Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes (by Chris Crutcher)

Chris Crutcher is a giant in American YA literature, having won the Margaret A. Edwards Award already in 1997. By that time he already had 8 publications under his belt (not counting individual short stories), but much of the Award was probably because of the vital Staying Fat for Sarah Burnes (1993), in which everything that makes Crutcher into..err Crutcher is present: a focus on sport, the supporting role of the coach/teacher in a teen’s life, the responsibility of the parents as the teen grows into adulthood and of course, the friendship between teens. Also, he does not shy away from what one would call “issues”: abuse, abortion, intellectual freedom… it’s all there in Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes.

Initially connected through their common outcast status, Eric (who was fat) and Sarah Byrnes (who has horrible burn scars in her face because of an accident that occurred when she was 3) have been friends since forever.  Once Eric – or ‘Moby’ as he came to be called – discovered swimming, he started to slim down. He stayed fat for an entire year because he feared he’d lose Sarah Byrnes’ friendship, if he suddenly wasn’t anymore, but Sarah Byrnes is a tough kid, who doesn’t care about that at all! That’s why it’s so painful for Eric to see how this tough person who didn’t let her ugly face (his and her own words) get the better of her, just stopped speaking one day and is now in a hospital, where she just sits and stares catatonically… Eric knows something else is going on and wants to find out before it’s too late.

Staying Fat for Sarah Byrnes shows the personal growth of not one (main) character (Eric), but of several. Obviously there is Eric, but Crutcher includes an important storyline of Mark Brittain whose insistence on what is right(eous) and moral, and what isn’t, has landed him in big troubles. Now he has to take responsibility for his actions, actions which may have been instigated by the pressure he’s been under since he was born! It’s not hard to see why a topic like religion – always a hotbed of controversy USA! – is not often tackled in a YA novel, but to his own credit, Crutcher does it, and even has the decency to show us the different sides of the argument (although the “liberal” point of view is clearly the implied better option!). If you don’t agree with the implied message, you might take offense here (and judging from the many challenges this book has received, I’m guessing a lot of people have!), but the cat didn’t one bit. Chris Crutcher totally Judy Blumed his way into the cat’s favor!

And another poignant question, though, might be: given the fact that this was published in 1993, when today’s teens weren’t even born, does it pass the test of time? And, yes, it’s true, the kids today may not get all the references in the book. They might know about Rocky Balboa and The Far Side, but I don’t see them getting the winks to Raymond Burr, Leave it to Beaver or even Scarface. That being said, the book surpasses its temporal allusions and is definitely worth being called “a classic”. It’s the type of story that sticks. It’s about being more than what people would usually call “your shortcomings”, or “your handicap”. It’s about getting challenged and true friendship and loyalty and looking beyond the obvious, the apparent, the superficial… If that’s not contemporary, I don’t know what is!

Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd (Edited by Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci)

If you’re a nerd or a geek (self-proclaimed or not!), go all out an celebrate your geektastic nerdiness! “You’ve got the heart and soul of a geek or you don’t”, Holly Black and Cecil Castellucci must have thought and they knew they had friends who’d think just the same… so never too shy to try something completely out of this world, they asked some of their YA writer friends to contribute a story of their own (whether they be Klingon, Quiz Bowl, LARP or band-inspired). Sara Zarr, John Green, David Levithan, Garth Nix, Barry Lyga and a bunch of other secret or not so secret geeks jumped at the occasion et voilà…Geektastic: Stories from the Nerd Herd was born.

There are definitely a couple of standout stories in this collection. The first highlight for the cat came with David Levithan’s “Quiz Bowl Antichrist” (in the middle of the book), about a boy’s own reasons for joining the quiz bowl team and secret admirations. Levithan is a master at characterization and proves that here as well. Barry Lyga’s “The Truth about Dino Girl” is at first almost “typically” geeky (the geek as outcast and victim), but then gets a very dark twist at the end – we don’t need to over-glorify “the geek”, you know, lots of them have mean streaks, just like those meanies out there… Plus you get the added bonus that it’s set in Brookdale! Wendy Mass’s “The Stars at the Finish Line” is a very sweet story about stars and love! There is a great dynamic between the two protagonists here. What more do you need? And then the collection ends with an absolute bang… Libba Bray’s “It’s Just a Jump to the Left”! You knew there had to be a story about Rocky right? And Libba does it right and manages to write a whole coming of age novel in the span of a short story!

