37 Things I Love (in no particular order) Kekla Magoon

37 Things I Love (in no particular order) by Kekla Magoon
Ellis, has less then a week left of her sophomore year but all she can think about is her father who has been in a coma for the last few years.  Her mother wants to talk about their next step but Ellis doesn't want to let her father go.  When Ellis was younger she had two best friends Abby and Cora.  Cora pulled away from the group around 8th grade, and Ellis never knew why but she was too worried about her father to find out.   Ellis and Abby are still friends but Abby can't be counted on to listen. So Ellis turns to her other friend Colin who does care enough to pay attention but Ellis still feels a bit out of sorts as if something is missing. Slowly and carefully Ellis and Cora are learning how to reconnect. Ellis discovers that her one time best friend is a lesbian.  Cora's old/new friendship/maybe something more is just what Ellis needs.   Ellis and Cora's relationship is handled very well.  However like everything else. it was secondary to Ellis trying to cope with her father's coma and learn how to talk with her mother. This has a softer touch then Magoon's  previous novels.  I appreciate an author with a bit of range, different stories should read differently.  Ellis's heart is on display throughout.  I have read all of Magoon's novels and she has yet to disappoint. Actually she simply keeps getting better.  

An excerpt

Benjamin Alire Saenz Interview (2012 Blog Blast Tour)

Welcome to the final day of the SBBT. I've been a fan of Benjamin Alire Saenz since I read Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood. With each  new book Saenz confirms that he is one of the best YA authors out. His most recent novel Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe has been very well received including two starred reviews.

Hi Benjamin, bienveindo. Can you tell us a little about Aristotle and Dante Discover the Secrets of the Universe?

The story follows the implications of the title. The Universe and fifteen years old boys seem so insignificant--and yet they must find their place in the universe--they must discover it. And how do boys discover the universe, anyway? So many mysteries and secrets to be solved. There are the mysteries and secrets of parents. Their are the mysteries and secrets of the body and how it changes in boys and how it changes them. Ari is lost and miserable. Dante, too is lost, but he isn't miserable. He throws himself into the universe and feels a part of it. Ari does not. And yet no boy, can face the world alone. When Ari and Dante meet, the biggest secret of the universe becomes their friendship, their deep and profound love--though they do not understand just how deep and profound that love is. This a love a love story, but not just between two boys. It is a love between boys and their parents, and that love is the most profound love of all.

Who spoke to you first Aristotle or Dante?

Definitely Ari. He's lost and has to find himself. Not everybody has an easy time discovering who they are. I was such a boy. In a way, he's kind of a stand in for me. And yet, gregarious, likeable, intellectual Dante, in some ways I was more him on the outside. These two boys, they're different versions of me. I am a contradiction. I am both an extrovert and an introvert. It wasn't difficult for me to create these characters. It was as if I was giving myself a gift when I wrote this book. I wish to hell that I had come to terms with my identity when I was boy. It would have made my life so much less complicated.

In this coming of age story Dante is the talker and not afraid to share his emotions yet the story is narrated by Aristotle.  Why did you decide to allow readers to see everything through the eyes of Aristotle, the one of few words?

Because part of Ari's journey is to discover the words he has inside him. It is Dante that teaches him a new language, a new way of looking at the world. Ari must learn how to articulate himself if he is to survive, so it had to be told from his point of view. It's painful to put yourself into words. Ari tried to make himself invulnerable--but he wasn't. He was just another vulnerable kid in the world who didn't know how to be in the world. It would have been a much less interesting book if it had been told from Dante's point of view.

Both sets of parents add another wonderful layer something I've come to expect from your stories. How do you think the parents were changed by the journey of their sons?

Good parents are always changed by their children's lives. Ari's father, particularly was changed by his son's journey. In many ways, Ari and his father's journey are parallel. Ari's father has learn to talk to his son. Ari thinks his father's aloof--but he isn't. He just keeps the things he sees to himself. But, as he watches his son, he knows what's going on with his son. But, he has to learn to share those insights with his son. In addition, there is a bond between Dante's mother and Ari. Ari changes Dante's mother somehow. When they come back from being away for a year, Dante's mother says, "Dane isn't the only one who missed you." She sees something beautiful in Ari and it moves her and it changes her.

Your writing has a poetic sensibility, with a fluid light touch that I love. When writing a novel do the poet and writer in you ever disagree about what the next line will be ?

