Archive for the ‘Gay & Lesbian Lit’ Tag
Stonewall Book Awards
If you are interested in award winning gay & lesbian books, the following link will take you to the Stonewall Book Awards lists:
http://www.ala.org/ala/mgrps/rts/glbtrt/stonewall/stonewallbook.cfm#2009
Annie on My Mind
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Gay & Lesbian Lit, Y/A materials, YALSA
Leave a Comment This review recently posted to YALSA blog.
New to Me: Annie on My Mind
Once upon a time, being homosexual in a YA novel meant you were the sidekick, if you were lucky. If you were the main character, you could be abused, raped, beaten, or even killed. Homosexual characters didn’t get happy endings–until Annie on My Mind.
Annie on My Mind
Nancy Garden
Published 1982
The copy of Annie on My Mind that I got from my library includes a telling quote from School Library Journal: “No single work has done more for young adult LGBT fiction than this classic about two teenage girls who fall in love.” In a few words, the appeal of this novel is summed up. Nancy Garden creates a touching love story that survives amidst prejudice and opposition, while managing to not preach or judge.
Liza and Annie meet at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Liza, practical and level-headed, plans to become an architect. Annie is dreamy and emotional, an ideal temperament for the singer she wants to become. When they meet there’s a connection. They can be silly and play make-believe, or serious as they talk about anything. They make time for each other after school and on weekends, and soon Annie is all Liza can think about. Even though they’re from different worlds–Liza attends a private school and lives in Brooklyn Heights, while Annie goes to public school and lives in a run-down apartment–the two girls fall in love. Being two girls in love feels right, although they never seem to find a way to be alone together. So when Liza and Annie have a chance to do that, by using the house where two of Liza’s teachers live, they take it. But their actions have wide-ranging consequences, and not just for them.
Annie on My Mind brings to life what New York was like in the early 1980s. Yet the novel isn’t dated. Part of that is the descriptions of museums and parks, places that haven’t really changed in the intervening years. The Temple of Dendur at the Met is still clear and bright, as described by Garden. But in the same breath, we see a New York that doesn’t really exist anymore–or at least we hope it doesn’t. Because in this New York, discrimination is commonplace. Liza’s school, which is on the verge of closing, is run by Mrs. Poindexter according to her rigid standards. Although her actions against Liza leads to her dismissal, Mrs. Poindexter’s disgust of the homosexual lifestyle hurts more than just Liza, but also the teachers Ms. Stevenson and Ms. Widmer. And while the trustees disapprove of Mrs. Poindexter’s handling of this situation, they can’t deny that the school can’t employ homosexual teachers.
Adding realism to the story is the progress of Annie and Liza’s relationship. When Annie on My Mind opens, it is six months after the end of high school. Liza has pulled away from Annie, dealing with the guilt she feels over her actions. Liza blames herself for what happened to her teachers. She also looks at Ms. Stevenson and Ms. Widmer and sees the future she wants: living with Annie, being as comfortable together as two old shoes. But while that’s what Liza wants, it’s also scary. So Liza spends an early winter evening remembering how she and Annie fell in love and how a few people nearly destroyed them. And those memories help Liza make a decision, to not give up all she feels for Annie. Ending with a telephone reconciliation and an exchange of love, Garden doesn’t punish Annie or Liza for being lesbians.
A story of love and its power, Annie on My Mind shows that homosexuality is not evil or perverted or wrong. Once classified as a mental illness, homosexuality is now seen as little different from eye color: it’s one thing that makes a person who they are. That change of opinion has happened in part thanks to novels like Annie on My Mind. How lucky we are, to see what a good book can do!
Booktalk Card, HERO by Perry Moore
Filed under: Uncategorized | Tags: Booktalk, Gay & Lesbian Lit, Hero by Perry Moore, Perry Moore
Comments (3) Hero by Perry Moore, 2007.
Hyperion: New York
428 pages, hardcover, $19.99 Cnd.
ISBN – 10: 1-4231-0195-2
ISBN – 13: 978-1-4231-0195-6
Plot Summary: Action packed. Begins on the high school basketball court and moves into the community fighting one crime after the other. Also a love story As Thom becomes more confident about his sexuality he lusts after various people and then finally falls in love with Goran.
