Check Please!

Check Please!  by Ngozi Ukazu

Eric "Bitty" Bittle just wants to bake pies, listen to pop music, vlog, play hockey, and maybe make some friends on the college hockey team.  A former Southern Junior Champion figure skater, he's kinda small for hockey, but he's wicked fast on the ice and that counts for a lot on a competitive team.  

It will take a long time for Bitty to come out as gay to his teammates...especially to team captain (and secret crush) Jack Zimmermann.  In the meantime, there are college classes, epic keggers, and (of course) hockey.

Don't let the big-eyed manga style of the illustrations fool you:  this is not a kiddie comic.  The characters are college guys (and gals) and they are rude, crude, and socially unacceptable.  They cuss a lot.  In other words, they are hockey players.  They are also good friends, and much sweeter to each other than you might think.  

I wouldn't normally put "hockey player" and "adorable" in the same sentence, but this book practically requires that I do.  Love the supportive environment, love the ongoing references to fabulous food (mmmMMMmm, pie!), love the art, love the story.  

Highly recommended for ages 14 and up.  

The Night Thief

 

 

The Night Thief  by Barbara Fradkin

 

Local oddball Cedric "Ricky" O'Toole wants to know who is stealing vegetables from his garden.  A raccoon?  A bear?

 

Then the thief steals some horse blankets from the barn.

 

Not a bear, then.  A kid.

 

A little kid, 10 years old, who is living nearly feral in a cave in the backwoods of Ricky's farm.  Ricky does what most folks would do:  takes the kid home, feeds him, gives him a bed and some clean clothes.

 

But because Ricky has some baggage with Children's Services, he doesn't call the authorities. 

 

Then, Ricky finds the girl:  older than the boy, and with a bullet hole in her shoulder.

 

Now what?

 

A quick-moving narrative with a fast resolution, and better-than-usual quality writing for a 550-lexile book, but the author has Several. Points. To. Make. and isn't Subtle. About. Making. Them. 

 

An adult protagonist is not a natural main character for the intended audience, but Ricky may be enough of an outsider to adult society that teen readers will accept him.

 

No cussing, no kissing. The blood is old, and the dead body (when they find it) is mostly taken apart by carrion feeders. Referrals to incest and child abuse, but nothing on the page. 



Come to Canada and have Sex with us!

High Tea and Sex! What could be better?

(ummmm, those little sandwiches for after, maybe?)

Join the Two Sexy Librarians at the 2010 PNLA/WLA conference, August 11 - 14 in Victoria, British Columbia.

Our conference session is scheduled for Friday afternoon, 2:30 to 3:45 pm.

We'll talk about the newest and steamiest titles in teen lit, and we'll have plenty of HOT giveaways as well, including the always popular badge sticker, which proudly proclaims:

I HAD SEX IN THE LIBRARY TODAY!

We know you want it.

See you in Canada, eh?