 No. Not really. All I can say is that I would have never become a novelist if I hadn't been a poet first. Writing poetry made me a more introspective and thothoughtful writer. Some of my critics say that my characters are too insightful, that no fifteen year old, or sixteen year old, or seventeen year old can have the insights I attribute to them. In effect, the criticism is that I am more in love with my own lyricism and not concerned enough with writing credible characters. Obviously, I disagree. I was a very introspective teenager. And I knew many others. Just because we enjoyed cussing, didn't mean we were incapable of reading books, and thinking about the world around us. I don't know, I think sometimes, poetry can simply be an ordinary but important insight. Sometimes, a sentence can be beautiful, not so much because of the writing, but because it says something that is true--maybe that's the light touch you're talking about.

There are many beautiful moments throughout but heart is Aristotle and Dante's relationship

Were you ever surprised by their actions or was the outcome a forgone conclusion?

I confess this one fact. I always have the last line of my novel in my head when I write it. That doesn't mean, that I'm not surprised by the things that I write sometimes. For instance, I hadn't really planned on the accident and what happened afterwards. I was surprised by the scene when Dante shaves Ari because Ari can't do it for himself. I think it's the most tender moments in the novel--because it's so raw and so difficult for Ari. I didn't know I was going to write that scene. But it seemed so right. Just because I know how the novel was going to end, doesn't mean I always knew how I was going to get there. Some blogger said the ending was predictable. Maybe so. But, for me, it's the journey that matters. We take a trip with two boys and, in the end, we feel we know them. We feel that they were real. And they are real. Boys fall in love with each other sometimes. Sometimes they don't even know that's what's happening. That love can be painful. Every kind of love can be painful. But that doesn't mean, the novel has to end in tragedy, does it? If I'd have written this as an adult novel, I would have given it a different ending. But I wrote this book for boys and their parents. I wanted my readers to understand that love between boys is fragile and tender and lovely--and difficult--but also possible.

Be sure to check out the other two SBBT interviews today

Jennifer Miller @Bildungsroman

Ashley Hope Perez @ Crazy Quilts

Full SBBT Round Up

Tanita Davis Interview ( 2012 Summer Blog Blast Tour)

Tanita Davis has been one half of the YA author blog Finding Wonderland since 2005. Her third novel, Happy Families was just released last month. Like the author's previous works, the family dynamic is well executed. I am very happy to have the opportunity to interview Tanita Davis about her latest novel for day two of 2012 SBBT

Hi. Tanita and welcome. Can you tell us a little about Happy Families?

Happy Families is a love story to families, if that’s not too abstruse. It’s about unconditional love, and going the distance in the name of love, no matter how far that takes you from what you might think everyone else is doing. It’s about fear and doing things anyway. It’s …complicated, a bit.

The cover flap tells you it’s about a set of twins who have to come to terms with their father’s new life. That’s as good a description as any.

You give a quick glimpse of Ysabel and Justin’s life before their father's secret is revealed. Did you develop the twins’ back stories more in drafting? I only ask because while the before was concise, it was still an excellent set up for the after.

Thanks. No, I didn’t write a whole bunch more backstory for the twins – it’s my own imaginary Happy Family scenario – parents who are both happy in themselves and deeply invested in the kids, kids who both have challenging and fun hobbies and are invested in each other – loving but not too much in each other’s faces. It was easy to write because it was a familiar dream. I didn’t – don’t – have that family. My people are greatly beloved, but hardly idyllic.

A little bonus fact: I wrote Ysabel’s backstory twice because originally she was in orchestra, and my editor said that there were too many YA novels with female characters who played cellos. I had no idea! (I still have no idea!) I was slightly annoyed at the time, since the cello is my Secret Longed-For Instrument (along with the balalaika and the dulcimer), but I’m just as glad now that I changed her focus, and thus changed her entire personality. Also, I got into lamp working and beads and jewelry making just from the research. Pretty much anything that lets me have even a tiny torch to begin with, and ends with jewelry? Is A Good Thing.

While the family must come to terms with the father's second identity as Christine, one thing that is never in question is their faith. I really appreciated how well the family’s faith is blended into the storyline. Why do you think religion and faith can be difficult to balance in fiction?

Well, the question is taking for granted that I do think that. I don’t. Perhaps I should clarify – maybe religion can be difficult to balance in fiction, but faith? No.

When I say “faith,” I don’t mean a kind of outward thing that people do, the denomination to which they belong, the external trappings of organized institutions. The externals are religion – what others may use to define you, or how they may wish to label/categorize you. The internal is faith.

