New books for teens

Jim Krieg’s Griff Carver, Hallway Patrol is a hilarious parody of the hard-boiled detective genre. Griff, new boy at Rampart Middle School, joins the hallway patrol and exposes a fake-hall-pass production ring. No stop is left un-pulled in a plot that includes a rigged school election, false fire alarms, and a shoot-out complete with caulking gun and shop vac. Three different narrators keep readers on their toes. (10 years and up)

In Fat Vampire: A Never Coming of Age Story, Adam Rex’s biting foray into vampire lit, Doug, undead and tubby, tries to attract girls with his sense of humor while avoiding a reality TV show crew that bumbles onto his trail. Rex offers freshly worded observations on modern life, teen angst, and “existential Frisbees.” The story is worth sticking with for the often-comical philosophical insights it tosses your way. (12 years and up)

Emily (from The Year of Secret Assignments), in her endearingly inquisitive way, becomes obsessed with a mysterious new couple — and with the ghost that’s been haunting the music rooms — in The Ghosts of Ashbury High. With sparkling, effervescent wit, author Jaclyn Moriarty puts her eclectic cast of characters through the paces of gothic fiction and ghost story. The inspired silliness combined with mystery and romance (contemporary and historical ones) should satisfy diehard fans and bring new ones into the fold. (14 years and up)

Seventeen-year-old Scarlet Hughes, the main character of Deb Caletti’s The Six Rules of Maybe, is always trying to help others. When her thoughtless older sister returns home married and pregnant, Scarlet feels it’s her job to keep Juliet from hurting Hayden, the sweet, devoted father-to-be. Caletti’s layered, engaging story includes lots of introspection, a multitude of fascinating characters, and loads of skillfully crafted sentences that will entice readers to slow down and re-read with pleasure before speeding on again. (14 years and up)

—Elissa Gershowitz

YA smorgasbord

There’s something for everyone in this roundup of some current YA novels: supernatural doings, philosophical pondering, sci-fi activism, friendship and romance, and a wild summer vacation.

With its wide range of subject and style, The Poison Eaters and Other Stories, shows off author Holly Black’s fertile imagination. Palpable details and shifts in tone carry readers between different times and places: the sticky, boring summer of a girl with a crappy mall job; an icy kingdom surrounded by dark and dangerous forests; the Philippine setting for a trickster tale about a girl who outsmarts the enkanto (elf) who cursed her sister. An entertaining and eclectic mix. (14 years and up)

In The Last Summer of the Death Warriors, tough-guy Pancho Sanchez is convinced his “slow” older sister, Rosa, was murdered, and he lives to take vengeance on the killer. His plan is put on hold when he’s befriended by D.Q., a strange boy with terminal cancer. Francisco X. Stork’s novel, featuring unforgettable characters confronting the big philosophical questions in life, will resonate with readers long after book’s end. (14 years and up)

Author and technology activist Cory Doctorow explores the ambiguous boundaries between virtual reality and the world as we know it in For the Win. The novel follows gamers, gold farmers (who play role-playing games to accumulate virtual money, points, and treasures that can be sold — for real money — to other players), and those who would take advantage of them. (14 years and up)

Two teens with the same name meet in a chance encounter in Will Grayson, Will Grayson. The straight Will Grayson is risk-averse and best friends with the garrulous, very gay Tiny Cooper; the gay Will Grayson is lonely and depressed. When the first Will finds his friendship with Tiny falling apart, the other Will finds his life opening up — scarily, thrillingly — when Tiny enters it. This collaboration by John Green and David Levithan provides an epic spin on personal and interpersonal drama. (14 years and up)

In Lynne Rae Perkins’s As Easy as Falling Off the Face of the Earth, fifteen-year-old Ry opens a letter on his way to summer camp in Montana and discovers that the camp has gone out of business; when he hops off the train to call his grandfather, the train leaves, stranding him in the middle of nowhere. A kind stranger who “marches to the beat of, like, I don’t know, a harmonica or something” offers to help out. Perkins’s narrative is supremely warm, funny, and wise. (10–14 years)

—Jennifer M. Brabander

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

Meet The Hot New Guy! Kevin Keller, Archie Comic's new teen at Riverdale High... and he's GAY!

I read Archie comic books when I was growing up, and when I close my eyes and imagine the impact this would have had on closeted, sure-I-was-the-only-guy-who-was-attracted-to-other-guys-in-the-world me, it's actually really cool.

The land of Betty crazy for Archie, and Archie crazy for Veronica has a new "hunky" teenager join them at school. And now Veronica is crazy for Kevin, but Kevin isn't much interested in Veronica, or any other girl for that matter...



So what is Veronica No. 202 “Isn’t it Bromantic?," Kevin's debut, about?

“Mayhem and hilarity ensue as Kevin desperately attempts to let Veronica down easy and her flirtations only become increasingly persistent.”

(That's according to an Archie Comics Statement)


But evidently the hilarity is not at the expense of the gay character:

“Teenagers have a lot of pressure, so it’s important for Archie and the rest of the gang to be accepting.”

- Jon Goldwater, co-CEO of Archie Comics

We'll have to wait until September 1st to read the issue ourselves, but as for me, I've already put mine on hold.

Thanks, Archie! And welcome, Kevin.

You're gonna change lives. And not just in Riverdale.

Posted by Lee Wind at 3:03 AM