Toon Thursday - Still Thursday Over Here!!

See, told ya I'd have it up in time. You didn't believe me. Now you owe me...oh, let's say two dollars. (Name that teen movie without clicking the link? Nice job.)

Happy Weekend-to-Come!

Lateness and Links

Toon Thursday is going to be a bit late today. It will still technically be Thursday PST, but it may be Friday in some places by the time I get it posted. This week has included some unexpected activity--friend drama, car drama, and lots of good old-fashioned work. Anyway, in the meantime, enjoy these links.

Teen Ink is "a national teen magazine, book series, and website devoted entirely to teenage writing and art." It's distributed in classrooms, but is also available online, so go check it out. It's been around since 1989, and is produced by a non-profit group called the Young Authors Foundation, Inc. For a free sample of the print issue, go here. It looks like a great chance for young artists and writers to get their work out there--makes me wish the internets were all fancy like that when I was a teen. Sadly, they were not. I remember going to a study group at a friend's house when I was a junior, and he was SO EXCITED because his family had just gotten Prodigy, which at that time was not much more than a series of tubes that you could use to send e-mail.

Anyway, for more reading pleasure, check out the latest issue of Readergirlz, which is all about body image; or cruise by Guys Lit Wire for this week's reading suggestions. Lastly, there's a nifty book trailer for Monster Blood Tattoo: Lamplighter featuring some D.M. Cornish artistic goodness, and a contest over at Chronicle Books for girls who want to win a Hello Kitty fender guitar in honor of the Rock 'n' Roll Camp for Girls. Personally, I'm not so sure about the Hello Kitty part, but winning a guitar? Coolness.

An Island Mystery

Kids these days. That's what everyone thinks when Findlay Wheat says he's been chased by a ma wielding lunatic through the koa forest. A ma is a stealthy Hawaiian slingshot, and nowadays nobody uses them anymore -- tourists wear them as belts! Why should anyone be chasing Fin? And why would some tourist shove a handful of shredded paper into his boat's radiator? But someone has done both -- chased him and scuppered his double-hulled sailboat. No more tourist cruises means no money for Cornell by term time. And if a Wheat doesn't enroll for that first year at Cornell, the three subsequent years of tuition the Wheat Family Trust supplies will never happen. Fin's got just six days to figure out how to raise two thousand dollars.

Why would someone try and stop him from going to school?

Maybe it was the two men who had made off with a quarter of a million dollars worth of antibiotics from the Honolulu airport. Maybe it was the deputy sheriff, Duke, who doesn't seem to believe a word Fin says, and is acting awfully suspicious. Maybe they're in it together -- and only Fin and his best mate, Piwee, can stop them.

Or, maybe ...not.

Another smashing mystery from Cyrus T. Fisher, published in 1956, and likely only available in libraries or in used bookstores. It was last reprinted in 1984.

Look for other titles by Cyrus T. Fischer -- he's worth reading.
For other YA novels from the 40's - 50's, please visit The Pulse for more great titles.

Buy this book from an independent used/out of print bookstore near you!

A Weems Family Portrait

When last we visited Gentle's Holler, the big Weems brood was waiting with hope for news of their father, who had been in a serious car accident. LOUISIANA'S SONG opens with Olivia and her sister Louise waiting along with their multiple siblings for their father's return.

They've put up a banner and made a special meal, but Daddy's not the same as he was. He doesn't remember any of them -- nobody, really, but Emmett, and worst of all, Daddy won't touch his banjo, not for a minute.

The story's narrator, Livy Two, is scared -- and that makes her furious. As moody as a clump of nettles, she fights with everyone, including her quieter younger sister, Louise, who, at eleven, is now almost six feet tall.

Without Daddy working, the finances of this family in 1963 Appalachia are on the verge of collapse. The Weems' don't accept charity, and Grandma's been helping out -- grudgingly, with plenty of complaints -- and it's a big black cloud over this once happy family. Livy is sure that Louise's artwork could save them, if only she'd lay aside her shyness and get out there and hustle -- like she does. Not only does she have a job with the local bookmobile, Livy frequently sends songs to guy in Nashville who someday might just make her fortune. Their older sister, Becksie, has a job at the local pancake house, and Emmett sometimes sends home a little money, but he's under stresses only Livy knows. Mama's knitting as fast as she can, but with Grandma's constant criticisms, the heart has gone out of the Weems family.

And then, Daddy disappears -- again.

