June is Pride Month! Pride Crafts 2016 Edition

Pride is a little more than a month away so I'm putting on my rainbow-colored hat and digging in for some good teen, tween and kid crafts that provide for good times and a subtle bit of learning or reflection all at the same time.

Whether 18 or 8, i'm determined to incorporate Michael Hall's 2015 picture book Red: A Crayon's Story into my craft hour. Beautifully illustrated story about diversity, how we are all unique human beings and what happens after we stop trying to find labels to fit who we are.

In keeping with the diversity theme, I'm re-purposing the so-so-easy paper doll craft for Diverse Paper Dolls. The craft is all about coloring and decorating so it will be interesting to see if kids/tweens/teens even notice if all the dolls are the same shape or if they color them all the same or differently.

More fun to come...

A Book Review Starring "Lost Boi" by Sassafras Lowrey

The short version:
Imagine the Peter Pan fairy tale reimagined with Pan as a genderqueer leader of homeless genderqueer kids living in their abandoned warehouse Neverland and engaging in leather play. Pan finds Wendi, an orphan living in a group home, and invites her to come be Mommy to the lost bois of Neverland.

The long version:
Let me preface my review by saying Lost Boi is my first foray into genderqueer fiction. After meeting some readers outside the library who asked about queer fiction, it compelled me to do a little digging about a genre that I'd been thinking about only in a very casual way.

My first tack was to look online for queer booklists but soon discovered that much in the way of "queer booklists" used the term "queer" as an umbrella term to include LGBT and Q. I knew I was really on the hunt for genderqueer, or non-binary, and found much fewer lists, much less lists geared toward Young Adult literature. Like the emergence of Transgender Young Adult Fiction three or so years ago, you can feel we're at the birth of a new genre and it shows in how few prominent genderqueer titles there are being published (which is to say I don't necessarily include self-published or e-published books in this group).

Now for Lost Boi: dark and compelling, original, explicit, not for the faint or younger reader. Lowrey does a fantastic job of establishing and maintaining hir own unique tone that posits fairy tale into a very adult world that's replete with homelessness, drug use, S/M and leather play not to mention graphic sex and bondage. Yet she's created an adult fairy tale language full of splendid imagery and detail that establishes this very specific world and people. Not plot heavy, more a memory tale told from one of lost boi's perspectives and is heavy on place and character description.

While not a traditional narrative in which we would find characters described and developed over the course of the story, ze manages to draw some great empathy for hir characters while sticking to hir brand of storytelling. Hir characters were sympathetic while maintaining their hard earned edges. The few glimpses we get about the characters' backstories are specific, brutal and concrete and suffice to paint a vivid portrait of the people we meet along the way.

While it's cataloged as Adult Fiction at my library, and rightly so, the story certainly has an audience with older young adults (let's not get started on the New Adult terminology that sort of drives me nuts and leads me to a tangent that involves advocating for the expanded definition of "Young Adult"). The story's focus is all on young adults likely ranging in age from mid-teens to twenties (Lowrey does an excellent job of, among other things, using ambiguity throughout: encompassing a variety of details such as age and not limited to gender, which seemed to me a salient point, if I were going to draw conclusions). At my library, for example, we have a significant contingent of homeless LGBT patrons who might be quite familiar with much of the darker or brutal aspects throughout the story.

Lowrey also did a fantastic job when it came to hir usage of genderqueer terminology. For someone who had never read any genderqueer fiction, I was able to understand and navigate the ambiguity and complexity of genderqueer vocabulary.  In reading and contemplating hir work I visited, and encourage others to visit, her website, to give readers like myself the vocabulary she, as a genderqueer writer, uses to identify herself. While I'm certainly at the beginning of genderqueer fiction reading, having her website gave me a much needed basic vocabulary to describe and discuss both hir work and perhaps genderqueer fiction overall going forward.

Looking forward to seeing what genderqueer fiction has in its future. We are, after all, only at the beginning.

