Guy in Real Life

Guy in Real Life by Steve Brezenoff

Lesh does not have romance on his mind as he staggers home drunk at 2:30am after a heavy metal concert in downtown Saint Paul.  He is thinking about his head, his guts, and the sidewalk, and how soon those three things are going to connect in vivid, pukey Technicolor.

That's why Lesh isn't watching where he's walking...and he walks right into Svetlana,

Svetlana isn't thinking about romance either.  She's riding her bicycle, thinking about her friends, and contemplating the amazing artwork she has created for the upcoming Gaming Club campaign...until Lesh wobbles into her path and sends them both sprawling into a puddle.

The collision of Lesh and Svetlana starts a series of events that might be reminiscent of a modern reboot of a 1970's television sitcom...until the plot takes a sudden twist and everything changes.

Lesh is so fascinated by Svetlana that he secretly creates a online MMO  character that looks just like her.  He even names his character "Svvetlana" (with two V's), and campaigns her up to level fifty, gaining power, virtual gold, and lots of magical online loot.

Lesh enjoys spending time with Svetlana (one V) in real life, but he also enjoys being Svvetlana (two V's) in the game.

What could possibly go wrong?

In alternating narrative voices (Lesh and Svetlana, and also the virtual warrior orc Kugnar and the virtual elf priestess Svvetlana), the story gradually stumbles and reels to an unexpected--and sort of wonderful--final chapter.

Recommended for readers ages 14 to adult.  Lesh is verbally misogynistic (calling girls "skanks" etc.) which is somewhat disturbing, especially considering his own gender questions.

The Prom Goer's Interstellar Excursion

The Prom Goer's Interstellar Excursion  by Chris McCoy

Bennett has always loved Sophie from a distance, but he never really talked to her until the night her motorcycle broke down and they ended up walking together in the New Mexico desert.  Minutes after he gathers the courage to ask her to the prom -- and she accepts -- Sophie is abducted by aliens.

Following the close encounter, Bennett does the logical thing:  he goes for a burger at the local In-N-Out.  But the restaurant has just sold all the food in the building to a psychedelic band bus, and in short order, Bennett is on board the bus with the Perfectly Reasonable, the one-billion sixteenth most popular band in the universe.

Will Sophie ever escape from the Ecological Center for the Preservation of Lesser Species?  

Will the teens ever return to earth? 

Will bandleader Skark Zelirium ever write a new song?  

Will somebody please hand me a Babelfish?

This is the book that Douglas Adams would have written if he were writing for a teen audience.  (And if he was an American.  And if he had ever been sober sometimes.)  

It's cute, funny, quirky, and strange.  It's not nearly as funny as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy,  but since nothing in the Universe is as funny as The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy, it's not unkind to say so.  There's the sweet romance between two kids who are dying to get out of Gordo, New Mexico, and what happens after. 

Also, there's a ram in the closet.  Just in case you wondered.

Beautiful Music for Ugly Children

Beautiful Music for Ugly Children  by Kirstin Cronn-Mills

Gabe was born Elizabeth, but he has always known that (physical characteristics to the contrary) he's a guy.  

While still in high school, he came out to his family and to his best friend Paige.  Now, he's ready to graduate and get on with his life: leave town, move to the city where nobody knows "Liz," get a job in the music industry, and leave all his problems behind him.

Funny how that doesn't quite work out.

This is one of those Important Issue Books(™):   Gabe is still in transition, and not everyone accepts that.  His parents say they do, but they still call him "Liz" and pretend he's a girl. Some of the faithful fans of his radio show "Beautiful Music for Ugly Children" turn against him when they find out he was born female.  And a few people in town have violent intentions.

Will this book be informative, comforting and helpful to transgender teens and their friends and family?  Yes, definitely.

Is this a great book that will stand the test of time?  No, probably not.  The plot is contrived, and several of the characters (mostly the haters) are two-dimensional and moved without motive.  Paige and Gabe's musical mentor John are well-developed, although credibility is stretched by the coincidence of having the first DJ to ever play an Elvis Presley single on the radio (who also happens to own Elvis' very first guitar) living right next door to a kid who loves Elvis.

Do I recommend this as a first purchase for library collections?  Yes, I do.  Mostly because there isn't much like it available right now, and the kids (and adults) who need it do not need to wait several years while the genre matures and improves.  

