almost perfect

Katcher, Brian.  almost perfect.  New York: Delacorte Press, 2009.  Print. 

Awards

2010 ALA Best Books for Young Adults

2010 Capitol Choice Noteworthy Book

2011 ALA Stonewall Children's and Young Adult Literature Award

Annotation

Still upset over his last break-up, Logan avoids dating until a new girl shows up at school with a big secret.

Booktalk

Logan’s life is far from perfect: 

• Just a few months ago his girlfriend Brenda broke up with him…after she cheated on him with another guy.  Hopeful they would get back together, Logan has been waiting around for her (literally: waiting for her to get off the bus every morning).  He's starting to realize now that it’s over. 
• Logan’s sister moved out to go to college.  While they used to be really close he doesn’t get to see her that much anymore. 
• His mom is gone most of the time because she has to work so many shifts at the diner just to make ends meet. 
• And he’s still living in the trailer he grew up in, the same one they lived in after Logan’s dad left.

All Logan really has to look forward to is his upcoming graduation and hanging out with his friends.  But when a new girl, Sage, transfers to his high school at the start of senior year Logan’s life starts to look a little better.  After all, it’s small town Boyer, no one new ever shows up and on top of that Sage is funny, smart, quirky…almost perfect.  Except Sage has a secret she can’t risk anyone finding out about.  And once Logan discovers what it is, he doesn’t want anyone to find out either.

Image credit:  http://www.randomhouse.com/book/89991/almost-perfect-by-brian-katcher/

Keeping You A Secret

Peters, Julie Anne.  Keeping You A Secret.  New York: Little, Brown and Company, 2003.  Print.

Awards

2003 Lambda Literary Award Finalist

2004 ALA Stonewall Honor Book

2004 ALA Amelia Bloomer Project List of Recommended Feminist Books for Youth

2006 ALA Popular Paperbacks for Young Adults   

New York Public Library’s Books for the Teen Age

Alphabet Award (First recipient)

Annotation

Holland Jaeger has just realized she’s a lesbian and she’s in love with a girl from her school, Cece Goddard.  Both Cece and Holland decide to keep their relationship a secret, until the truth becomes impossible to hide.

Booktalk

These are the rules:

1.)   “They got it wrong when they called it “the closet”.  [It’s] a prison”.

2.)   “You can’t always trust your friends”.

3.)   “You don’t have to do anything to be hated for being gay”.

4.)   You think telling people your gay is “about identity.  Love…asking for acceptance”.  Others, including your friends and family, think you’re “asking for trouble”.

These are just some of the rules Holland Jaeger has to live by now that she’s admitted she’s a lesbian.  Holland works hard at school, has a job and is on the swim team.  She loves her sister Hannah and is trying to get along with her other sister, Faith.  It shouldn’t matter that she’s in love with Cece Goddard.  Cece, though, knows that’s not the case.  Having transferred from another school in the area, Cece knows how hurtful people can be when they find out you’re gay.  She begs Holland to keep the secret.  And while Holland does break up with her boyfriend, she doesn’t tell him why and she doesn’t tell her two closest friends either.

Keeping the secret seems like such a good idea at first, but will staying quiet turn out to be a mistake?  What if everyone at school finds out (it wouldn’t be too hard, Cece’s not exactly in the closet).  What if Faith tells their parents just to spite Holland?  Most importantly, what if everyone Holland loves finds out the truth from someone other than her?   

*Christine (19 years old) suggested I read this book.  She told me that she enjoyed it because "it talks about current themes, themes teenagers can relate to".  "It's emotional because Holland's friends and family have a hard time accepting her, but once Holland is at peace with herself, there's also a message of hope [and] that's important" she added.*


Image credit:  http://www.julieannepeters.com/files/ExcerptKYAS.htm

will grayson, will grayson

Green, John and David Levithan.  will grayson, will grayson.  New York: Dutton Books, 2010.  Print.

