Posted by: John on: November 22, 2009
Martin, Douglas A. Once You Go Back. 2009. 208 p. Seven Stories, $16.95. (978-1-58322-878-4). Gr. 10+. With the opening sentence, “Pretend you are my sister,†Martin’s narrator invites the reader to participate in an intimate journey of a young boy as he travels through childhood and adolescence within a strained family structure. Both the boy […]
Posted by: John on: November 22, 2009
Fishback, Jere’ M. Josef Jaeger. 2009. 396p. Prizm/Torquere, $13.95. (978-1603706858). Gr. 10+. A political and sexual coming-of-age story set in the early days of Adolf Hitler’s rise to power and the consolidation of Nazi rule in Germany. Josef Jaeger is a thirteen-year-old youth who lives with his mother who is an opera singer in Bayreuth. […]
Posted by: John on: November 8, 2009
Dobkin, Alix. My Red Blood: A Memoir of Growing Up Communist, Coming onto the Greenwich Village Folk Scene, and Coming Out in the Feminist Movement. 2009. 272p. Alyson, $16.95. (978-159350107-5). Gr. 10-12. The first artist to record an openly lesbian album (1973), this famous women’s music legend chronicles her 25-year struggle to acknowledge her feelings […]
Posted by: John on: November 8, 2009
Bechdel, Alison. The Essential Dykes to Watch Out for. 2009 (Nov.). 352p. Houghton Mifflin, $25.00. (978-0-618-96880-0). Gr. 10-12. For the past 25 years, readers have followed the countercultural adventures of Lois, Ginger, Sparrow, Mo, Claire, Toni, and their lovers and friends in this comic strip that has been syndicated, translated, and chosen for collections. Selections […]
Posted by: John on: November 8, 2009
Rouse, Wade. At Least in the City Someone Would Hear Me Scream: Misadventures in Search of the Simple Life. 2009. 301p. Harmony House, $23.99. (978-0-307-45190-3). Gr. 10-12. This hilarious memoir by the author of America’s Boy, an earlier Rainbow selection, covers a year in Michigan when Rouse and his partner, Gary, leave their city home […]
Posted by: John on: November 8, 2009
Silag, Lucy. Wanderlust: A Beautiful Americans Novel. 2009. 277p. RazorBill, $16.99. (978-1-59514-223-8). Gr. 10-12. Alex, Jay, Zack, and Olivia—American exchange high school students at a Paris school—search throughout the French countryside for their friend, Penelope Jane (aka PJ) who finds herself in danger when she finds her sister. But PJ is not the only one […]
Posted by: John on: November 8, 2009
Stevenson, Robin. Inferno. 2009. 229p. Orca, $12.95. (978-1-55469-077-0). Gr. 9-12. At 14, Emily lived in a city, enjoying the freedom. A little more than a year later, she is alone in a conservative high school after Beth, her best friend and secret lover, moved away. Her solution to this misery is to change her name […]
Posted by: John on: November 8, 2009
Pyron, Bobbie. The Ring. 2009. 253p. Westside Books, $15.95. (978-1-934813-09-6). Angry to the point of self-destruction, 15-year-old Mardie loses her resentment of her “perfect†older brother, Michael, when she takes up boxing and then discovers that Michael is gay. Through her training to gain strategy and mental discipline in the ring, Mardie works through her […]