Characters: Thom Creed is an athletic gay high school student who develops super-hero powers.
Hal Creed – Thom’s father is the former Major Might, a super hero who had no other-worldly powers but still managed to become one of the most beloved super heroes, until his fall from grace, that is.
Thom’s mother – a superhero who disappears and has vanished for most of the book.
Scarlett – a superhero who is able to control fire but has a very bad temper. She also has Cancer.
Typhoid Larry – literally makes people sick just by his presence.
Ruth – is able to see the future.
Golden Boy – is in love with Scarlett.
Coach – a minor character who is present only in the beginning of the book but who is used by the author to set the anti-gay tone that pervades the high school and the town itself.
Uberman – the superhero that Thom admires.
Justice – the superhero who turns out to be bad.
Goran – Thom’s superhero in the end.
Setting: The protagonist and his father live in “a modest two-bedroom on the outskirts of what was then [when his father bought] the toniest new neighborhood in the suburbs. [Their] home was also known to [their] snottier neighbors as “the shittiest house in the whole subdivision” (p. 7). A lot of the action takes place in their house but also in the high school gym (where Thom plays basketball), as well as all throughout the town.
Style: Action packed, fantasy. Like reading a super hero comic book without the drawings. All of the things you would normally see in pictures in the comics are written out for you in this book.
Author: Perry Moore, executive producer of the Chronicles of Narnia films, author of a book about making The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, author and director (with his partner, Hunter Hill) of the feature film, Lake City. Hero is his first novel.
Series: Not yet.
Intended Audience: Young adults, males or females, males who are gay and/or anyone who just doesn’t feel like they fit in for one reason or another.
Report on the experience of developing a book talk for Youtube – 500 words.
I’ve been feeling a little hesitant about this book talk. I think the book is excellent but I’m a little concerned about my ability as a middle aged woman to sell it to a young adult audience. I really believe it should be sold by a teenager. I think if I was in charge of the Y/A section of a library I would have some of my youth advisors do booktalks. I would be in the background for guidance but I think youth need to be told by youth that a book is good rather than having an adult tell them.
I have also been thinking about the content of this book and our discussion in class the other day in which I was surprised to hear how many books with gay characters still portray them without a voice. In Hero the protagonist is gay and, not only does he have a voice, the whole story is written in his voice AND he becomes a hero and saves the world. It is a MUST READ!! How much more encouraging could a book be? That said, I would also like to figure out how I can get straight teens to read it. It’s really a good book, I enjoyed it tremendously, and I’m hoping there will be a series.
With regard to using the technology –I am happy I’m being pushed to use it. I think new technologies have a place in libraries and I would like to start this career ready to use them. Having them embedded in the class like this is especially wise because it gives us an actual application for them. Having said that, I did run into a couple of snags along the way. First, I don’t have a Mac. Apparently this project would have been easier with one. I’m told I could have done voice over music and had the music fade in and out complete with visuals of sound waves if I had a Mac. On my Dell it was a little more tricky. Second, I discovered that you can’t rotate a video. I had first filmed the book jacket with the camera held sideways so the book jacket took all of the space in the viewer. When I went to watch it on the computer, however, it appeared sideways on the screen and it did not allow me to rotate it. If it had just been a photo it would have. Perhaps on a Mac it would have as well. So I ended up shooting the video again. The second time I shot it I left too much space with just music and an image of the jacket cover before I came back on to say “Hero, by Perry Moore, check it out.” Perhaps I should have done it again, but my time was limited so I left it at that. I was also given a new camera for Christmas and had not had time to really become intimate with all of the settings so transferring the video to my computer took a little longer than it should have and when I went to upload the video on to YouTube it again took a long time. In all, I spent an entire afternoon working on something which – once I become more familiar with the technology – should not take long at all. Perhaps the biggest challenge for me, though, was psychological. I really needed the push. Now that it’s done, I don’t think it’s such a big deal and I wouldn’t hesitate to do another one. I think though that I would have done a better job and had more fun doing it if I did it with a group rather than individually. Although a lot of people in this program complain about group work, I think it is a great way to meet our future colleagues and it is also helpful for those who might need not only a push to get things done but also a bit of encouragement to try something new.