Faith touches every part of a person’s life, so writing about it – writing from that personal context – should be the simplest balancing act in the world. (Please note the word Should!) I agree that it’s not always easy, not for everyone.

There are reasons why it’s not – in this society we so fear to offend that we’ve all made sure to homogenize so that we cannot possibly be found to be wrong or different or worse, strange. In the political arena, we’ve created offense to be an art form – just look at how many teacup tempests boil over, and how many apologies on behalf of entire peoples and nations are demanded on a weekly basis. We are locked and loaded and sometimes seem to be spoiling for a fight. The result? People take no chances, and make no waves… which creates timid, boring writers, and an eternal sameness in the fictional landscape.

We shouldn’t want to shove our faith in anyone’s faces – shoving is rude. But, when the fear of being seen as trying to proselytize – or the fear of being labeled as earnest or fanatical or tragically unhip – actually causes us to attempt to hold back or only write from our center selectively, then we’re throttling our voices, which is going to create terrible writing.

This is not to say that every novel by a person of faith must contain theological treatise. It’s just that, as Sara Zarr says, a writer writes from her or his worldview. If their worldview is centered in faith, whether culturally or spiritually, even in small ways, it will show. And, if a writer remains true to their craft, and doesn’t use their work to “send a message,” bludgeon, or berate, then the faith and the fiction will balance.

While I was reading Happy Families, I couldn't help but think that this novel will be challenged it’s only a manner of when. Is there any part of you that is looking forward to that first challenge? And have you already thought of what your response will be?

Looking forward to…? Wow, really? No. I am actually hoping that this book is not challenged maybe that makes me sound a little naïve.

While I am not a person who flees confrontation, neither am I a person who invites it. For some people, Happy Families may be topically polarizing and unbearably upsetting, I did not write with the intention of creating controversy, challenge, or discomfort to a level where people felt they had to act to protect their children. I deliberately kept the focus of the novel on the most important characters: Ysabel and Justin. This is their story.

There were so many times, during the writing of this novel, when I turned to a note I had written myself, and reminded myself of why I was doing this. There were so many times when my own fears of my own inadequacies in dealing with the subject matter just rose up to overwhelm me. And then I remembered - love is stronger than fear… and if all I was afraid of was exploring and reinforcing the idea that it’s okay to truly love, then I needed a reality check.

As to the rest – I don’t think I’m going to respond to challenges to the book. I don’t know what the etiquette is on that, but my normal conversational rules apply: if someone asks me a question that isn’t rude, I’ll answer if I choose. Otherwise, most challenges occur on a school/public librarian level, and those stalwarts will be the ones talking people through their biggest concerns. I trust that they know their patrons best, and can’t imagine me jumping in would do anything but stir the pot.

The bottom line is, concerned person has to be guided by their beliefs. If they’re of the belief that I am trying to hurt people with this novel, then I can only be sorry, but know in my heart that hurting anyone is never my intention.

I must confess to not liking the cover at first. It wasn't until after I started to read Happy Families that the cover design finally clicked for me. Giving the impression of a family existing as one unit. At least that's what I get from it, please don't burst my bubble if I am wrong. But can you tell us a little about the cover process?

I had a chance to kind of observe the entire design process. I was even asked to submit a conceptual idea, which was a first for me. Together with the design team we came up with the little male/female pictograms. Where we went from there was all over the board. We discussed had four basic pictogram styles, one photographic cover (which was all shoes/feet), and then from there we discussed background colors, spacing, fonts – seven mock-ups later, we eventually decided that none of the designs worked for enough of us. Enter Number Seventeen Productions. They did some fun stuff with the designs for Ned Vizzini’s books (It's Kind of a Funny Story ), and I was eager to see what they had for me.

I was excited when I saw the cover – a pink pictogram with the stereotypical skirted girl figure, a blue pictogram for a stereotypical boy, overlapped… to create a purple one. And okay, your bubble can stay intact: for you, this cover is about family being a single unit.

For me, more than the obvious metaphor the figures represent, the cover hints about the self being comprised of more than we show on the surface; we identify in more ways than what we observe in others. We are both the sum of all of our parts, and more.

One thing I love about the characters you create, you never feel the need to prove their "Blackness", they simply are who they are.  Do you think your desire to simply tell great stories and not create characters that fit into a pre-assumed box has made it difficult for your work to be categorized? Or for you to find an audience?