A Book Review Starring "Double Exposure" by Bridget Birdsall

The short version:
Alyx was born interex. After a traumatic bullying event in her native Walnut Grove, California prompts she and her mother to relocate to her mother's hometown of Milwaukee, Wisconsin Alyx aksi makes the decision that she identifies as a girl despite her parents' decision to raise her as a boy and allowing her to choose later. Knowing she can't undergo surgery that would allow her to fully identify as a girl for two years, Alyx changes her last name at her new school and is off to a new start despite feelings of PTSD from the bullying. When she joins the basketball team jealousy from a teammate threatens to unravel all that she's started to build.

The long version:
The book had its strengths and weaknesses.

Strengths: the essential plotting of the story was well-constructed, the technical writing was efficient and descriptive and resulted in an easy to read story that moved quickly and kept the reader involved. The plot points became fraught with tension with the implication that at many points in the story her history would be revealed. The PTSD from the bullying event was effectively woven through the story which served to additionally heighten the tension.

Alyx's family's response from her grandfather, uncle and mother, to her change in gender identity was heartfelt and believable and complex and the majority of the secondary characters were refreshing in their humanity.

Weaknesses: I couldn't help getting tripped up in Alyx's character development. Here was a character who had lived her first fifteen years as a boy, however uncomfortably, yet her transition to living as a girl was in some ways surprisingly easy. There was no implication she'd been preparing for it in any way during childhood. She could identify other girls' cup sizes in the locker room, she had no issues with adapting to make-up and dressing as a girl (despite some small insecurities if she's passing), she adapted to social situations with relative (not total) ease. There was a complexity to the minutia of her transition that was somewhat glossed over or went unaddressed, in my opinion.

For all the nicely realized secondary characters, Alyx's nemesis is a bit too evil (and thus one dimensional) for my liking, especially within the context of so many other secondary characters who were not. It seemed like an easy device to make Pepper evil with a stunted character arc and a dissatisfying resolution in the end. Trying not to reveal too much, the later plot points that threaten Alyx's future seemed more nuanced (with again sympathetic, humane secondary characters) than Pepper.

I also wished the author didn't feel it necessary to throw in details that were more interesting to her but seemed incongruous and distracting to the plot. Trying to throw in facts about Wisconsin Governor Walker breaking up unions or Alyx repeating factual information about intersex teens she learned from her doctor, for example, not essential in my opinion.

With the lack of young adult fiction featuring intersex characters (though it's nice to see the numbers growing), this was the first I read thus far that provided an engaging story and characters. The basketball subplot and sports detail (which I think can be hard to write and incorporate into narrative) was evenly woven into Alyx's story in a balanced way that was both easy to read and didn't create two disparate plots.

In the end, an enjoyable and engaging read that broaches a tough subject matter with ease and sensitivity.

A Book Review Starring "Everything Changes" by Samantha Hale

The short version:
Raven can't really figure out why she's not attracted to the guys at her school. But when she meets her best friend's older sister's college friend, Morgan, and learns she's an out lesbian she quickly discovers her attraction and embarks on her first real relationship.

The long version:
Sweet, compact, easy to read coming-out story. Well written with a straightforward plot and plain (in a good way) language that moves with ease and swiftness and clear, easy to relate to characters.

The characters might not be the most depthful, complex in the world, but Raven is written as someone who both gay and straight kids alike can relate to. Her obstacles in coming out, both internal and external, are familiar yet ring true. For example, her attraction to a college girl makes perfect sense in that a slightly older girl would have already gone through her own coming out process and feel more comfortable in a college setting in which she gets to define herself. By the end, the pathos earned through Raven's coming out to different friends and her parents is well earned based on the strength of the writing and genuinely heartfelt.

At under 200 pages and with such a straightforward and (did I say easy?) plot, this title would be a great choice to pull out for reluctant and avid readers alike, particularly girls looking for a coming-out experience to both reference and identify with.