It's another rocky episode in quaint and charming Gentle's Holler, but through it all, the Weems' retain the love and unity which makes them strong. Readers can't help but cross their fingers that good things will happen soon.

Buy this book from an independent bookstore near you!

Pssst! Wanna see the drawing on my next book?

Visit Readers' Rants for a sneak peek at the cover concept for MARE'S WAR!

Would You Judge A Book By Its Cover?

(Drum roll, please.)

I've waited a long time to share it with you, and here it is: the cover concept of my next novel which will be published in 2009! Drawn by the incredibly talented Jody Hewgill, this novel is being worked over by meticulous copy editors, all so that it can be presented to discerning readers next June.

(Please note: this is a cover CONCEPT. This is not the final cover, and please remember that it is shared courtesy of Knopf Books for Young Readers, an imprint of Random House, USA, and it's their property, under their copyright. Thanks!)

One reluctant grandmother, two grumpy siblings, and a road trip together create an amazing story you might have never heard before: the story of MARE'S WAR.

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Hero Status

John Wayne casts a long, tall shadow.
At least he does if you're Liliana, and your stepdad's dead, and your real dad has kind of been known to be... well, someone you're weirded out talking about, and your Mom's auditioning creepy guys to be the next dad in line.

Writing letters to a long-dead cowboy is a whole lot easier than dealing with the people who don't make the cut in the real world. Certainly talking to Mr. Wayne is easier than talking to your Mom, who thinks that every new guy who comes around is going to be a hero -- a straight talking, clean-shaven, good guy with a big white hat. She falls for that lie time after time after time, and she's fallen for it again.

Liliana isn't going to fall for anything. She knows the truth when she looks at her sister, who's pregnant, and being beaten up by her husband -- and she keeps going back. She knows it when she looks at her best friend, Nicole's brother, who is NOT a nice guy, and she knows it when she looks at her father, who sometimes forgets to FEED her. Her Mom's new boyfriend stands outside her bedroom door at night and breathes; he's definitely not someone who's got her best interests at heart. Some guys are horrible, and some adults aren't trustworthy, and really, a girl has to step up and look after herself.

What gets confusing is when Paolo, who is so very cute, doesn't make fun of Lily's John Wayne obsession, and doesn't run off just because her father is different. When Lily's Dad turns out to be someone who loves her, in spite of what he is, it cracks her heart wide open, and leaves her wobbling. Can anyone save Lily? What will it take for her to save herself?

A powerful novel, emotional, quirky and humorous novel about learning to find a safe place to lean, taking risks, and standing up to save yourself.

Buy GIRL, HERO from an independent bookstore near you!

Lazy Weekend Links

Via Kiki Strike, a seriously cool idea hitting gumball machines in Manhattan. Ideas. Plus a $.25 refund.

Cover to Cover this week tackles unusual plots. The seventh graders who answer are adorable, and their reading material is excellent.

Via the Smart B's (and I would LOVE to hear SB Sarah sing O, Canada to get her little one to go to sleep) is the Puppy Singer. Kind of like The Wedding Singer, but three times as cool. If I ever had kids, it wold be because this guy was moving into my house to do the heavy lifting. Or, the heavy laying down, as it were.

Poetry Friday: Neurotic

Join the Club

Flashing my neurotic's badge I dare them

to ask me for my license. I don't look

much different from the rest of them -

in fact, a certain calm emanates.

I've seen and felt so much I'm like

a bird on a withered tree, singing.

Diagnosis proclaims me not psychotic.

Sensitive and shy, this patient

has symptoms of depression with a touch

of anxiety and agoraphobia.

We're not supposed to read our files,

but just the same, we do.

It's really quite interesting

the way the doctors size us up,

and there's a preening of feathers,

and comparing of notes.

Sensitive and shy sounds quite genteel,

as opposed to schizoid, paranoid

and abusive, anorexic, manic,

or simply mad.

I'm really quite presentable - not that

you could take me anywhere - I tend

to shiver and sweat in open spaces.

Still, I only suffer from a disease

as common as a cold, ubiquitous

as birds on withered trees, singing.

Poetry as therapy is not quite acceptable.

Myself, I find it more effective

than valium. It's just that if

the literary world took us too seriously

we'd be out on our necks, and ours,

like Anne Boleyn's, are extremely slender,

even if the executioner is very expert.