Coe Booth was recently quoted in The Atlantic Wire’s piece, “The Ongoing Problem of Race in YA fiction” She talked about how authors of color are at times perceived to have some greater responsibility with their work, and that sometimes a book is … just a book. DEFINITELY, some people are automatically turned off by the covers of my books depicting people of color, definitely turned off by knowing that I am a person of color – there’s a lot of assumption about the types of stories a writer of color tells. However, I’m not sure it’s specifically down to not fitting into a pre-assumed box within writers of color -- it could always just be the way I write!

In grad school, an intense Latino woman cornered me one day and asked me why I wasn’t “representing” more, and really said some hard words about my community and my experience, and what I wasn’t doing right. I think of her from time to time, and hope that she understands that there’s no such thing as one experience and one community, for anyone of any gender, ethnicity, color or faith. If readers can remember that, they’ll find their choice of reading widens dramatically.

There's a real easiness to your writing that I like with the story always unfolding naturally from the dialogue to the situations. What do you think is the foundation of good writing?

Thank you. The foundation of good writing to me is intense, active listening, and close reading. The best writers have words swirling in their bloodstreams, and in their breath and bone. I encourage fledgling writers to read, read, read, and try their hand at expressing their world. Great stories flow from there.

The desire of the Nicholas family to find their happy again is something everyone can relate to. Do you think readers will be more accepting of differences after reading Happy Families?

I certainly hope so.  Ashley Hope Pérez wrote a blog essay - Happy Families is the antidote to the "I'm Christian unless"... disease, which resonated with me. She speaks eloquently on the message of this book for her, and people who were raised in conservative communities like her. She talks about the glossary in the back as kind of being the first step to an action plan – I can change the way I speak about this today. It is her belief that these faith communities will be better able to embrace this book than might be expected. I support her belief, and anticipate thoughtful action and support from those who wish to choose love over exclusion, and acceptance over mere tolerance.

Do you plan on doing any author events either in person or via Skype?

I’m currently in Scotland, and I’ve been here just shy of five years. In that time, Tech Boy has gone from Mr. to Dr. (he came to do one degree, and is leaving with two), and it’s time for us to leave. Far from being ready to “get back to normal,” whatever that is, I’m voting we go somewhere else adventurous, so stay tuned for where we end up! Meanwhile, I do Skype visits with Seton Hill University and Oakwood School almost every year. I’m interviewed by individual students and correspond with quite a few. People can contact me through my website.

I plan to be in the United States this summer, and while I haven’t got book things quite lined up just yet, keep an eye on my website and my blog – I’ll be around!

Be sure to check out the other Day 2 interviews. 

Timothy Decker @ Chasing Ray
Y.S. Lee @ The YA YA YAs

A comprehensive roundup of the tour

Nalo Hopkinson Interview (2012 Summer Blog Blast Tour)

Welcome to the first day of  2012 Summer Blog Blast Tour. This week eight bloggers will be sharing various interviews, all of which will be linked back to Chasing Ray.

Nalo Hopkinson is an award winning fantasy author, The Chaos her YA debut has received three starred reviews. I was very excited when I heard about this book back in December.  With there being so few YA fantasy authors of color, when an established one decides to write one, its a reason to cheer.

Hi Nalo and welcome. Can you tell us a little about The Chaos?
NH: Thanks for the welcome! Now, I suck at synopsizing my own work.Easiest for people to read the publisher's blurb. Basically, my protagonist, Sojourner "Scotch Bonnet" Smith, is a 16 year-old Toronto girl. Her nickname comes from the Jamaican scotch bonnet pepper, one of the hottest peppers in existence. Scotch is biracial. Her parents transferred her from one high school to another because she was being slut-shamed by the girls in her previous school. She's just broken up with her boyfriend although she still cares for him. She's also begun seeing things that no-one else can see, and there's something chasing her.

Why is Scotch self conscious about not having a Caribbean accent?
NH: Scotch's mother is black middle-class American, and her father is white working-class Jamaican. She's proud of what she is. People who have eyes to see can tell that she is black (though not everyone has eyes to see!). So she feels as though she's representing for the maternal part of her heritage. But no-one can see her Jamaicanness, i.e. her father's side of her heritage. She thinks it would be more obvious if she had a Jamaican accent. She also thinks it'd be something clear and simple that she could claim. Everything about her is so hybridized that although she's not ashamed of it, she doesn't have any easy markers of authenticity. She feels the pressure of that.

