by Becky Albertalli
Hennepin County Library hardcover 303 pages
genre: YA realistic fiction
Simon is a likable seventeen-year-old with an older sister Alice and a younger sister Nora. His two best friends are Nick and Leah, and Abby has recently joined their group. This book has romance, adolescent angst, humor, and a coming-out story or two. It is delightfully written, though with plenty of swearing and using the Lord's name in vain. (Pretty normal fare for teenagers, but I'm a bit sensitive about it with many of my middle school readers not accustomed to it.) One part that made me laugh out loud is when Simon goes to a party with his friends even though he's not a partier.
"I take a sip of my beer, and it's - I mean, it's just astonishingly disgusting. I don't think I was expecting it to taste like ice cream, but holy f***ing hell. People lie and get fake IDs and sneak into bars, and for this? I honestly think I'd rather make out with Bieber. The dog. Or Justin."
Bieber is the name of the family's golden retriever. Anyhow, there is humor and honesty and difficult conversations. The author is a psychologist who apparently works with children and youth who are having gender concerns or coming out as homosexual. The book is very well-written, if perhaps a bit unrealistic (I won't give away the identity of his boyfriend, since that's the big "who is it really" throughout the book as they email one another using secret names.) But I think the happy resolutions at the end were not quite what kids' real experiences are like.
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