We are a clean and well-behaved lot,

don't need a leper's bell,

but keep our badges polished

just in case we recognise our kind.

I'm introspective. What are you?

Oh, me, comes the reply. I'm just a bird

on a withered tree, singing.

Elizabeth Bartlett was born in 1924 and died early this summer. I discovered her through a piece in the paper and really enjoyed the poem there. Before she died, a major retrospective, drawing on more than 50 years of her writing was published - Two Women Dancing: New and Selected Poems (Bloodaxe Publishing) - emerged in 1995. This poem is from that collection, and also appears in a new anthology, We Have Come Through: 100 Poems Celebrating Courage in Overcoming Depression and Trauma, edited by Peter Forbes. The volume celebrates the 10th anniversary of Survivors' Poetry, a UK charity founded to help support the mental health community.

Poetry Friday is today at the mentally balanced blog of A Year of Reading.

Hide for Your Life...

I find almost every story about the Armenian genocide almost impossibly painful to read. Still, Marsha Forchuk Skrypuch's fictional account Daughter of War brings humanity, love, and hope into a story that is, at the same time, dark, painful, and horrific.

When the story begins, Marta has been living in the home of a Muslim, given refuge but also forced into the status of inferior wife. Upon finding out Marta is pregnant, the elder wife bundles Marta into a cart, bound who knows where. Meanwhile, Marta's love from before the "deportations," Kevork, is working as a cobbler, disguised as an Arab. Neither has any idea whether the other is even still alive.

But they maintain hope, somehow--and both end up fighting the injustice of their society as best they can. Marta returns to the orphanage where she lived as a child, hoping to find refuge during her pregnancy, and ends up helping other orphaned children; Kevork begins a difficult odyssey as a messenger for those resisting the government. This is a story filled with both excruciating historical detail and no-holds-barred emotion--at times disturbing, but it's a story that needs to be told, with an ultimately uplifting ending.

Buy this book from an independent bookstore near you!

Toon Thursday: ARC-Tastic

Hey, we're topical around here, yo. I've been keeping up with the discussion, even though I've only been able to start contributing over the last day or so. After being out of town for a couple of weeks, I really was fiending for my blog fix. The break was nice, but I just missed you guys way too much. :)

So, much as I'm worried that my toon will be upstaged by those awesomely adorable knitted Daleks down there, I offer my two cents on the bloggers-inundated-with-review-copies kerfluffle. (And believe you me, I have had my share of unrequested and inappropriate review copies. Chronicle Books, I'm talkin' to you! Thanks for your interest, but YA fiction only please! "My Mommy's Tote"--not so much!) What appalls me most is the waste--in packaging and postage costs, but also in the sense that I'm unlikely to read some of these titles, so the publishers are quite literally wasting their time sending it to me. I'm much happier getting sent a specific request from an author or publisher, or a catalog that I can peruse. But I'm NOT a full-time reviewer. I don't get paid for any of this. I want to be able to give due attention to the books I do write about. I hate having to ignore anyone who was kind enough to send me a review copy simply because I'm swamped with them, but that's what tends to happen when I find myself inundated--it will take me ages to get to the review, which isn't really fair to the person who sent it to me; and it will turn into a chore.

I know the "blogging-as-chore" thing has been on a lot of minds in the kidlitosphere lately, and I'm right there...but cutting down on my blogging time has really helped. I have paying work, and a life, and of course I have my creative work (paid or not...). So at one point I decided that I would focus on trying to put out two blog posts per week; no more. One of those would be Toon Thursday, with or without additional commentary or links. The other would be more of a soapbox or link roundup. Book reviews would trickle in to Readers' Rants as I have time to do them. I'm trying to give the blog--and the kidlitosphere--its own niche in my working life, without feeling like it's an enormous obligation. After all, I do this because I WANT to. I'd like to keep it that way.

Gratiutous Geekery

These. Are. Too. Cute. Yeah, yeah, they "Exterminate," and all of that, but these Daleks are adorable. And knittable: crafty bloggers can check out the "extermiknit" pattern here. Hat tip to one thread, two thread.

But What's A Boy Sound Like?

In actual BOOK news, On the Guardian Book blog, UK children's author Anthony McGowan talks about toilet humor encouraging kids to read. Middle graders are a tough audience -- and the gross factor matches well with his book, HELLBENT. Not sure if this one is slated for a U.S. release any time soon. (And how much do you want to bet they'd have to change the name?) One thing I do have to say is that I'm glad McGowan doesn't say he encourages BOYS to read by using toilet humor. He said, "KIDS." As in, girls too.

