A High Five for Glenn Burke

A heartfelt and personal middle-grade novel from Phil Bildner, about a boy's experience of coming to terms with his sexuality and being true to himself.

When sixth grader Silas Walker does a school presentation on former Major League Baseball player Glenn Burke, it’s more than a report on the inventor of the high five. Burke was a black gay baseball player in the '70s—and for Silas, the presentation is his own first baby step toward coming out as gay. Soon he tells his best friend Zoey, but the longer he keeps his secret from his baseball teammates, the more he suspects that they know something's up. Kids get pulled from the team, fingers point at Silas, and he stages one big cover-up with terrible consequences. Was it a mistake to share his truth? This is Phil Bildner's most personal novel yet, and weaves the real history of Glenn Burke into a heartfelt and relatable story of a middle-school kid learning just to be himself.