The Realm of Possibility

September 6, 2004
Through a series of poems, Levithan (Boy Meets Boy
) introduces readers to a group of friends and acquaintances, including a gay couple celebrating their one-year anniversary, a girl whose mother is dying and an outsider who fills his notebook with "ink explosions of thought." His characters represent a diverse range of sexuality, race and social standing, and most struggle with love relationships, from a boy who wants to help his anorexic girlfriend, to a girl with an unrequited crush on a straight friend. The author experiments with different voices and styles (one series unfolds in song lyrics); some of these poems work better than others. An energetic verse, "Gospel," from a black choir girl who feels bullies "/ to a kindness they would never/ understand" to help the aforementioned white outsider, reads as authentic and thought-provoking, while an alphabetical poem about a break-up, constrained by its form, grows tedious. Readers may have trouble tracking all of the characters and the various connections between them, but they will find clever lines and inspiring ideas in many of the poems here ("Most of the limits/ are of our own world's devising"). Ultimately, that is what makes this ambitious project a realm worth exploring. Ages 12-up.

March 2, 2009
"One school. Twenty voices. Endless possibilities." This collection of linked poems, set in a suburban New Jersey high school, begins and ends with boyfriends Daniel and Jed sharing a smoke in the first poem and celebrating their one-year anniversary in the last. Between the two events, we meet 18 of their friends and acquaintances. For fans of Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (starring Michael Cera and Kat Dennings, 2008). While it may be a cop-out to compare one book by David Levithan to a movie made from another (written with Rachel Cohn. ISBN 978-0-375-83533-9. 2006), no author writes love and longing, gay and straight, quite the way he does. Why It Is for Us: Beginning with the breakout Boy Meets Boy (ISBN 978-0-375-83299-4. pap. 2003), Levithan has made a career baring the tender hearts of teens in love. Here he tries his hand at many poetic forms, each specially linked to the subject of the poem. [The hardcover was published in 2004.]

Copyright 2009 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.