FINISHED:
Goldberg, Susan. (2017). Gender Revolution [Special Issue]. Journal of the National Geographic Society, 231(1).

[.]

STARTED:
Westerfeld, Scott. (2017). Horizon [Horizon Book 1]. New York: Scholastic.

[.]

*

FINISHED: 
Mittlefehldt, Rafi. (2016). It Looks Like This. Somerville, MA: Candlewick.

[I read for ACL, to weigh in on whether or not it should be included on our annual "Best Books of the Year" list.  And, my vote will be "No".  I was REALLY getting in to it - despite the very choppy sentence structure throughout - and then the last half of  the book turned out to be a major disappointment for me.

(SPOILER-ISH)
For one thing, I was expecting/REALLY hoping that the death-by-car-crash was going to turn out to be the rotten classmate who kept leering at Mike.  Sure, let Mike believe for a day or two that it was Sean - give us some despair - but then have him discover that it was, instead, the bully who had been fighting his own internalized homophobia, and let Mike end up with Sean, even if it won't be easy because of their conservative families.  This, because...

I believe that we just don't need gay tragedies right now.  This felt to me like the kind of book that would've been written in the 70s or 80s when the gay pride movement had an enormous uphill battle ahead of it.  Then, a tragic end to a gay love story would've at least been a reflection of the times - a bit of a cynical parable on the state of the country and the treatment/popular thought about homosexuality at that time.  BUT, we've come a LONG way since then, and, even now, have to push even harder to get over the last hurdle (stupid, white, conservative men...).  What we need are gay romances with happy endings - a la Tim Federle's THE GREAT AMERICAN WHATEVER or Becky Albertalli's fantastic SIMON vs. the HOME SAPIENS AGENDA.  Gay conversion therapy and suicide??  That kind of cynicism right now is just damaging.  Gay kids need to finally be able to revel in the fact that they, too, deserve true love.]

STARTED:
Gottesfeld, Jeff. (2016). The Tree in the Courtyard: Looking Through Anne Frank's Window. New York: Knopf.

[.]

*

FINISHED:
Beaudoin, Sean. (2011). You killed Wesley Payne. New York: Little, Brown & Company.

[ACL review to come...

[Reviewed from ARC.] Dalton Rev, a young independent Private “Dick” who’s trying to earn money to buy Kevlar vests for his brother’s platoon in the Middle East, is hired to investigate the death of high school student Wesley Payne whom, it is said, committed suicide. However, with a large amount of money missing from the principal of Salt River High’s safe, and the fact that Wesley was found duct taped to a football goal post upside down, Dalton and Payne’s sister, Macy, suspect foul play. Beaudoin has crafted a frenetic, teen neo-noir set against the backdrop of a hyper-stylized high school ruled by dueling cliques – the Balls (jocks) and the Pinker Caskets (rockers) – and where the faculty can be bribed and turn a blind eye to student wrong-doings. Though this is an amplified version of our world that has a lingo and logic all its own, Dalton is a surprisingly grounded character with typical teen worries effectively making him the character with whom we, the reader, can most identify. Included at the beginning is a chart mapping out all of Salt River High’s cliques as well as a “clique index” which describes, in hilarious detail, what kinds of kids fall into which cliques and sub-cliques. At the end is an extensive glossary of slang and pop culture references which are, much like the clique descriptions, presented with tongue planted firmly in cheek.]

STARTED:
Kinney, Jeff. (2010). Diary of a wimpy kid: the ugly truth. New York: Amulet Books.

[Oh, c'mon! These are pretty fun!]

*

FINISHED:

LaCour, Nina. (2009). Hold still. New York: Dutton/Penguin.

[.]

STARTED:
Gaiman, Neil. (2009). Odd and the frost giants. New York: HarperCollins.

[Just a short quickie...]

*