A Book Review Starring "Gabi A Girl in Pieces" by Isabel Quintero

The short version:
Gabi Hernandez keeps a journal during her senior year of high school in a Southern California border town, during which she grapples with being an overweight, smart Mexican girl in a traditional Catholic Mexican family and community. Over the course of the year she discovers a love for poetry, her first boyfriends and when to stand up for herself (and her friends), among other things.

The long version:
Where to start?

Utterly charming.

Smart, funny, witty, ascorbic, emotional, contemplative, all within the voice of an 18 year old Mexican-American girl.

It's clear from the beginning how much love and attention Quintero has invested in all of her characters. Not only is Gabi a main character you root for and identify with from the start, but her supporting characters (of which there are more than a handful) are so full and have such complete, individual emotional lives too.

She touches on so many issues but does so within Gabi's voice and perspective, from sexism and double standards in Mexican-American culture to how deeply drug addiction affects an entire family; from how weight affects self-image to when and when not to stand up for what you believe in. There's drug addition, there's sex, there's sexual assault, so much is going on in Gabi's world and Quintero has managed it all with grace, gravity and humor all while keeping her character's voice consistent. It could have easily devolved into kitchen-sink-hood but it never did.

In an age where we're all talking about diversity-diversity-diversity, Quintero has given us not only a story full of diversity but first and foremost a fabulous read (and we all know that just because a story is diverse doesn't mean it's fun to read).

I couldn't put it down.

It's one of the best young adult novels I've read this year.

ps

The cover. Was I in love with it? No. It's a hard sell from the perspective of a browsing patron, I think. It's not easy to glance at and take it in, there's a lot going on, and I wasn't sure it matched with the story I was reading. I felt less so after getting to the point later in the story where the cover art corresponds with the story. But still. I'd love to hear what other readers have to say about it.

Read to the Rhythm: 2015 Summer Reading Club

It's not even 2015 yet but my head wants to get in the Summer-Reading-Club game. Perhaps because the theme gets to me and my love of music. Or maybe because of the infinite possibilities swimming in my brain when it comes to marrying books and music, or music and the library.

One thing that always gets me come summer reading club programming is just how divorced programs are from actual books or other sundry library items. With the exception of displaying a few books related to a program, we really don't marry the two often despite being the library.

So I'm thinking of creating book-specific inspired programming that will allow me to book-talk a music themed book and present a craft inspired by that book.

Let me begin with what so many great things begin with. A Booklist.

ROCK ON READING!
MUSIC THEMED YOUNG ADULT NOVELS

MUSIC LOVERS

Audrey Wait!, Robin Benway

Ballads of Suburbia, Stephanie Keuhnert

Beautiful Music for Ugly Children, Kristin Cohn-Mills

Eleanor and Park, Rainbow Rowell

Fat Kids Rule the World, K.L. Going

For What It’s Worth, Janet Tashjian

Girl, Blake Nelson

Hairstyles of the Damned, Joe Meno

Heavy Metal and You, Christopher Krovatin

How to Rock, Meg Haston

I Wanna Be Your Joey Ramone, Stephanie Keuhnert

Just Listen, Sarah Dessen

King Dork, Frank Portman

Lovestruck Summer, Melissa Walker

Nick and Norah’s Infinite Playlist, Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Notes From the Blender, Trish Cook

Perks of Being a Wallflower, Stephen Chblosky

Supergirl Mixtapes, Meaghan Brothers

When We Were Good, Suzanne Sutherland

BEING A MUSICIAN

Audition and Subtraction, Amy Fellner Dominy (clarinet)

Always A Catch, Peter Richmond (piano)

Being Friends With Boys, Terra Elan McVoy (singing)

Chopsticks, Jessica Anthony (piano)

Disenchantments, Nina LaCour (rock band)

Drummer Girl, Karen Bass (drummer)

Glee series, Sophia Lowell (singing)

Guitar Notes, Mary Amato (guitar, cello)

Honeycomb, Patricia McCowan (guitar)

I’m Glad I Did, Cynthia Weil (songwriter)

If I Stay and Where She Went, Gayle Forman (cello)

In The Band, Jean Haus (drummer)

Lemonade Mouth, Mark Peter Hughes (rock band)

The Lucy Variations, Sara Zarr (piano)

Matthew Meets The Man, Travis Nichols (drummer)

My Misadventures as a Teenage Rock Star, Joyce Raskin (rock band)

No Place to Fall, Jaye Robin Brown (singing)