There’s a story for every type of geek here, and obviously not all the stories will work for everyone (the cat admits to not feeling much for a couple of the stories here!). But I don’t think that was the point of the editors. I think they wanted to come up with a book full of stories of being passionate about something, and sometimes that passion can get out of control and become an obsession, and sometimes that passion is what defines you, but sometimes it’s not.  Sometimes you grow out of your passion or obsession, sometimes it’s the thing that will comfort you forever. Geeks, nerds, freaks… they’re not all the same, you know.  It just happens that it’s the geeks who end up being picked on all the time, or made fun of. But that’s alright because at the very least, they don’t forget to be awesome. And if you keep an open mind, and look past what exactly it is “the geeks” are passionate about (instruments, books, sci fi, The Rocky Horror Picture Show…), you’ll see that these stories are what a lot of stories for teens are about: finding love and acceptance, finding yourself, staying true to yourself. Isn’t that the most natural and universal thing in the world?

Gone, gone, gone (by Hannah Moskowitz)

In times when the cat has to tell students that “No, 9/11 was not the day that Barack Obama was elected president of the USA for the first time”, a book like Hannah Moskowitz’s Gone Gone Gone may serve as a perfect way to connect that (this) generation of teens with a past that they only know from the History Channel or from a old(er) relative musing about “Where they were when they heard about the Twin Towers” (getting the one and only Ringo the Cat, btw).

That being said, Gone Gone Gone is not about 9/11. It’s also not really about the 2002 Beltway sniper attacks. Both of these events do provide the story with the perfect eerie-sounding atmosphere, an atmosphere of not really know what exactly is happening with the world you’re living in. Instead, Gone Gone Gone is about two 15-year-old boys, Craig and Lio, who are trying to figure out what their place in the world is and what they mean to each other.

Gone Gone Gone is alternately told from Craig’s and Lio’s point of view. They first met online, because Craig is an ambassador for his school, the type of kid that shows new students around. Lio recently moved away from NYC to DC, where Craig lives. After sort-of-but-not-really breaking up with his ex-boyfriend Cory, Craig has totally lost himself in taking care of his 14 stray animals, animals that escape after a burglary at his house. So Craig has to deal with finding back his animals, but he’s also trying to juggle the emotions of losing Cory (or not quite) after an event that is never made entirely clear and finding Lio (or not quite) and figuring out what Lio might mean to him. Lio, from his part, is also one messed up kid, even his therapist Adelle agrees… When he was 7, Lio and his twin brother Theo got leukemia. Lio survived. Theo died. Not only does he have to deal with being “a cancer survivor”, there’s also his fragmented family life to consider.

Rather than focusing her attention on an intricate plot, Moskowitz is the mistress of voice and characterization,… 2 characters to be more precise. She deftly uses the alternating point of view of Craig and Lio, giving both of them distinct voices. A criticism here could be that the other characters, such as Craig’s parents, or Lio’s sisters or Adelle, are not as fleshed out as they could have been.  To Moskowitz’s credit, it’s definitely something that works here. Of the two the cat preferred Craig’s voice, which was often very stream-of-consciousness-like, with Craig losing himself in his long even melodramatic sentences (not the negative kind of melodrama, though!). Even though Craig is 15, at times you get the impression he’s a very young sort of 15 (or maybe that’s just his almost OCD type of behavior concerning his animals), while at other times, he’s clearly the voice of experience.  Even then, it’s obvious that it’s a vulnerable sort of experience. Contradictory, yes, but flowing from Moskowitz’s pen (or errr keyboard…) it sounds very convincing. Lio’s voice, on the other hand, was often a lot whinier (despite his not talking) – an authorial choice, btw, that the cat can get behind, it just made it a lot harder to ‘like’ Lio the way the cat immediately connected with Craig as a voice and character.

Truth be told, I hadn’t really expected it (there are so many “new” voices in YA-land), but Hannah Moskowitz’s writing  definitely has a freshness to it that shows talent, conviction and a heart for character. The cat loves authors with a heart for their characters. Writing a great and intricately plotted story is one thing, but if you manage to give a character a voice so unique and special and flawed and true, then it shows you’re willing to go there as an author, and that is the hallmark of a true author.

Beautiful Music for Ugly Children (by Kristin Cronn-Mills)

Gabe was born as Elizabeth, but he’s always known that he’s a boy. Beautiful Music for Ugly Children sets out to be a bold book, by an author who definitely doesn’t shy away from tough topics like transgender kids. And although there is no doubt whatsoever that this topic – or Issue, for lack of a better word – is incredibly relevant in contemporary (high) school life[1], a book is not (or should not be) just “about an issue” and unfortunately that is exactly what’s wrong with Beautiful Music for Ugly Children.

