Answers in the Pages

by David Levithan

Gideon’s mother claimed to be allergic to dust, which Gideon thought was an exaggeration, since dust was everywhere and if she were truly allergic to dust she’d be coughing or sneezing or wheezing every second of every day.

Bro. Allergy erasure. You know you can’t do this.

So if she wrote history homework, he would scramble up its letters to find phrases like my stork or Who is more Thor? or He took my sow!

Okay does this not sound similar to the thing I used to do when I was little: writing a story by choosing one word from each line of the book?

He’d do all of this in his head because early in the year he’d tried writing it all down and Ms. June had caught him doing it and instead of thinking he was doing something smart, she treated him like he was doing something wrong. That had put an end to writing it down.

This does sound very familiar.

Alexander Hamilton’s

👌

There was the time when I was in second grade when she’d convinced the PTA that bake sales were really just a way to get kids hooked on processed sugar, so instead of a usual bake sale they had a “make sale” where parents sold healthy dinners to raise money for a new roof for the school gymnasium.

Yeah. Ultimate Karen.

I was deeply offended that she would think I’d even consider writing in a book.

Yeah Gideon was very me but this…very much not.

there’s something important about going back to books you’ve already read. You will always find new things inside, or have new reactions to characters you thought you already knew well. You learn more about the story and you also learn more about yourself as a reader, and where you are in life.

Mrs. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

That book was boring

Gideon was amazed because he wasn’t one of the few kids raising a hand.

See? Me.

Mom asked me, “What show is this?” I told her, and she shook her head and said, “I’d like you to watch something else.” She didn’t tell me that what I’d seen was wrong, and she didn’t yell at me or anything for watching it, but the line was drawn, the message clear: You are not ready for this.

Again, very relatable. This all seems very familiar.

I got a turtle in New York City and a turtle in Santa Fe.

🫰🫰🫰

“I’m gay, Mr. Howe,” Curtis replied. This was not the answer Mr. Howe was expecting, but he took it in stride. “I’m gay too,” he said. “Feels good to say it out loud, doesn’t it?”

This book was released in what year? As a MG book??

There was a time when teachers didn’t feel comfortable being out,

Listen it’s 2023 and I still have yet to have an openly gay teacher. How? Are there just no queer teachers or professors in my path or what?

Thank you for sending me a message. I am deep into writing my new book right now and am trying to avoid having email suck up all my words. It may take me a few weeks to respond to you—but I promise I will respond when I can. Keep reading! G. R. Bright

You know? Not most authors have a contact like this to email. Why is that the case? I want to email authors.

And Roberto made Gideon realize there were stories behind everything.

That’s beautiful

Roberto’s parents decided not to wake them, so it was in this way that Gideon and Roberto ended the happiest Valentine’s Day they’d ever had.

I believe this is literally the cutest thing I’ve ever read.

YouTube and TikTok

So this is recent. Why did I think it wasn’t? It definitely SEEMS recent.

“I’ll bet when he was a high school student here, he never would’ve imagined that he’d be back in this auditorium with half the town talking about a book he’d written.”

OH MY GOD IT WOULD LITERALLY BE MY DREAM TO GO TO A HEARING AT CINNA ABOUT A BOOK I WROTE BEING BANNED

In challenging a book, they would have been trying to turn off a tap, when who I am is actually an ocean.

Oh my god so in critical thinking today Bram said this old Dutch saying that meant the same thing…something about cleaning up the water while the faucet is still on. Literally the same thing.

I’m telling you what we need: more books, not fewer books.

Yes.

“Thank you, Gideon,” Bright said. “Thank you, Roberto,” Mr. Howe replied.

NO ITS THEM???????? OH MY GOD. THATS WHY I WAS GETTING CONFUSED ABOUT WHAT TIME PERIOD IT WAS SET IN. OH MY GOD OH MY GOD OH MY GOD BEST TWIST ENDING EVER.

Great Rare Bright

THATS WHERE HE GOT HIS PEN NAME!!!!!!

“Write something about me someday,” Gideon said. Roberto smiled and said, “I just might.” (*He did.)

YEAH HE DID

Fellow writers, let this be a lesson to always keep the fragments around.)

Oh I do Except for that one time in like 10th grade when I accidentally deleted everything on my iPad’s notes app