Do you remember meeting "The One"? What about the relationship drama in high school? If you have forgotten, take a few hours and read Boy Meets Boy, it will come flooding back! Boy Meets Boy is the story of Paul's budding relationship with Noah and the requisite drama that comes with any high school in the country. Through a cast of quirky characters, complete with Infinite Darlene (formerly Daryl), Paul's straight best friend Joni, his ex, Kyle, and buddy Tony, Levithan reminds adults and teens of the agony and ecstasy of teen age love, be is straight or gay. He speaks clearly to the teens this book is written for. No matter the reader's orientation, they will find a character to latch on to, relate to, laugh with, and cry with. I think featuring this book with a variety of other relationship novels during Valentine's season would be one way to get this book in front of students. Choosing any passage that talks of the angst of finding, losing, and winning back "the one" is sure to draw curious readers. The beauty of Boy Meets Boy is that it could easily be Boy Meets Girl.
I think this book is appropriate for high school students. It is an easy read, but I think the subject matter and some characters may be a bit much for many middle schoolers. I think students will find the story engaging and entertaining while reminding them that everyone has drama in their relationships and in that respect they are not alone. The portrayal of a very open and accepting school and community is not one that I find terribly realistic, but for the sake of the story is quite appropriate. Morals, religion, friendship, breaking up, hooking up, and sexuality are all part of the package. I think girls would really enjoy this book, as would boys that are open minded and/or gay or searching. I question whether most straight high school boys would appreciate the book.
Boy Meets Boy was awarded the 2003 Lambda Literary Award in the Children/Young Adult section.
I read this book as well for my edgy book. I really enjoyed the diversity of the high school even though I found it completely unrealistic. I think this would be a difficult one for boys to pick up and read unless they had a connection to the topic.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Kaelin. I handed it to my 12 almost 13 year old son, asked him to read the dust jacket and let me know if he'd read it. He said, it sounded interesting, even though he only likes boys as friends, but probably wouldn't take it to school to read. It was a fun read!
ReplyDeleteI think your way of describing this as a book about relationships in general rather than gay relationships widens its appeal.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you Vanessa. Looking at the book in that way would widen the appeal. It might be a hard book to talk up just because it only reaches a certain amount of students.
ReplyDeleteI've read so many books where the gay character is so agonized and mistreated (see my blog post for this week for example or Freak Show) that I look forward to reading a book where GLBTQ students have just the usual teen relationship angst.
ReplyDeleteI agree it would take a strong boy to check out this book from their school library. But the times they are a changing... Think Glee.
Great post Michelle. I just finished this one. I think it's a wonderful if unrealistic view of a gay student's highschool experience ala Star Girl, by Jerry Spinelli. I agree with Susan that I'm not sure Ohio's high school students are quite ready yet, but as she mentioned Glee is changing a lot of peoples attitudes for the better. I know there are a lot of David Leviathan fans out there. Here's an Amazon.com quote from a reader named moviemancritter, "This is a wonderful book, and a great read for anybody. But I do have to tell that it is a fantasy... it is what people would hope the world will be like, but to contrast this "whimsical" place (as the author discribes it), there is a neighboring town, and is not very libral, and is where much of the acceptance plays a part."
ReplyDeleteGot to go find another "Edgy" book.
Michelle,
ReplyDeleteWonderful job on the blog! This book is one that I would like to ask our teenage boys about, to see if they have heard anything regarding it. You have put this on my "to read" list, as well. Thanks for the work you put into this review.
Relationships + high school = DRAMA! It sounds like a book that everyone could relate to no matter what kind of relationship they are in. Being in the middle school setting this book would probably be tough to get in our library.
ReplyDeleteYour blog has me very intrigued! I like the fact that there are a variety of characters for readers to relate to and that this book can relate to everyone who has had high school relationship drama. It's nice to see a book with a gay main character portraying him as just another student, rather than using him to show how hard it is to be a gay teen.
ReplyDeleteI agree Dr. Berg...It is nice to see a book that does not just focus on the trauma of rejection and hurt...but rather on the more normal drama of high school. I have a feeling that this is the type of book that LGBT teens like the one in the article we read in class last night are longing to see in their school libraries.
ReplyDeleteI also like that this boys whole life is not a struggle to survive. I have been in a few diffrent high schools and it seems to me that if the homosexual student has grown up with the other students there is often less of a lash out when they "come out" because by that time they already really know. I love Levithans other books and would also recommend "How They Met and Other Stories" by hom.
ReplyDelete