Me, My Dad and the End of the Rainbow

Archie Albright just wants life to go back to what it was before his dad moved out and they had regular video game nights and arcade trips together.  Although these visits still happen Archie knows there is something odd going on as nothing feels quite right anymore.  After a spectacular meltdown between his parents at Parents Evening Archie is determined to find out what it is.  And later when Archie overhears an argument back at home he finds out – his Dad has come out as gay.

Archie decides he needs to understand the world his Dad now inhabits as he isn’t given much information and their conversations have become more awkward.   So when a leaflet falls out of his Dad’s pocket advertising the London Pride March Archie knows what he wants to do.

What follows is a mad-cap and somewhat rash adventure.  Archie enlists the help of his best friends, Seb and Bell, to plan their trip to London.   Seb is a worrier and envisages all the problems they might encounter whereas Bell has a more devil-may-care attitude.  With various mishaps along the way they manage to join the Pride March and cannot believe their eyes at the colour, music and exuberance of it all. Then predictably Seb gets lost.  But help is at hand, and with a wonderful bunch of larger-than-life characters who join in the search, they eventually find Seb just as they also find Archie’s Dad!  Even though they are in trouble the children have had the time of their lives.

This heartfelt novel deals with the understandable confusion felt by a child whose life has been upended with much warmth, humour and sensitivity.   The story does stretch incredulity at times but what it lacks in plot is made up for by sheer joie-de vivre and the wonderful array of colourful characters inhabiting the pages.  A welcome story that celebrates diversity in all its forms.