Liz takes a moment to wish that those people who whine about "there are no good boy books anymore," and "whatever happened to strong female protagonists" could have a booklist exchange. I'm in full agreement that I don't believe in "Boy Books" and "Girl Books." There are certainly some things which have more appeal to guys or girls, but it's a slippery slope trying to divide books by gender.

Brian F., in the comments brings up another good question for writers constantly wondering if their characters sound genuine. When a female is writing a male character and asks the question, "Does this sound like a boy," what's the right answer? "What," pray tell, Brian F. wants to know, "does a boy sound like?"

That question echoed into my brain and brought me to something else: dominant culture assumption in novels, or how to make a character "sound black." Anyone want to touch that with a ten foot pole?

No?

I've just spent a lot of time in the past week doing what my editor calls "polishing," which is making sure a character's country-flavored drawl and Southern colloquialisms are absolutely readable to the average person. Even as a minority, I had no one to ask if my character sounded appropriately ethnic or not -- yet there's always the niggling suspicion that maybe my version isn't the "right" one.

Is the characterization that I did enough? Despite the fact that I didn't mention coffee, mocha, chocolate, cinnamon or anything else edible in reference to her, do you think readers will understand that she has an African American ancestry?

Perhaps the only thing that can be said on the "boy" or the "black" issue is this: no one's got the final word on anyone else's perception. No one is the authority. Girl, boy, black, blue, go with what you know, do your best to depict things as you hear and see them, and you should be fine.

Really.

There will always be someone who disagrees, who thinks you didn't do enough, who wants to point out you didn't do it "right." Like so many other things in the writing life, one just has to take that in stride.

---

New poverty estimates from the U.S. Census Bureau's Current Population Survey indicate that about 13 percent of people nationwide were living in poverty in 2005. However, estimates from the American Community Survey (or ACS, a nationwide annual survey of households conducted by the Census Bureau) show that poverty rates in 2005 varied widely around the country, from less than 8 percent in New Hampshire to 21 percent in Mississippi. The ACS estimates also show that seven states had statistically significant increases in their child poverty rates between 2004 and 2005.

And now for a word from Colleen:

If you don't read about kids in your economic strata who make it, who study great subjects, or build great things, or create great art, then you don't think you can either. If you don't see success for those from "your world" reflected on tv or in movies or in books then you will come to believe that certain - or maybe all - levels of success are not possible for you.

You will never be rich enough to be anything.

Can it be said any more clearly that all young adults need to see themselves reflected in the literature they read? Though I am personally hesitant about titles which glorify violence and no copy-editing urban lit arguably reflects a socio-economic group that should also be represented. Definitely something to consider. Go, read Chasing Ray, and put in your two cent's worth.

Who Gets to Influence A Kid's Reading Choice?

Part of the question that bounced around in print media circles about who is "fit" to refer books to readers means that for some there is an idea that there are only Certain People who can engage the reading public. They're librarians, of course, but after that, the list seems to stop with book critics. Certainly the list hasn't previously included the average blogger, and Slate's Erica Perl adds to the question in another way: What media entity is encouraging readers to read, that should not have anything to do with reading? Hollywood. (Launch the little slide show to get the whole article, with pictures.)

NPR's Alex Cohen talks with Erica Perl about what she calls "fast-food lit" for early readers. Should movie tie-in books count as fair game for first graders? If kids are interested in reading at all, doesn't that make the whole movie-tie in thing okay? As always, I hate things titled "What Happened To ____," because in this case, NOTHING has happened to children's books, they're alive and well, thanks, but for this time, I'll let it go. Some interesting thoughts.

The Girl With the Leaf-Colored Eyes

The Tree Shepherd's Daughter begins the Fair Folk Trilogy.

Keelie Heartwood has high hopes for the Wildewood Renaissance Faire. She's been hanging out in her dad's "home on wheels" for a bit too long, and really would like to get out, and get to hang out with a few people her own age. Her Dad's always on her about "danger" and staying safe, and waiting for him, and it's very dull. He just doesn't seem to understand that without her buddy Raven around, she's bored, and lonely, and missing her mother more than ever. Worse, the boy she met at the last Faire hasn't called -- or anything -- and now Keelie's around more elves who look at her like she's something stuck to their shoes. It's a good thing she has the trees to comfort her.