Celebrating Gay Pride With Teens: Rainbow Mobiles

Everyone loves a rainbow. And everyone loves a mobile. Mobiles are a cheap, easy craft that can be accomplished within an hour and taken in a variety of directions.

The best thing about using the rainbow mobile to celebrate Gay Pride is you can go both general:

Or incorporate the full meaning of the Rainbow Flag into your mobile craft:

Celebrating Gay Pride With Teens: Rainbow Loom Gay Pride Rainbow Bracelets

If you've given it some thoughts and floss Friendship Bracelets are just too much for you, consider the Rainbow Loom Gay Pride Rainbow Bracelet. Rainbow Loom is still popular, the double fishtail-style bracelet is super easy to make and teach and the program is attractive to kids and teens alike.

Still super cheap.

A pack of 600 rubber bands with 24 C-clips are $2.99/each at Michael's, you'd need to purchase six bags to complete the colors of a rainbow. 

And the best part is you can make rainbow looms and hooks for free using basic library components:

-book donations that won't fit into your collection and are sure not to sell in the book sale

-pushpins

-a hammer

-paper clips

Hammer two pushpins into the edge of an unloved book one inch apart:

Then you'll break a paper clip to use as your hook (like I needed to show you):

Easiest bracelet ever! YouTube double fishtail rainbow loom instructions. The whole program can be done in under an hour.

Celebrating Gay Pride with Teens: Pride Rainbow Friendship Bracelets

Creating and executing craft programming for teens can be hard for some of us librarians.

You have to find a project you not only think you can do but also be able to teach to teens and pre-teens from ages 12ish-18ish. Add to that (the mistaken, in my opinion) belief that you have to complete this craft project in an hour. 

My feeling on the subject is that if you provide participants with detailed instructions for how to complete a craft project and it's clear and relatively attainable, you not only don't have to abide by the strict one hour rule but you're giving them the information to recreate and perfect upon that project again after the program is long over. Otherwise, it's just one-off entertainment that, more often than not, winds up in the trash shortly thereafter. I have a seven year old who attends library programs, so I feel I can say that with some authority.

Hence, the Pride Rainbow Friendship Bracelet!

Believe me, I know, friendship bracelets are hard. I've printed out and given up on countless friendship bracelet patterns for just that reason. Which is why I ALWAYS return to the chevron bracelet. There must be a reason why it's the only one I can competently do and so can you!

The best thing about Rainbow Bracelets is that they're universally loved and open to interpretation. Gay Pride. Pretty bauble. They're for everyone! And they're cheap! All you need are packets of floss which can be found at Michael's for $3.99/pack.

In the spirit of information sharing, here is a jpeg of my directions for making Pride Rainbow Friendship Bracelets.

AND if that's still too much. Consider variations on the Pride Rainbow Friendship Bracelets using the Rainbow Loom. You can make a loom for the double fishtail bracelets seen here with a few pushpins in cardboard, nails into discarded wood, or even plastic forks with the middle tongs bent in.

Celebrating Gay Pride With Teens In the Library

In Los Angeles Gay Pride Month is in June. It's also the first month of most library Summer Reading Clubs (or as we here now call it "Summer Fun" so as to not alienate the not-so-gungho-readers from the other fun stuff happening in the branches) which makes it the perfect time to introduce an LGBTQ-themed craft or program for teens.

And what better way to do it than with RAINBOWS!

The Rainbow Flag has become synonymous with gay pride, diversity and equality for everyone. Aren't you glad such a universal symbol of smiles and happiness was usurped when it came time to plan LGBTQ-themed programming?

When I couldn't find a flyer or online resource I liked, I created a Rainbow Flag flyer that describes the history of the flag and the meaning of the colors using age-appropriate language. It looks exactly like this:

Now came the easy part. RAINBOW PROGRAMMING!

You don't need me to tell you about all the fun things you can do with rainbows. But in the event you adore me and am curious about some of the things I'm contemplating, check out my LGBTQ Teen Programming board on Pinterest:

https://www.pinterest.com/hillaryesta/lgbtq-kid-teen-programming/

More to come on some of the fun stuff I've got in mind to celebrate Gay Pride!