Paradise, Jill Alexander (drummer)

Power Chord, Ted Staunton (rock band)

Prom and Prejudice, Elizabeth Eulberg (piano)

Rockstar Superstar, Blake Nelson (bass)

The Scar Boys, Len Vlahos (rock band)

Screaming Divas, Suzanne Kamata (rock band)

Second Fiddle, Rosanne Parry (fiddle)

Sister Mischief, L. Goode (rap)

Skinny, Donna Cooner (singing)

Ten Miles Past Normal, Frances O’Roark Dowell (rock band)

This Song Will Save Your Life, Leila Sales (DJing)

Virtuosity, Jessica Martinez (violin)

Wise Young Fool, Sean Beaudoin (rock band)

BEING A STAR

Amplified, Tara Kelly

Big Time, Tom Ryan

Born to Rock, Gordon Korman

The Daughters Take The Stage, Joanna Philbin

Rockoholic, C.J. Skuse

On The Right Track, Sam Kadence

Open Road Summer, Emery Lord

Pop, Catherine Bruton

Pop Princess, Rachel Cohn

Rock Star, Adrian Chamberlain

Sound of Us, Ashley Poston

Wildflower, Alecia Whitaker

FANTASY

Awoken, Timothy Miller

The Girl Who Became A Beatle, Greg Taylor

Chantress series, Amy Butler Greenfield

Seraphina, Rachel Hartman

Strange Sweet Song, Adi Rule

Younger Adult Reader of the Day: Stephen Colbert

Alright, Younger Adult reader of the day some day last June.

Were we not all collectively cheering (not at the same time at 11:45pm on a weeknight, thanks to our DVR culture that allows us to collectively do things independently on our own time) when John Green rocked The Colbert Report on Monday, June 23rd.

And did we not all fall in love with Stephen Colbert for the millionth time when he said:

"As far as I can tell a young adult novel is a regular novel that people actually read."

Spoken like a true father of teenaged children.

Source: http://www.latimes.com/books/jacketcopy/la-et-jc-a-young-adult-novel-is-a-regular-novel-that-people-actually-read-20140624-story.html

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.

Younger Adult Reader of the Day: movie producer Nina Jacobson

From the November 16th New York Times Magazine:

Nina Jacobson, prolific movie producer of "The Hunger Games" trilogy among others. When asked if she had:

"any feelings about whether adults should be so into reading Y.A. novels?"

She answered:

"To me, a great story well told is a great story well told, and just because the protagonist is a young adult doesn’t mean that story has less merit or worth than if the protagonist is a full-grown adult."

Source: http://www.nytimes.com/2014/11/16/magazine/nina-jacobson-isnt-afraid-to-fight-hollywoods-old-guard.html?module=Search&mabReward=relbias%3As%2C%7B%222%22%3A%22RI%3A13%22%7D&_r=0

The Redefintion of Young Adult

The Young Adult Library Services Association is the division of the American Library Association which focuses on

 "library services for teens, aged 12-18."

But is "Young Adult' the equivalent of "teen"?  Is the definition of a Young Adult someone only between the ages of 12 and 18?

The advent of Young Adult literature in its current form is still so relatively young, maybe twenty years since publishing divisions first started creating divisions for those readers between children and adults and libraries have created departments that seek to serve those readers. In its infancy Young Adult literature and its audience was defined narrowly as for teenagers.

I happen to think the time has come to revisit the initial definition of "Young Adult" and here are a few reasons why:

• As the genre has expanded and diversified, the audience has expanded and diversified. Those who are responsible for the majority of purchases of Young Adult literature for their own reading consumption (as opposed to gift giving) are over the age of 18.
• As the genre has diversified, so too have the characters portrayed in them. More characters in Young Adult literature are in their post-collegiate years, ages 18-20. It's become so diverse that an entirely new subgenre of literature has sprung up in recent years: "New Adult" defined as more risqué novels marketed to women in their early twenties, among others. Much of these "New Adult" titles are cataloged as Young Adult novels in libraries.
• The genre has gone on to produce not only rich novels, but cinematic novels. Movies based on young adult novels are not only being produced in greater numbers, but are being marketed to and attended by a more general audience that includes adults as much as if not more so than teenagers.

I propose a new, broader term to describe the audience between Children and Adult. And all I had to do was come up with a suffix:

 

Younger Adult

My definition of Younger Adult includes pre-teens and teenagers but expands to include later teens ages 18-19 and the audience and readers in their twenties: 18-30 years old.