Buy it in paperback, recommend it to teens, and keep your eyes open for more books on this topic.  

Because surely there will be more.

Eleanor and Park

Eleanor and Park  by Rainbow Rowell

Eleanor is "that kid" -- the girl with the weird clothes, the weird hair, the weird family.  She will never, ever fit it to the crowd at her 1986 Nebraska high school.

The first day on the bus, the only seat available is next to Park--the only "Asian kid" she's ever known.  And he won't talk to her.

Inevitably, perhaps, the two fall in love.  Deeply, beautifully, and star-crossedly in love.

John Green, author of Fault in Our Stars​ gave the book a dazzling review.  A few parents in the Anoka-Hennepin district (Minnesota) called it dangerously obscene.  

Read it for yourself.  It's not a fast-moving, explosive, car chasing love story.  

It's the other kind.

I hope you like it as much as I did.

Teen Spirit

Teen Spirit  by Francesca Lia Block

Julie feels bereft after the death of her beloved grandmother Miriam.  Soon after, she and her mom have to move from their beautiful home in the hills to a benighted apartment on the wrong side of Beverly Hills.  Then, her mom meets a loser guy and seems to forget about Julie.  Then Julie meets Clark...who is haunted by issues of his own.

Usually, Francesca Lia Block can easily pull off a complex plot like this, and fill the story with lush, nuanced details and sensuous descriptions of life and love and death.  

But not this time.  The writing is stilted, the characters lack depth and purpose. The plot is twisty for no apparent reason, the ethnic details seem tacked on, and poorly edited elements (an answering machine?  in 2013?) yank the reader out of the story too often.  A near-miss sexual situation is awkward.

Not particularly recommended.

The Half-Life of Planets

The Half-Life of Planets  by Emily Franklin and Brendan Halpin

"I am not a slut," says Lianna in the opening line of this dual-narrator novel. 

Lianna doesn't ever go farther than kissing with boys, but she has kissed a lot of boys.  Does that make her promiscuous?  She isn't sure.  To answer the question, Lianna embarks on a self-imposed scientific inquiry: to see what changes in her life when she focuses her attention on her summer research project and refrains from kissing boys.  Then, she meets Hank.

Hank has never kissed a girl, but he would really like to try it--and when he meets Lianna, who doesn't seem freaked out by his atypical interest in (and continual babble about) music, he thinks that he would like to kiss her.  Hank, however, has a very typical Asperger's Syndrome inability to read social cues, and so he isn't sure if Lianna wants to kiss him.  Intellectually, he has learned the meanings of conversation gambits and body language, but the details remain mysterious to him.

The narrator perspective bounces between Lianna and Hank, giving readers insight into both characters...and an opportunity to laugh more than once at each of the interactions between them. 

This is a fun summer book for readers who enjoy snappy conversations and rock-and-roll trivia, with lots of humor and a tear or two.  No sex, no violence; a few kisses, minimal cussing, and references to off-page masturbation.  Recommended for ages 14 to adult.

Five Flavors of Dumb

Five Flavors of Dumb   by Antony John

Piper is a high school senior in Seattle who just might be the best possible manager for the rock band called "Dumb".  After all, Piper is deaf, and can't hear how bad the band sounds.  Besides, since her parents dipped into Piper's college funds to pay for cochlear implants for her baby sister, Piper needs money.

Piper's business savvy is the real key to success for Dumb: she recognizes their strengths, and helps them to strengthen their weaknesses.  However, Piper's savvy stops at "business"; she is remarkably dense when it comes to recognizing that one of the musicians loves her. 

Piper is not a "deaf character"; instead, she is a terrific character with strong opinions, a terrific sense of sarcastic humor (she names her terrible old car the USS Immovable), a deep connection to her family, and a connection to deaf society that may be new territory for many readers.  The Seattle setting is integral to the plot, as Piper and Dumb chase around the city in search of the musical history of rock and roll icons Jimi Hendrix and Kurt Cobain. 

Extra stars are awarded for the author's note acknowledging the definitive biographies of Hendrix and Cobain written by Richmond Beach resident Charles R. Cross.

Highly recommended for readers ages 14 and up.  The narrative contains references to the rock-and-roll drug/alcohol culture, but there is no on-page drug use or sexual situations.  The romance is sweet and satisfying.