A Book Review Starring "Alex As Well" by Alyssa Brugman

(this is a review of an Advanced  Reader Copy)

The short version:
Australian teen Alex Stringfellow harbors a big secret, she feels she's a girl, not the boy she was raised to be. After being bullied at her old school she takes it upon herself to enroll in a new school as a girl where she makes friends and finally feels like the person she was meant to be (despite her parents resistance). Needing a birth certificate that identifies her as a girl in order to complete enrollment she employs a lawyer (solicitor, if you will) to help her get a new one, despite the repercussions involved in trying to explain who she is to her parents.

The long version:
So much of the plot felt flimsy, underdeveloped.

Like a kid being able to just switch schools and enroll herself (maybe they do it differently in Australia). Or the subplot involving Alex's crush on one girl, but treating a girl who likes her in a brazen yet aloof fashion (for someone who's struggling with their identity AND their sexuality to be so easily brazen was pretty unbelievable). The mother was a one-dimensional narcissistic tyrant, which she's entitled to be (it's not my book after all), but after so many interactions, her breakdowns became repetitive and boring to read. Though I did enjoy how the author told her point of view via postings to a motherhood website, and then delivered a bevy of responses in the comments section from other moms (some responses good, others bias and odd, as would be on a comments section). Both parents were so thoroughly in denial, which is quite realistic and possible but still made them pretty uninteresting and repetitive (how many times will they tell Alex it's all her fault? Multiple throughout the book, but without any progression of the plot or real character development from Alex, all the scenes wind up being variations on the same one). My sense was these weren't character decisions but rather a matter of underdeveloped secondary characters and plot.

There were quite a few subplots that felt the same way, never felt thought through and didn't really amount to anything: the modeling thing, the parent's deception, the girl who develops a crush on Alex, the girl Alex develops a crush on, Alex's father figure relationship with the solicitor, Alex's grappling with both her intersex physical identity as well as her sexual orientation at the same time (which was also the most poorly handled, as there's so much that I would imagine could be mined from being intersex, raised as a boy, identifying as a girl AND discovering she's a lesbian. It was as if having all these subplots allowed the author not to have to focus on writing a more fleshed out plot and main character, these subplots would just come and go to fill in the predetermined spaces as needed.

I don't think there's been a young adult novel to tackle a teen who is intersex and that's commendable. And I appreciated that, given the gravity of the subject matter, the author eschewed the explicit or graphic and wrote a story that could easily be given to a middle reader or early high school reader.

Sometimes I have to remind myself that it's their story, not the story I wish it would be.

I just wished this story was better written so that I bought it.

A Book Review Starring "Lies My Girlfriend Told Me" by Julie Anne Peters

The short version:
When Alix's girlfriend of six weeks Swanee dies of an aneurysm, Alix learns that Swan isn't the girl she thought she loved and so much more.

The long version:
Here's the thing.

There are so few authors writing young adult novels with gay or lesbian main characters. If you have fewer authors, you have a smaller pool of those kinds of books to recommend to potential readers. And if you have a smaller pool, perhaps as a result the quality of books may not rise to the level of greatness you would like.

Conversely speaking, it's nice to know that the pool of young adult gay and lesbian novels is so big today that we have a nice variety that includes those average relationship melodramas that may not rise to the level of a well-written, quality, creative novel but is nice enough to feature out lesbian teens in a narrative in which they are done coming out and we can move onto other, perhaps more entertaining, lighter storylines.

This is my second Peters novel. I feel much the same way as I did after the first. I find her novels lack character development, she writes main characters I not only don't like (not that it's a prerequisite, but it helps to keep me involved in the story) but don't feel they make logical decisions or are terribly interesting or compelling in some basic way. Rather, they make decisions in accordance with the story the author wanted to write ahead of time. I find her plotting and dialogue meandering, the secondary characters flat and one-dimensional.

