corinne Gaile’s novel Saving Kenny.

Twelve-year-old Kenny accompanies his older sister to the opera, expecting to be bored. However, it is an eyeopening experience that ignites his passion to become a costume designer. Already somewhat ostracized for being a private school scholarship kid, he now navigates the stigma surrounding boys who are interested in fields believed to be feminine. Further worsening his dilemma is the disapproval of his adored older brother, who signs him up for a “masculine” class when Kenny shares his dream.

Kenny is an impressionable, eager-to-please hero who struggles to find his voice and protect his dream. The constant abuse from his mother, who requires him to run in the rain to buy her milk after she bangs his lip on the kitchen sink, weakens his already low self-esteem. And Kenny’s fears and longing for normalcy meld with the frustrations of his siblings, with whom he has heavy conversations, wondering about their mother’s harshness and planning for their futures away from her and their survival in the present. Kenny’s interactions with his friends who were raised in loving homes exist in clear contrast to his own experiences, too: their behaviors are unburdened, and they place innocent expectations on him to participate in the same activities that they do.

Heartwarming moments with non-family members, as with the children’s ever-present downstairs neighbor who expresses pride in them, and Kenny’s wittiness lessen the otherwise dismal atmosphere. And the frequent use of slang localizes the story to Kenny’s small Roxbury community well.

In the poignant novel Saving Kenny, a boy learns that his loved ones can be wrong sometimes while pursuing his own unique path.
—Foreword


A 12-year-old African American boy living in the Boston neighborhood of Roxbury in 1968 finds ways to be true to himself and find support within a complicated family situation.
When Kenny Reed’s big sister, Gwen, takes him to see the opera Aida, he becomes enamored with the Egyptian-themed production and decides he wants to become a costume designer—but he doesn’t want his big brother, Vaughn, or his mother to find out about these ambitions. The siblings constantly monitor their abusive mother’s moods to determine if it’s safe to be in the house. Soon Vaughn will graduate high school, however—and Gwen is just one year behind him—which will leave Kenny unprotected. Kenny’s thrilled to be spending the summer with his white friend Thomas Hamilton’s family in Vermont. But that invitation is rescinded after Vaughn encourages Kenny to use a fancy seafood meal he had with the Hamiltons as inspiration for a Black Panther flyer, making Thomas think Kenny’s mocking his father. Rather than going to Vermont, Kenny attends art classes at the Afro-American Arts Academy, where he must decide between taking African drumming or sewing, which he really wants but which Vaughn says is for sissies. Debut author Gaile provides a touching, in-depth look at domestic violence, gender roles, and what it means to be a man, centered on an appealing protagonist whom readers will root for.
A thoughtful, relevant exploration of social, political, and personal upheaval through a child’s eyes.
—Kirkus Reviews