Check out our interview with Alex Sanchez, the author of "Rainbow Boys."

Tell us a little more about Rainbow Boys and why you decided to write it.

It’s the story of a love triangle between three high school senior boys, set in the 1990s. In part I wrote it out of frustration with the negative portrayals I read of gay men—dark, depressing portraits of alcoholics, drug addicts, hustlers and their johns. Those images didn’t relate to my life nor to the lives of my friends. I wanted to write an upbeat but realistic sort of Tales of the City about queer teens.

What can fans expect from the book?

A queer teen love story that’s both fun and full of heart, filled with highs and lows of growing up—the joy and angst of crushes, first loves, hormones, high school drama, hookups, heartbreaks, and an up-to-the-last-page will-they-or-won’t they ending.

What was your inspiration behind Rainbow Boys?

It emerged from the alchemy of my own growing up/coming of age and the stories that queer teens shared with me in my counseling work with youth and families.

Why do you feel representation of a variety of people is so important when it comes to writing books?

In Rainbow Boys, I wrote about three very different high school senior boys in order to dispel stereotypes and capture the variety of experiences and attitudes of queer people.

What does Reading Rainbow mean to you?

It’s the pride I feel reading stories in which I can see myself, with both flaws and strengths; stories that remind me I’m not alone; affirming stories of queer people, at the end of which I feel like being queer is a win.

What's up next for you in the bookish world?

A memoir about my own growing up and coming of age as a queer Latino boy!