I'm conflicted. Because there are so few young adult novels for the teen lesbian audience and because out of those that do exist a good portion of them are of the coming-out variety, it's nice to have books to recommend in which lesbians both feature prominently and they're doing something other than deliberating over coming out. And it's a cute cover that's pretty representative of the book, which is nice.

As an adult reader of young adult, I can't recommend this book. But I'm not sure that would stop me from suggesting it to a teen reader who's accustomed to that level or quality of writing and doesn't have enough lesbian young adult novels to choose from.

A Book Review Starring "Some Assembly Required" by Arin Andrews

The short version:
Oklahoma teen Arin Andrews recounts his childhood and adolescence, struggling to identify and articulate his gender dysphoria, coming out to his mother and family and falling in love as he realizes his true self.

The long version:
It's both really special and a little unfortunate that this book is so intertwined with Katie Rain Hill's "Rethinking Normal," her memoir recounting her own childhood and adolescence overcoming gender dysphoria. Great in the sense that we have two people who discover their transgender selves separately and together, and also together as a couple (which adds a little bit of special novelty). But also maybe a little unfortunate in that, given they follow the same general format (perhaps because they were both published by Simon & Schuster at the same time) in terms of both narrative and physical structure (with the same style of inserted picture at the beginning of each chapter) you can't help as a result to compare the two in terms of narrative. It's inevitable, but somewhere along the way I put that aside and was happy that I did so.

This book is wonderful on multiple counts. Aside from its being the first of its kind to confide in readers the journey of a transgender teen, it manages to be graceful and well written. Andrews recounts his tale with such great detail for recall of past events and ability to describe his feelings as he felt them at the time. What a great feat he's accomplished. He takes you on his journey and manages to never lose you as a reader (with the able assistance of his co-writer).

And being that I'm a sucker for a good cover, I really loved this one.

A Book Review Starring "Grasshopper Jungle" by Andrew Smith

The Short Version:
Part science fiction, part comedy drama about Iowa teen Austin who's in love with his girlfriend Shann and his best friend Robby and also happens to be present at the beginning of the end of the world when a dormant science experiment is revived and results in the unleashing of six foot, highly destructive, man-eating grasshoppers.

The Long Version:
What is this book? I don't know. But Andrew Smith does, and you can tell. Even if you're not ready to go where he's going, or you can poke holes in the details of the narrative, it doesn't seem to matter because Smith is such an assured writer that you trust him.

It's explicit and violent with a cast of entertaining secondary characters and still its fun Yet with all the things that make it what it is, the sexual references and profanity and violence and so forth, it's not a book I'd recommend for younger readers. But man, if you're open to it, it's going to be a gross read with undertones of contemplative self-discovery about a boy who's confused about who he likes, and therefore who he is. Smith does throw a lot at the wall, and fortunately enough of it sticks.

I'm always on the hunt for boy books that sound like boy books. Boys who think about sex and aliens and video games. This is one of those books.

Transgender Awareness Week 2014

Transgender Awareness Week takes place November 14th  through 20th. It's an opportunity to celebrate so many of the great advancements, achievements and dialogues that have taken place this year as well as reflect upon those who have been victimized by violence, in part or in whole, because of their transgender identity. The week culminates with the Transgender Day of Remembrance on November 20th.

I should preface this by saying I am by no means an authority on all things transgender, I arrive at this moment as a Young Adult Librarian who happens to also be a wife and mother as well as someone who aspires to be, in many facets, kickass.

As all those things, I'd like to thank:

Time Magazine. Even though I'm not sure how relevant it is as a periodical of record today, Time Magazine's May cover story featured actress and activist Laverne Cox (who I love and adore on "Orange Is the New Black") and marked the first time a transgender person was featured on a major national news magazine cover. They even had the audacity to call this year the "transgender tipping point." I dig it, because lots of people who aren't my liberal friends and family read Time even if I haven't seen it in my house since I was a kid.
I regard it as a bellwether news source going back to my childhood before the internet when the news was delivered via the mailbox, the front door or the television.