The main culprit for that is firstly the clear intention of Cronn-Mills to educate her audience. Proof of that is also for instance the author’s note at the end of the book explaining the whole spectrum of transgenderism. Interesting to know, yes, but it gives away that Cronn-Mills is more interested in educating her audience than really grabbing a reader with unique characters and a great story.

This is even enhanced by the disjointed writing. Gabe’s narration feels forced somehow. There’s very little that made the cat really care for Gabe as a character. Sure, the things happening to him are singular, sure it’s a disgrace that there’s so much misunderstanding and hatred out there against transgenders, resulting in bullying and even physical violence. But the feeling you get is that it’s something “the reader absolutely has to sympathize with because it’s a bad thing that is happening to transgenders”, rather than that “it’s goddamn awful that Gabe who’s such a great person has to suffer all of this. I mean, come on people!”. What I want to say is that there’s a whole river between what the author wants me to feel about the main character and what the cat actually feels about the main character.

On top of that (and it’s a result of the mediocre writing) the problems that Gabe encounters (relationship issues, bullying, the problems his parents experience because of his transgenderism, the radio show, etc.) all feel like “And first this. Then this. Then that…” . There really isn’t any natural flow to the story. The tensions between Gabe and his parents, for instance. Gabe tells us that his parents find it difficult to accept who he is, but there’s very little interaction between Gabe and his parents for the reader to believe that… Also, when there actually is interaction, they keep on calling Gabe Liz, and Gabe doesn’t call them on it (I think he only does that once). Secondly, the DJ contest. Gabe is a self-proclaimed music nut. However, why does he connect with the songs on his show? The DJ contest itself is also glossed over in a mere paragraph or two, and never did Gabe discuss the relevance of the songs he chose. The main highlight of the music angle of the book were the chapter titles (all outlaying who was the new Elvis and why…).

Seriously, Beautiful Music for Ugly Children is probably an important book because of its topic. I’m sure lots of transgender kids will relate to or at least recognize what Gabe goes through. But as a piece of writing, a published book, it doesn’t really hold up, never transcending the label of LGBT or Issues book, which is a total pity. Other authors, like David Levithan or Emily M. Danforth prove that such a thing really is possible.

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[1] According to this website, gender related bullying is staggeringly high: 9 out of 10 LGBT youth reported being verbally harassed at school in the past year because of their sexual orientation. There’s also a clear link between gender related bullying and suicide amongst LGBT youth.

Anya’s Ghost (by Vera Brosgol)

The cat doesn’t read too many graphic novels, so there’s not a lot of stuff to compare this to, but one thing’s for sure: Vera Brosgol’s Anya’s Ghost sure as hell beats Ghost World, both graphically and story-wise.

Graphic style, of course, is something very subjective, but Vera Brosgol’s black and white drawn figures of Anya and her ghost have an appeal that is both creepy and tender, which made this graphic novel into a real page turner – unlike the aforementioned GW!

The cover of Anya’s Ghost  shows a blurb by Neil Gaiman, which isn’t all that surprising either, when you know that Vera Brosgol worked as a storyboard artist on the Coraline movie. And when you look at some of the stills of Coraline, I think you’ll recognize Brosgol’s touch.

Here are images of both Anya’s Ghost and Coraline:

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Anya is the oldest daughter of a Russian immigrant and single-mom of two. She has struggled to fit in for a long time, but she has finally reached a sort of point of ‘normalcy’ in her high school existence: she no longer has an accent, she cuts class (especially gym) like any other high school teen, she smokes and struggles with her weight. She attends a private school (the only one in the state her mom could afford) on the advice of her mom’s Russian (church-) friend, whose son, the complete fobby – fresh of the boat – Dima, got a scholarship there.  Her life gets a weird(er) edge when she falls down a well and meets a ghost, Emily Reilly. When Anya gets saved from the well, Emily manages to escape from the well too, courtesy of a small bone from her skeleton that ended up in Anya’s bag. Although she’s sort of cautious at first, Anya soon enjoys the advantages of have a ghostly BFF: Emily makes sure she gets good grades and that the high school’s most desirable jock she has a crush on notices her.

Vera Brosgol addresses a number of elements that contemporary teens often struggle with. She understands that the balance between family life and school life is a precarious one – something which gets even more complicated when you are the daughter of a Russian orthodox immigrant. She also deftly manages to incorporate a teen’s need to belong and the need to transgress (the thing about the plaid uniform skirts is so recognizable!).  Add to that the nice touch of fantasy, a smattering of mystery and intrigue, a great sense of (yes, snarky) humor, a main character who shows some actual growth and a incredibly cool no crap-taking side character (Siobhan), and the mix you get is a layered graphic novel the cat would recommend to anyone!