With two out, loud and proud mothers, plump and clumsy Lily is miserable in fifth grade where bullies torment her on the playground and in class. Across the room Clara sits still as a statue never volunteering or raising her hand, answering only in a whisper with her head down to avoid eye contact, keeping her family’s secret that she has two dads.
Surviving a disastrous birthday party sleep over, Lily begins a smiling experiment. She and Clara become best friends, each discovering what it’s like to have a friend who understands living in a rainbow family. With their families growing close and their circle of friends expanding, everything is great until old lies and blackmail catch up with them and Clara is kidnapped.
Things move fast and Lily must move faster. Police, parents and disguises are involved in a quickly put together rescue attempt, but everything comes down to Lily’s speed. Will she be in time to save Clara’s life or will her best, first, and for a time her only, friend be killed? How fast can Lily run?
The Story Behind This Book
Rosie O'Donnell's oldest son, Parker, was only ten or eleven years old when he started asking his mother some hard questions, which she shared with her talk show's viewers. "Do you have to be gay? Does that mean I'm gay?" At the time, my granddaughter was three years old and had come to live with us. Having two lesbian grandmothers, it was clear she was going to grow up in a rainbow family, so I took some of Parker's questions and wrote Riding The Rainbow. When my granddaughter got to the age to ask difficult questions, I was prepared. I gave her the book I wrote for her, and she loved it. She couldn't decide if she related more to Clara, or Lily, and eventually decided she was a little of both.