Jill Soloway. I adored "Six Feet Under" (on which Soloway was a staff writer) but have yet to see "Transparent." But I feel like I have based on all that writer/director/producer Jill Soloway has done on its behalf since its release on Amazon last month. She's been a crazy worker horse appearing everywhere talking about her show in all sorts of ways, chief among them in that she's working to provide a voice for transgender people behind the scenes, as members of the writing staff and production team, giving them control over their stories when the entertainment industry typically hires non-LGBT folk for those behind the scenes tasks.

Katie Rain Hill and Arin Andrews. I know it's probably a lot more complicated than what I
know to be their story, but here's the short version: two transgender teens meet in a Tulsa support group and start dating and then some time later find themselves in the national spotlight via 20/20 and Inside Edition and the like. What's remarkable about their story is that they were each grappling with both being teenagers and being transgender. Their two memoirs, Hill's Rethinking Normal and Andrew's Some Assembly Required, both released this month by Simon & Schuster, are insightful and well-written and, for the first time as far as I can tell, will prove to be a valuable, very current resource for kids who are beginning to question their gender identity.

Ashton Lee. Lee is a 16 year old transgender boy in Central California who
came out to his parents last year and, in his fight to feel comfortable at school, not only defended his right to use the boy's bathroom at school but went on to work for the passage of our state's first transgender equity law, the "School Success and Opportunity Act." And when I say "fought" he testified in Sacramento, he solicited over 5000 signatures and delivered them to Governor Jerry Brown. I don't know about you, but if I were meeting Governor Brown, I'd be sufficiently tongue-tied and freaked out. Not this kid.

I'm sure there are other great people who did other great things too. And I give thanks to them as well. Thank you for loving yourself and showing other people how it's done. Thank you for being an example for others of your strength and determination.

At the same time, I think it's important to remember that 2014 feels like the beginning of things in terms of accepting and respecting transgender people, allowing them to live openly and freely. It's taken gay and lesbian men and women over thirty years (and more) to get where we are today; for transgender people there remains a long road ahead.

In honor of Transgender Day of Remembrance I'd like to remember two of those who died this year.  Aniya Parker of East Hollywood and Zoraida Reyes of Santa Ana.

While neither of their deaths have been pronounced hate crimes, there is a growing body of evidence from the National Coalition of Anti-Violence Programs and the Transgender Violence Tracker Portal among others that suggests that being an out transgender person puts one at an increased risk of violence.

A Book Review Starring "Rethinking Normal" by Katie Rain Hill

The short version:
Oklahoman Hill recounts her childhood and struggle to articulate who she was from an early age, through her adolescence when she discovered transgenderism through online searching and was finally able to articulate what wasn't right, her subsequent bullying as a trans teen and into her early adulthood living as a transgender young adult while attending college at the University of Tulsa and embracing her role as a public advocate within the LGBT community.

The long version:
I always feel the need to preface a review of a work of memoir with my definition of what memoir is. Which is to say that I see memoir as a highly subjective version of historical events, not exactly fiction but certainly with made up, recollected aspects, particularly when it comes to using dialogue within quotation marks and recall of specific events.

That being said, I found this memoir to be pretty fabulous. An engrossing, easy page-turner of a read from a voice that sounded very much like a very recent teenager (which she was with affections for the Jonas Brothers, video games and Bruno Mars, among other things) which served to make her highly relatable to young adults regardless of their gender identity. But it was also written in a mature, thoughtful voice that articulated experiences well (perhaps with the help of her ghostwriter Ariel Schrag. We could all do tons worse than to have accomplished writer Schrag as our ghostwriter or writing partner).

True, the story seemed to end awkwardly and abruptly, as if they didn't know how to draw a conclusion so tried to invent one that seemed forced. And the last fifty pages are spent recollecting Hill's first romantic relationships, which are illustrative of so many teen relationships which makes it universal in way and yet is still shown through the prism of a transgender girl with her own baggage, but it's definitely not the strongest part of the book.

