Marino, Peter.  Magic and Misery.  Holiday House, 2009.  978-0-8234-6. $17.95.  Grades 8-12.

James  transferred into Mungers Mills High School during his junior year and ate by himself in the cafeteria until Toni Jo–TJ–got up the gumption to introduce herself one  day when she found out that it was both of their birthdays.  She describes her feelings for her stunningly beautiful and  incredibly  pithy new friend as being “fago” a Pacific Islander word that means ” the feeling of both affection and worry for someone at the same time.”    From their very first lunch together,  TJ and James become great friends.   An example of the humor in this book is that  after James comes out during their science  class he adopts the nickname, Pan, which is short for Pansy.   After coming out, two bullies from the football team attack Pan physically and verbally, but he adamantly refuses to report the incidents to any of the adults in their lives.   TJ worries about Pan,  especially after a softer-spoken, more thoughtful and less stereotypical member of the school’s football team, Casper,  asks her out and they start a relationship that excludes Pan from her life.  Magic and Misery deals with a number of teen issues, including the jealousy that arises when one’s best friend gets a boyfriend or a girlfriend.   The gay character in this book is portrayed in a very positive light, although it was troubling to me that he never reported the bullying that  he was experiencing to the school or to the police.  His response to the most violent and humilating attack was to take matters into his own hands and beat the bullies with his tennis racket, causing him to be expelled from school and being transferred to another school.  The family dynamics are diverse and realistically portrayed.  Even though the situations are often tense, the humor really shines through making it easy to care about what happens to the characters.
–Arla Jones
Lawrence, Kansas