She doesn't have an easily definable identity, and that can make a person feel lost, like they don't belong anywhere, like they can't claim affiliation with any one group. Canada as a nation wrestles with what it means to be Canadian, so that comes into play a bit, too. It's most obvious in the scene in the bar where Scotch is scoffing at the MC who tries to seem more authentically black by talking in something like an American accent and by name-checking only black American musicians and musical stylings. It's a dilemma for many -- not all --young black Canadians as they try to self-define. On this continent, blackness is seen as synonymous with black Americanness. If they don't look and act like what people associate with American blackness, they get seen as weird, inauthentic.

After the Chaos everyone is changed in some way. What says more about a  person, the transformation or whether or not they are accepting of it?
I think it depends on the transformation and on the person. The woman who's now sprouting roses even though she's allergic to them might not be so sanguine about her new biology. And Scotch's change --i.e. the appearance of the creature that's stalking her -- she could be hurt.

 A rolling calf and Baba Yaga, are a part in the story. Caribbean and Russian folklore fusion was unexpected but works. Why did you decide to blend the two?
I'm glad that you think they work! I also invoked the firebird, the phoenix, the roc, the simurgh, the kappa, Anansi, Brer Rabbit, Tinkerbell, and Sasquatch. Others I just plain made up. People from the cultures all those mythologies are from live in Toronto, so it made sense to mix things up. Like Scotch's life, mine is also hybridized. It rarely makes sense for me to just pick one thing.

Beyond having an author of color pen a new YA fantasy, I was excited about your, YA debut because I knew it included a diverse cast including gay and lesbian characters. In your novels for the most part everyone is accepting of everyone else. Is this a true reflection of Canada or what you would like Canada to be?

I tried to mix it up; to show both acceptance and prejudice. Punum's dad kicked her out when she came out to him. Scotch's homophobia, classism and ableism peek through in a couple of places. She herself has to deal with people's racism. And almost everyone in her school is phobic about the three students who are in   relationship together. Toronto has a large population of lgbtiq people. I myself am queer-identified and have been blessed with the experience of having community in Toronto (communities of all kinds, actually). So I know what it's like to move in circles where the gender of the people you find attractive isn't necessarily an issue. It's not like that everywhere, even in Canada. So for me it's a healing balm to be able to bring some of that acceptance into my writing.

Do you see yourself writing another YA novel?

Yes, I can see myself writing more YA. In the time that I was writing The Chaos, I also completed my first YA novelette ("Ours Is the Prettiest", in the anthology "Welcome to Bordertown", edited by Ellen Kushner and Holly Black), and my first YA short story ("The Easthound", coming out in the anthology "After", edited by Ellen Datlow). I should point out that my first two novels, although I didn't write them specifically for young adults, were put on "Books for the Teen Age", the annual YA bibliography compiled by the YA librarians of the New York Public Library.

I like the meatiness that I'm seeing in YA, where authors are finding all kinds of creative ways to wrestle with issues that used to be verboten in YA, but that young adults face all the time. Some parents have been dismayed that in "The Chaos" my characters talk about sex and sexuality in the ways that many teenagers do. I sympathize. I went through a period of horripilations at the beginning of writing the novel as I tried to figure out how to tackle sex and sexuality. For me, it came down to this; I do think it's age-appropriate. We call them young _adult_ readers for a reason. Yes, they're young and relatively inexperienced and we want to protect them, but they're also growing up. They're thinking about and talking about and in many cases doing this stuff. I didn't put any explicit sex scenes in the book.

And my protagonist is sexually active, but not if the guy won't use a condom. Many sexually active teen girls are reluctant to insist on their own safety. She does insist on it. I haven't yet heard from any readers who think that the violence, homophobia, ableism and racism in the book aren't age-appropriate. But sex does make some readers balk. Thing is, if you're very conservative, you're probably not going to like my writing anyway. Literature is art, and one of the jobs of art is to shake you out of your comfort zone, make you think.

I really enjoyed The Chaos for its uniqueness, though it has polarized readers and critics. Are you surprised that there is no  middle ground, either you like it or don't response to The Chaos?