The book is at its best throughout the first two hundred pages as Katie starts her freshman year of college and then returns to her childhood and takes the reader deliberately through her history with a fabulous attention to detail and place and people. So much so that you're smiling and your heart breaks at points throughout, a testament to the writers' abilities to develop Hill's story and the people who populate it.

On a side note, the book paints a vivid picture of Oklahoma which I really appreciated, having never spent time in the real south. Not only in terms of growing up as a misfit teenager in suburban Tulsa, but she also paints a portrait of Oklahoma teens, suburbia in the Bible Belt, and the great LGBT community there that supported her and her family.

She also provides a "how to talk to transgender people" addendum which was really great and felt new and fresh and of course pertinent today, compared to all those books that just provide 'additional resources" (which she does that too.

A Book Review Starring "Everything Leads to You" by Nina Lacour

The short version:
Aspiring LA production designer Emi unearths a letter in one of her estate sale finds that leads her to Ava, the illegitimate granddaughter of a recently deceased movie icon. At the same time, she's got her first big break designing sets for a charming indie film and learns about herself as a designer in the process.

The long version:
Part mystery-romance, part endearing melodrama. Lacour does a confident job of weaving the two plots together. You could kick the tires of the story if you wanted, but if I were a lesbian teenager, I'd be so happy to read a story about cute girls, a main character that is already out and a credible Hollywood-centric plot that comes across fun and convincing enough.

Main character Emi is cute and stylish, mystery girl Ava is hot yet sensitive and interesting. The two characters are given a nice subtly, as both could have easily devolved into over-the-top land. True the secondary characters don't do much other than serve the main characters, though it would have been nice if the best friend had an independent life and wasn't just there to serve. But the writing is sure handed and the minutia of production design is fun to read (especially if one doesn't dwell too much on the many accomplishments of an eighteen year old).

Cute, easy reading page turner.

A Book Review Starring "One Man Guy" by Michael Barakiva

The short version:
14 year old New Jersey Armenian teen Alek is forced to go to summer school if he's going to remain on the honor track. During Algebra class he meets junior Ethan and discovers he's attracted to boys.

The long version:
This is one of those books that's structurally fine but substantively average. I found all the characters pretty one dimensional and unconvincing. The plot thin and full of highly convenient plot points. The main character inexplicably discovers he likes boys out of nowhere, without much convincing build-up.The story was also peppered with lessons in Armenian culture in forced moments injected into the plot. I found the pop culture references indicative of an author substituting his own cultural references (My Fair Lady, The Object of My Affection) for his current day teenage characters'. I wish the author had read his characters' dialogue out loud, as much of it didn't sound verbally true. Long spoken sentences, phrases that don't sound natural to teenagers, people speaking in paragraphs. .

In all it was a decent first effort, but thin and lacking credibility. One of those books where I find myself asking where was the editor.

A Book Review Starring "Will Grayson, Will Grayson" by John Green and David Levithan

The short version:
Two suburban Chicago area teens, both named Will Grayson, one gay, one straight, meet by chance encounter at a porn store in Chicago and find their lives changed as a result.

The long version:
Oh John and David, two of the finest YA authors of the uber-witty-in-a-not-real-teenage-life sort of way but because they both do it so well, we forgive them for both the fact that their characters don't sound like real teenagers and that all their characters have an extremely similar uberwit sort of voice. It's ok, because they make us smile and still manage to tell stories that are a bit more complex than the standard YA fare.

And this was certainly one of those. Two boys struggling with self-acceptance.  And with a cast of supporting characters, parents and peers alike, that make us smile, written with depth and fabulous empathy in spite of their similar sounding uberwit.

Why do we forgive Mr. Green and Mr. Levithan for their uberwit? Because their brand of uberwit is more entertaining and more witty than others. So be it.

