Novel Ideas [20]: Required Reading
While on my quest to read novels strictly for funsies, I also have a list of books I need to read this semester for academic reasons. If I’m looking at gender in young adult literature, I’m always reading/hearing about certain novels. They come up again and again in conversation and journal articles. Most of them appeared in articles I read for one of my papers on gender identity in young adult literature in the fall semester. I figure that I’ll need to have them all in my mental arsenal of knowledge, so I’m starting now. I’ll call this list a sort of self-directed, not-for-credit independent study that I’m embarking on for the spring.
1. Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan — Sort of a gay high school fantasty/utopia novel that challenges stereotypical masculinity.
2. I Am J by Cris Beam — The story of a female-to-male transgender teen coming of age and coming out.
3. Ash by Malinda Lo — Like a lesbian Cinderella story.
4. Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher — Logan discovers the secret of the girl he’s been dating: she’s male-to-female transgendered.
5. Luna by Julie Anne Peters — Regan watches her brother, Liam, transform to the beautiful Luna every night in their basement.
I’m sticking with five for the spring, which is about one book each month. I’m pretty sure that’s do-able. This is one of the reasons I love this blog: when I write my reviews, I’ll have a record of what I’ve read and my own summary of each. You never know when I’ll take those and put them in something publishable!
Can you recommend any interesting YA books about gender for my fall 2013 reads? The books I’ve chosen here look at transgender and non-traditional gender, but I’d also be interested in books that representing traditional gender in interesting ways!
Posted on January 16, 2013, in books, Challenges, feminist, glbt, grad school, librarian, lists, teacher and tagged gender, lesbian, novel ideas, required reading, teaching, ya. Bookmark the permalink. 14 Comments.
how many books do you browse each day??
Too many…that’s the easy answer!
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I really enjoyed Boy Meets Boy! David Levithan is excellent.
I liked Boy meets Boy as well. Some of your choices sound awesome, I might have to check them out myself!
What about The Miseducation of Cameron Post by Emily Danforth, or October Mourning, A Song for Matthew Shepard by Leslea Newman?
I’m definitely interested in Cameron Post (the only reason I skipped it was because I’ve heard it’s more a of a long, slow read…something I might be able to enjoy more over a break) and I’ll look into the Matthew Shepard book. Thank you!
Definitely check out Beautiful Music for Ugly Children.
Have you done a review of it? I haven’t heard of it, but will definitely investigate!
I did!
You can read my review here: http://cardiganscoffeeandbookmarks.blogspot.com/2012/11/review-randi-ugly-children-brigade.html
Boy Meets Boy is so fun. Infinite Darlene is one of my favorite characters, ever.
Okay, everyone’s getting me all excited about Boy Meets Boy. Looks like I’ll have to start with that one!
I loved Ash, really well written.
Almost Perfect and Luna are very good. I haven’t finished I Am J, but it seems to be one of the better YA books involving transgender. The best one in that genre that I have read is Jumpstart the World (Hyde). Some others that are only so-so would be Crossing Lines (Valponi), Parrotfish (Wittlinger), and Debbie Harry Sings in French (Brothers). Good luck!