You Know Me Well

April 4, 2016
Just because you live near San Francisco and there are other gay kids at school doesn’t mean that life is simple; as LaCour (Everything Leads to You) and Levithan (Two Boys Kissing) know, teenage life is never simple. It’s the start of Pride Week, and Katie feels like she has grown apart from her friends, and that meeting the girl she’s had a crush on forever is more than she can handle. Mark is at a gay bar competing in an underwear contest; he wins, but the victory emboldens Ryan, the friend Mark wishes were more, to dance with an attractive guy. When Katie bumps into Mark, they become a team as Mark imagines life without Ryan, Katie imagines it with Violet, and the future looms. There are a lot of emotional switchbacks packed into a single week, but the authors, writing in alternating chapters, incisively explore the excitement and costs of change, and the importance of friends in figuring out what to keep and what to jettison. Ages 13–up. Agent: (for LaCour) Sara Crowe, Harvey Klinger; (for Levithan) Bill Clegg, Clegg Agency.

April 15, 2016
In fair San Francisco where we lay our scene, a pair of star-cross'd classmates freaks out about life.All-American baseballer Mark is in love with his closeted best friend, Ryan. Kate pines for bon vivant Violet. Mark convinces Ryan to sneak to the Castro district for Pride Week festivities, thinking the shared adventure will surely make Ryan fall for him. Kate, too, is en route to San Francisco to finally meet Violet and commence romance. But Ryan falls for another suitor, and self-sabotaging Kate runs away from meeting Violet and ends up at the same bar. United by desperation, Mark and Kate embark on a magical night together (the truths of which are gradually revealed like romantic bread crumbs). Desperation, adoration, and confusion are confronted over several days as the outlooks of these two newfound friends evolve. The pacing and voices of LaCour's and Levithan's alternating points of view are on point, keeping this sweet fairy tale moving gladly forward. And it is a fairy tale, for the circumstances are implausible. Who talks like that? How could this duo possibly become friends? But it-gets-better optimism swells the story's spirit. Despite its delights, there are two notable missteps. Several mediocre poems obstruct pages at a poetry slam. And apart from a few minor characters, this is a vanilla middle-class world that white Mark and Kate inhabit.A once-upon-a-time reminder that life sucks and love stinks--but ain't they grand? (Fiction. 15 & up)

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May 1, 2016

Gr 9 Up-Accomplished YA authors LaCour and Levithan join forces for this coming-of-age story set during Pride Week in San Francisco. Told in the alternating perspectives of Mark and Kate, the book explores the heartbreak of unrequited love and the necessity of taking chances and doing the right thing for oneself. Mark, a junior, loves his best friend, Ryan, who doesn't reciprocate his feelings. Kate, a senior whose art got her into UCLA, is unsure about college-but she is sure she loves her best friend's cousin Violet from afar. Mark and Kate, previously not friends, happen upon each other at a bar (Mark thought going to the city with Ryan would be romantic; Kate fled the house party where she was supposed to meet Violet for the first time) and leave together after Mark watches Ryan dance with a stranger. They end up at an incredibly hip party, and while the details aren't initially revealed, this event sets each of them on a course for realizing some of their dreams and confronting things previously left unsaid. Pages flow quickly throughout, and despite the condensed time frame, a fair amount of character growth occurs. Both authors excel at writing smart, funny, and realistic dialogue. These are characters to whom readers will relate and want to get to know.

Copyright 2016 School Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

May 1, 2016
Grades 9-12 Mark and Kate meet at the start of San Francisco's Gay Pride Week and quickly become fast friends. And why not? They have several significant things in common: they go to the same school, they are both gay, and both seem to have an uncanny ability to make bad decisions. Mark has told his closeted best friend Ryan that he is in love with him, only to learn that Ryan doesn't return his feelings. And Katewell, she has made a whole series of mistakes rooted in her truly colossal lack of self-confidence. Her default strategy is to run away from opportunity even if it means never meeting the girl of her dreams. What will become of these two troubled teens? As in life, there are no obvious or easy answers to be found in this often subtle and always absorbing examination of fraught relationships. Popular authors LaCour and Levithan tell their heartfelt story seamlessly in chapters that alternate between Mark's and Kate's respective points of view and invite readers' emotional engagement with these two empathetic teens. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: Levithan has a rep for successful collaborations (including John Green and Rachel Cohn), and LaCour brings to the table her own legion of fans.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2016, American Library Association.)

July 1, 2016
It's San Francisco Pride Week, and high school seniors (and co-narrators) Mark and Kate each have much to figure out about themselves, including how out-and-proud they want to be. When they meet at a gay club, they quickly become close and nudge each other toward bravery, romantic and otherwise. This novel features funny and introspective teens with big decisions to make.

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)

July 1, 2016
It's Pride Week in San Francisco, and high school seniors (and co-narrators) Mark and Kate have much to figure out about themselves, including how out-and-proud they want to be. Mark hooks up sometimes with his best friend Ryan, but Ryan won't talk about it; Kate keeps running away from Violet, her best friend's cousin, who has always intrigued her as a love interest. Mark and Kate spot each other at a gay club and decide to be friends at a moment when each could use a confidante. They quickly become close and nudge each other toward bravery, romantic and otherwise, against the backdrop of other students' similar coming-of-age moments (after all, graduation approaches). It's a YA novel featuring funny and introspective teens with big decisions to make -- some related to their sexuality, some not. Kate, for instance, faces up to her lack of excitement about going to college, while Mark, pondering the question Who are you?, comes to the conclusion: "I am becoming." Teens, queer or straight, are often dramatic and unsure of themselves, and by moving its characters beyond the coming-out trope and giving them other questions to focus on, this book gives them room to be. shoshana flax

(Copyright 2016 by The Horn Book, Incorporated, Boston. All rights reserved.)