Or, she did. But the oaks are acting really mean -- insanely so. And that horrible Elia elf has turned up again, and she's being a wicked beeyatch. The boots Keelie ordered are REALLY SERIOUSLY EXPENSIVE, and Dad isn't going to just let it blow over and pay for them. Keelie's got to get a job. She's pissed off Finch, the boss-lady around the fair, so she's in big trouble. Elia's Dad's also around, looking creepy, elven and aristocratic, and there's obviously some bad blood between he and the others.

To top everything off, she's being called Into the Wildewood... by a unicorn...

Once again, Keelie's not having quite the life everyone else is! But, this is her life, and Keliel Treetalker, daughter of the Tree Shepherd, is going to do for the Wildewood what she's got to do.

Buy this book from an independent bookstore near you!

Sarcastic Cyrano?

I don't imagine that Cyrano de Bergerac could have worked any harder. In this novel, his female counterpart, Cyrie, is -- perfect. She makes straight A's, is a tennis champ and editor of the school paper. She's brilliant, and her way with words also makes her a vicious opponent in the game of "let's make fun of Cyrie." She doesn't take the big nose jokes lying down, oh, no. She has caustic comebacks and razor-sharp repartee. From the outside, it looks like Cyrie's all right.

Inside, she feels like a dumb girl with a big nose.

If only she were pretty. If only...

Leyla, is fun, bubbly, and not exactly concerned with grammar, punctuation, and spelling, but she's gorgeous. Better, she manages to be blindingly popular, and still make time to engage Cyrie's friendship. Cyrie's so... good with words, that when Leyla admits how into Eddie "Roz" Rosanninoff she is, Cyrie offers to help out her less gifted friend. It's the least she can do, right? After all, it'll be easy -- Eddie stole Cyrie's heart a long time ago.

In this retooled romance, Cyrie finds out that sometimes using the right words is too easy. Readers might be tempted to think this is a story they know, but the ending has a nice little twist. AT FACE VALUE, coming from Flux in October 2008, is a new spin on an old truth: true beauty always shines out.


Buy this book from an independent bookstore near you!

First-born Daughter

It's not that she's a queen-bee or anything, but Josey Muller is the only girl in her family, other than her Mom, that is, and she's gotten used to that. She might have wished for a sister sometimes, but only to discuss boys and help her with her homework.

Then Josey gets the news from her very nervous Mom: she has a sister. She's always had one. And now, she's going to meet her.

Josey's parents, when they were unmarried teens, were pressured to give up their daughter, but now, she's found them.

This changes... everything.

Josey expected her parents would be... well, happy, and that her brothers would be more freaked out, but that her sister would be cool, but that's all she expected. She doesn't expect her mother to be so happy, like she's won the lottery or something. She doesn't her Dad to say over and over and over how much she and Audrey look alike. Josey doesn't expect the feelings of jealousy and guilt lashing at her to cause her such mood swings, and bouts of screaming. When she practically flunks a test in a class she loves, she feels like everything is falling apart. Josey's beginning to hate the whole idea of having an older sister. Nobody asked her if she wanted a one, after all.

Can you uninvite someone into your life? Can you share your parents? Can you recover, if the life you thought you had turns out to be a lie?

S.T. Underdahl records the realistic and turbulent changes of a family stretching to include one more. It's her own story, in more ways than one.

Buy this book from an independent bookstore near you!

Confessions of an Accidental Player

Brookband High's popular senior guys are preparing for the Senior Rituals, the annual end-o-year hijinks everyone always loves -- or so they would have you think. The rituals involve "The Alternative Yearbook" which has labels for the girls like, "Most Likely to be Frigid;" "The Graffiti Project," wherein the senior boys "decorate" the girls' bathroom with their thoughts on the senior class females. Finally, The Rituals include "The Book of Busts," which is a recording of the measurements of every girl in the senior class.

Yes. The measurements. Of every girl. In the class.

Kevin's just a geeky flautist, or, at least that's how he views himself. Will his high school experience really be complete if he doesn't join in with The Rituals? He doesn't think so, and longing to be thought of as cool just once, he joins in.

Unfortunately, Kevin doesn't know what he's getting into, and man what a tangled web he weaves. No sooner does Kevin earn himself a place in the sun, he loses everything else -- his best friend, a chance to get what he really wants, his mother's trust, and his own self-respect. Once he finds out what The Rituals entail, will he have the courage to stop the madness, and stand up for his best friend, Abby, and the other girls in the senior class? Or, will he cross the line into objectification and end up hating himself, and everyone else?

