Nice to read a queer teen book where the queer teen in question is already way out to himself. He may be 13, but it doesn't bother Joe that he's gay; his problems stem from other people who object to that.

The book as a whole is low on angst without avoiding anything; it has a lot of wisdom to offer queer kids, no matter how out they are. The ending leaves things wide open, which is actually nice. ( )

This book really stood out to me. It brought back many memories growing up with my brother. In high school my brother was bullied really bad for being different because he was gay. This book helped me get a different side of this and helped me see it a little closer than I did. It also helped me understand one of my very best friends who had just come out to me. It helps you love people for who they are and not treat them any differently because they are human and they deserve that. ( )

I loved Totally Joe! The books was written as if it were Joe's alphabiography (writing project). For each letter, Joe had to pick a word, and then write about it. By the end of the book, he really begins to open up. He discusses his friends and family, having his first boyfriend and going through his first breakup, being bullied, coming out to his parents, and so on. This was a really wonderful story, and I love the idea of assigning this as a writing project for students who are in middle school and up. I think it is so much easier to write about personal experiences (for most people), and this would give students an opportunity to write about what is going on in their lives along with helping them to become better writers. I also loved how Joe was not too happy about the project at first, but really opened up as the story went on. ( )

Totally Joe is a book about a Thirteen-year-old named Joe who is tasked with writing an “alphabiography”, an autobiography with exactly 26 chapters each having the subject beginning with a letter in alphabetical order “a-z”. Throughout the book he goes from being afraid of telling people that he is gay to standing up for himself. It shows that you should be yourself no matter what anyone else thinks. The author tries to use Joe’s humor and general attitude to make him relatable to the young readers. I feel like Howe did an excellent job of encompassing how a teenager thinks and talks and I felt like I was a teenager again myself while reading the book. I also enjoyed how the author was sometimes informal in the structure of the book, sometimes using emojis or just the format of certain paragraphs or using instant message segments made it feel like a student was really writing it. ( )

Totally Joe has many relatable themes throughout the book. This book is about, coming out, accepting others, and being yourself to name a few. Joe Bunch at first has to learn to fully accept himself before he comes comfortable outside of his home. He is lucky to have a great support system in his close group of friends and his family. Unlike Joe, Colin Briggs, is not so lucky to have a support system. Colin is a teenage boy who struggles with his feelings and struggles to understand how to balance a lifestyle of liking a boy and also being popular at school. In this book, the two do not go hand in hand. With in this book, there are many signals pointing to families not accepting their gay children, but also society not accepting a gay child. Within Joe and Colin's school, kids were bullied by being called hurtful names.There is a big divide between popular kids and non-popular kids. There is also a theme of education. Joe is educated about the gay community with the help of his aunt. Their teacher is educated about the bullying going on in school. The school as a whole is educated about name-calling and how it effects people. The more people are educated about certain topics, the more they can understand it. We as readers can see how kids go through emotions of figuring out who they are and how they deal with life and school and bullies.

James Howe's craft in this book is more of a free writing form. From the point of view of Joe's Alphabiography. Joe writes as if he is talking, no perfect grammar or sentence form, just writing. Another part of Howe's craft is to the use the language of middle schoolers. He uses shortened words or letters for words as if the kids are actually talking to each other. The alpha biography is a craft in itself. Each chapter is a letter in the alphabet, and each chapter has to do with a different topic of the life of Joe Bunch. ( )