A Book Review Starring "Frenemy of the People" by Nora Olsen

The short version:
Equestrian preppie-type Clarissa decides she's bisexual and wants to start a Gay-Straight Alliance, to the ire of loner out lesbian Lexie. The two come together when Clarissa's sister Desi, who has Down's Syndrome, wants to run for Homecoming Queen and also when Clarissa's house is being foreclosed on and Lexie offers her knowledge of shady bank practices to help Clarissa save their house.

The long version:
I don't even remember the end, and I usually suffer through when I've made it past the halfway point. Not the case here.

So poorly written, with underdeveloped, cliché characters and a flimsy plot (or plots, considering there are a few thin ones going on at once).

I wanted to think of this as a Hi-Lo book, but I thought that didn't give the Hi-Lo genre credit as writing for a specific audience. I can't see recommending this to even a reluctant reader.

A Book Review Starring "The Miseducation of Cameron Post" by Emily Danforth

The Short Version:
Set in the late 1980s and early 1990s in rural Montana, Cameron Post grows up with the weight of thinking her attraction to her best friend made her responsible for her parents' death. When beautiful Coley Taylor joins her church group and school, Cameron finds herself falling in love with her new friend and must deal with the consequences of being outed as a result.

The Long Version:
Given the evocative sense of detail, the specificity of time and place (and that it was set in a period that looks to align with when the author would have been that age) you may get the sense this is a thinly disguised narrative that may resemble autobiography. Not that it's a bad thing. The highly evocative feel actually gives the story and characters a depth and richness that involves you in the story.

Danforth does a great job of providing complexity and detail to her characters, even the secondary characters who might otherwise have come off as one dimensional or just plain awful, are given a nice sense of humanity. But it's her main character Cameron Post who carries the story, particularly through the dense, wordy parts that can make the read a bit slow.

And there are a lot of words in those 470 pages. While it's great that Danforth has a wealth of knowledge and detail from which to draw, I'm not sure it needed to be this long and, at times, this dense. It's one of those books that you sometimes ask yourself where was the editor.

The book can be split into two parts, the romance and it's aftermath. If I were a teenage lesbian, or recommending the book to a teenage lesbian, I'd want her to stop right before the first part ends, when the book is chock full of emotional and sexual tension that I'd crave at that age and find in satisfying doses here. The second half of the book, the aftermath lets call it, is a harder read. It may ring true (particularly for certain populations or areas of the country), it may even be semi-autobiographical, but it's not as much fun or as interesting as the first half.

A Book Review Starring "The Difference Between You and Me" by Madeleine George

The Short Version:
Sophomore activist Jesse is in love with preppy junior Emily, who she meets on Tuesdays for secret make out sessions because Emily is closeted and has a boyfriend. But their secret world collides with their public ones when they find themselves on opposite sides when a Walmart-esque corporation sponsors school activities to curry favor in the town they want to build their next superstore in.

The Long Version:
Kind of a messy story: it wanted to be three or so stories at once and never seemed to fulfill on any of them. For some inexplicable reason the main character's chapters were in the third person while the other two supporting characters chapters were in the first person. The story meandered a lot and what I gathered was the main plot didn't get started until halfway into it.

Kind of messy characters: they were cute and potentially endearing, but you could tell they were supposed to be over the top in an entertaining way, lots of old hippie protester types, the gay best friend who's into Ayn Rand, the prissy Tracy Flick overachiever, but they weren't over the top enough or developed enough. The main character was slightly more endearing, but also lacking in the development department.

Kind of a messy tone: Because the girls were on the younger side of high school, and given how the story started I expected a lighter tone, something that would be great for a younger lesbian or curious reader, which would have been great considering how few Lesbian YA books there are out there for the younger side of readers. But then there came the flip joke about roofies early on and a few other things that seemed out of place tonally with the tonal direction this story was taking me.

I'd still recommend this book for a younger high school reader, given the dearth of books that approach lesbian topics without being explicit, but I'm not sure how jazzed my booktalk would be.