Awards

2010 Indie Lit Award Runner-up

2011 Stonewall Children’s and Young Adult Literature Honors Award

2011 Rainbow Bibliography

2011 Rainbow List

Annotation

Will Grayson and Will Grayson may have the same name, but they don’t know each other…yet.  After they meet with the help of fate, though, their lives are changed dramatically.

Booktallk

There’s Will Grayson and then there’s o.w.g. – the Other Will Grayson.

Will Grayson is excited.  He’s about to meet Isaac, the boy he’s been talking to online for weeks.  Even though they only live a train ride away, they’ve never seen each other in person.  Will Grayson can’t wait to meet Isaac, he already knows he’s in love.  The only problem is, will Isaac like him back?  And what will he tell Maura, his girlfriend?

The Other Will Grayson is apathetic.  He’s not interested in school and while he is interested in Jane, he is deliberately pretending that he couldn’t care less.  Will is afraid to get hurt, but he’s also afraid that he is all of the things his best friend Tiny Cooper accuses him of: essentially, being a whiny sidekick, too scared to take a stand and go after what (or who) he wants.

Will Grayson and Will Grayson “might as well live on different planets”, but they’re about to meet in a weird twist of fate that’s going to change both their lives dramatically.  And it will be Tiny Cooper, the original Will Grayson’s best friend, who unknowingly helps to bring them together and keeps them together as they each begin “respective romantic turns-of-heart”.

*Phil (16 years old) told me about this book; he originally read it because one of his friends suggested it to him and "loved it"!  He thought the novel was "funny and a lot of fun...definitely different that what you'd expect".  He also mentioned that the two-person narration added a "cool twist" to the story because it allows readers to get the "perspectives from both of them".*

Image credit:  http://johngreenbooks.com/will-grayson/

David Inside Out

Bantle, Lee.  David Inside Out.  New York: Henry Holt and Company, 2009.  Print.

Awards

2009 Rainbow List

Annotation

David likes his best friend and fellow track teammate and even though Sean likes him too, he doesn’t want anyone else to know about it.  Will David decide to stand up to Sean, follow his heart and be honest about his feelings?

Booktalk

What would you do if you were in love with your best friend?  What would you do if you didn’t want to be in love with your best friend?  If you were trying to hide this love by dating someone else, but all you really wanted to do was tell the truth?

This is exactly how David feels.  He’s dating a girl at his school, Kick, but it’s Sean, a member of his track team that he really wants.  Sean wants him too – but he doesn’t want anyone else to know about it.  What will David do?  Will he stand up to Sean and tell him he wants to be honest about his feelings?  Will he finally be able to come out to his friends and family?  Will he lose his friendship with his once-girlfriend, Kick?  What about the relationships with his track teammates?

Image credit:  http://leebantle.com/

Rapunzel's Revenge

Hale, Shannon and Dean Hale.  Rapunzel’s Revenge.  Illus. Nathan Hale.  New York: Bloomsbury U.S.A Children’s Books, 2008.  Print.

Awards

2009 YALSA Great Graphic Novels for Teens

2009 ALA Notable Children's Books

2009 ALA Popular Paperback

2009 Leah Adezio Award for Best Kid-Friendly Work

2010 ALA Amelia Bloomer Project Bibliography List

2011 Pacific Northwest Library Association Young Readers Choice Award

Utah Book Award for Children’s Literature

Cybil Award

Annotation

Rapunzel, along with her sidekick Jack, wants to free her mother and the townspeople of Gothel’s Reach from being under the control of evil Mother Gothel.

Booktalk

Rapunzel grows up inside Mother Gothel’s villa where there’s always food to eat and the garden is always green.  Curious about the outside world, though, Rapunzel decides to climb over the wall that guards her home and is shocked by what she sees.  Being on the outside reveals to Rapunzel Gothel’s evil ways: how she is starving the townspeople by drying up all their land and how she stole Rapunzel from her real mother years ago as punishment for a crime committed by her father.  In a race against time Rapunzel and a friend she meets along the way, Jack, are now on a mission to destroy Gothel and free everyone from the clutches of her evil magic. 