It's easier to cross the line than you might think. Read the book, and realize how easy it is to get ...BUSTED.

Coming from Flux in October, 2008!

Buy this book from an independent bookstore near you!

Can Dead Men Wink?

Poor Alice. She's cold, and it's raining, and this is a miserable, humiliating, and on top of that, heartbreaking duty. But it IS a duty, and Alice is a girl who knows hers. Her Uncle Frank was kind to her. He was funny, he made her feel beautiful, and he always treated her like life was going to be an adventure. It was for him that she came to the ugly, rambling house in London with her stupid Aunt Ursula and her ancient grandmother. And now that he's been hung and beheaded, she's going to claim the body, and give him a decent burial.

His name is Dan Skinslicer. He's a poor man, has dirty hands, and is generally spattered with blood. His wife is a castigating shrew, and his work is actually a relief. He's a hangman, and he does a good, clean job of it, puts those poor souls under the axe with a bit of dignity, he does. When Alice catches his attention, he just sees a small, thin girl who is one of his betters. He doesn't see someone who has more gumption and guts than common sense. He doesn't see someone who is bossy and impetuous. He doesn't see someone he will someday love, and for whom he will turn his back on safety.

All he wants is to do his execution properly so he can have a bit of a rest and a good dinner. Unfortunately, there's Alice. And soon, there are red-coated soldiers chasing him.

Sometimes, the course of love runs... completely backwards, crooked, and upside down.

But love is love, anyway.
K.M. Grant lives and writes in Glasgow! You might find this book with the U.S. cover, or read the U.K. version, like I did, but HOW THE HANGMAN LOST HIS HEART is exactly the same in either version.

Buy this book from an independent bookstore near you!

It's Not A Question

Lurlene McDaniel's work is not anything I've read before, but this book looked different from her usual, so I picked it up.

PREY is the story of the relationship between a student named Ryan and his teacher, Ms. Settles. Told in the voices of Ryan, his childhood friend, Honey, and the teacher with whom he becomes involved, the novel is short and moves quickly. The cover pretty much answers any question you might have(other than, "Is it a murder mystery." The answer to that is, "No.").

Ryan is a boy with plenty of free, unsupervised time, good looks, and a father who doesn't give him much attention. His mother died when he was young, through circumstances which aren't readily apparent. He is attracted to a gorgeous new teacher, like any male student might be.

Ms. Settle is first described as being overtly sexual, wearing miniskirts and plunging necklines and ridiculously high heels to school. Later revelations describe her last job ending with her being fired when she became involved with an under-aged teen boy.

Honey, we're told, has a desperate crush on Ryan, and she, predictably, hates Ms. Settle.

The expected relationship between Ryan and Ms. Settle progresses like a ball rolling downhill. No surprises -- and the reader can be squicked out by Ms. Settles' desperation and dark thoughts. Ryan's reaction is more honest - he's thrilled at what he perceives to be good fortune, and then he is scared and feels trapped by Ms. Settles' desperate neediness. It's not too terribly long before Honey finally blows the whistle, and the relationship ends.

It is possibly at this point that the most surprising developments in the novel occur.

Suddenly Ryan is characterized as not a victim of a sex crime, which he is, but as a perpetrator of the crime against Ms. Settle. In the epilogue he is over eighteen, and is characterized as an evil, depraved male, lying in wait for Ms. Settle to return from prison, biding his time and doing the bare minimum in life until he can entangle her again. Readers will be surprised and bewildered by this; it's as if there's a new character in the book altogether.

At the end of the novel, Honey is sent to an all-girls school, broken and depressed. Despite the fact that she was the school's star forward, and was characterized as reasonably intelligent and skilled, she is punished by the author, and twisted -- as if the reader is to believe that being rejected by Ryan has pushed her to want a world where only girls exist.

The author clearly wants the reader to take away certain things from the story, and because of this and some of the other improbable elements of this novel, I am unsure whether this is meant to be a novel, or a set up for a class discussion out of a life skills workbook.

This book seems to invite the reader to explore the question of "predator or prey," but anyone over twenty-one who has an intimate relationship with a teen, and certainly any teacher who does will always be a PREDATOR.

It's not a question. It's just not.

This book is sold at independent bookstores.