Gothel is powerful though and she has growth magic on her side.  Will Rapunzel and Jack be able to fight off her and her henchmen?  Will they be able to get to Gothel’s villa in time before she hurts Rapunzel’s mother?  And most importantly, will they be able to survive the journey to the villa, first having to fight off “a rampaging boar…a pack of outlaw kidnappers…a horde of blood-hungry coyotes…a sea serpent…[and] Tina’s Terrible Trio”?

If Rapunzel and Jack can’t solve the mystery and figure out where Gothel is getting all of her extraordinary power from, everyone’s lives will be in extreme danger…

Image credit:  http://www.squeetus.com/stage/books_rap.html

Upstate

Buckhanon, Kalisha.  Upstate.  New York: St. Martin’s Press, 2005.  Press.

Awards

2006 American Library Association ALEX Award

Annotation

Seventeen-year-old Antonio is accused of stabbing his father to death and is sent upstate to serve a ten-year sentence.  While locked up, he exchanges letters with his girlfriend, Natasha.

Booktalk

What would you do if you were locked up at seventeen?  If you were locked up for a crime you committed trying to protect your family?  If you had to leave your friends and family behind for ten years?  If you could never see your boyfriend or girlfriend again?  If you couldn’t go to prom?  If you couldn’t graduate from high school?

This is the situation Antonio is facing at seventeen years old.  He is arrested for stabbing his father in an attempt to stop him from beating his mother.  His lawyer insists he has a good chance of being acquitted at first, but as the trail drags on things get complicated and Antonio agrees to serve a ten-year sentence as part of a plea deal.  Unable to see his family and friends, except on visitation days, he misses out on the end of high school, going to college, getting a job and watching his brothers grow up.  The one thing Antonio doesn’t want to miss out on, though, is a chance to keep his relationship with his girlfriend, Natasha, alive.  Struggling to reach her Antonio begins writing Natasha letters, and is forced to ask her “ baby, the first thing I need to know from you is do you believe I killed my father?”

Image credit:  http://us.macmillan.com/Book.aspx?isbn=9780312332686

Out of the Pocket

Konigsberg, Bill.  Out of the Pocket.  New York: Dutton Books, 2008.  Print.

Awards

2009 Lambda Literary Award for Best YA Novel

2009 Rainbow List for Young Adult Fiction

Annotation

Bobby Framingham, the star quarterback at Durango High School, is gay, but he didn’t want anyone to know.  Now that his secret’s out and been picked up by the national media, Bobby’s starting to wonder if he’s about to lose his chance at making it in the NFL.

Booktalk

“Maybe it does matter.  I keep waiting for people to just accept that I’m gay, like gay and straight are equal.  But they aren’t equal.  Otherwise, would we be having this conversation?  Would we have voted on whether I could stay on the team?”

Bobby Framingham is gay, but hardly anybody knows except a few close friends.  He’s keeping it a secret because not only is he one of the most popular kids at school, but he’s also the star quarterback of his high school football team.  Bobby knows that in order to be picked up by an outstanding college he needs to keep his mouth shut, at least for now.  After all, professional athletes involved in team sports don’t come out until after retirement.  Before Bobby can decide when – and how – he’ll come out, though, the choice is taken from him by a friend who spots a good story and splashes it all over the front pages of the school newspaper.  Now Bobby’s secret is a national story.  How will his family react?  His teammates?  Coach?  Will Bobby be kicked off the team in the middle of his senior year?  And what will happen to his chance to play college ball and then make it as a pro in the NFL?

Bobby’s scrambling fast to make a play now that he’s been forced out of the pocket…but can he recover from this?

Image credit:  http://us.penguingroup.com/nf/Book/BookDisplay/0,,9780525479963,00.html?Out_of_the_Pocket_Bill_Konigsberg#