 A little, yes. I've expected it for other novels of mine, but no from this one. Some readers are put off because I don't explain the reasons for The Chaos. That was a deliberate decision on my part, though. A few readers have come to the conclusion that Scotch is troubled by being biracial. I see how they could read it that way, but in my mind, Scotch has no trouble with her racial heritages; it's other people who do, and who make her life difficult because of it. Some readers are put off by how much diversity and identity figure in the story, and some love it. That I expected. Some readers love that the novel has a secondary character of "invisible" (most days) disabilities, but I'm still figuring out ways I might approach the issue in my fiction. I think the character of Punum is my first significant try at it.

There are three more  Day 1 Interviews

Kate Milford @ Chasing Ray

Randa Abdel Fattah  @ Crazy Quilts

Tim Lebbon @ Little Willow

And once again a full round up  of all the interviews can always be found here.

Happy Families - Tanita Davis

Happy Families by Tanita Davis
Ysabel and Justin Nicholas are twins from a happy home.  Their parents encourage and support their extracurricular activities.  This cohesive family unit, also includes a set of grandparents that live close by.  The story alternates between Ysabel and Justin.  In the first few chapters the author gives the reader the opportunity to see the Nicholas family in the before, when their joy was second nature.  In the after the twins are trying to understand their dad's secret, that he self identifies as transgender, this revelation forces the Nicholas family to rediscover their happiness which always came so easily.
 Davis gives Ysabel and Justin their own personalities and developments them so one can not help but get invested in their stories.  Caring about the twins means also caring about the family as a whole. The twins will be spending spring break with their dad. It is the first time Ysabel and Justin will be with their dad, since he stopped having to hide a part of who he is from his family.  Through the twins, the  reader learns how important family and faith are to the Nicholas. 

I always enjoy Davis's straight forward approach as well as her ability to create realistic and engaging characters.  Davis has written three very different YA novels, however they all have a common core, family.  And the author excels at creating well round novels centered around families.

Kirkus review  
An excerpt via Random House
Happy Families is the antidote to the "I'm a Christian unless disease" by Ashley Hope Perez

Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy by Bil Wright

Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy by Bil Wright
Carlos has been a make up artist in training since he was 12. Now 16 Carlos gets his dream job, working at Feature Face cosmetic counter at Macy's. He believes working at Feature Face is the first step to being discovered. Carlos boss doesn't like him and the new job cost him a very close friend.

This story is about a young man that knows what he wants and is going after it. Carlo's personality is as loud as the cover is bright. Behind his big personality, Carlos loves his mother and older sister, Rosalia. He isn't hassled at school but Rosalia boyfriend and friends always have snide comments. Carlos does his best to ignore them, putting all his energy into becoming famous. When Carlos big break comes saying yes means risking everything.

After three chapters I was very close to putting this one down. I didn't like the way Carlos interacted with his friend Angie or felt the need to comment on what she was eating. When this stopped, I was able to focus on Carlos again and he grew on me. I am glad I kept reading, I discovered there was more to Carlos then his fabulous style. There were a few story lines going on at once, from the mother losing her job, to Rosalia abusive relationship, and Carlos crush. They all blended together making for a very well rounded story.

An excerpt

LGBTQ YA Novels With Characters of Color

Last June I ran this list for the first time. I decided to run it again when I realized there were a few new titles to be added. Pride week begins June 25th

God Loves Hair by Vivek Shraya


Pull by B.A. Binns


Huntress by Malinda Lo


I Am J by Cris Beam


Boyfriends with Girlfriends by Alex Sanchez


Jazz in Love by Neesha Meminger


Putting Makeup on the Fat Boy by Bil Wright (July )


We the Animals by Justin Torres (August )


The Shattering by Karen Haley


Down to the Bone by Mayra Lazara Dole


Touching Snow by M. Sindy Felin


Say the Word by Jeannine Garsee


Born Confused by Tanuja Desai Hidier


The Mariposa Club by Rigoberto Gonzalez


M+O 4EVR by Tonya Hegamin


A Map of Home by Randa Jarrar


My Most Excellent Year: by Steve Kluger


Love Is the Higher Law by David Levithan


Dramarama by E Lockhart


Fat Hoochie Prom Queen by Nico Medina


The Necessary Hunger by Nina Revoyr


Sammy and Juliana in Hollywood by Benjamin Alire Saenz


The God Box by Alex Sanchez


The It Chicks by Tia Williams


Love & Lies: Marisol's Story by Ellen Wittlinger


After Tupac and D Foster by Jacqueline Woodson


No Such Thing as the Real World: by Various Authors

Woodson's "The Company" is abouta Black gay male dancer in New York

Orphea Proud by Sharon Dennis Wyeth


God Loves Hair was a 2011 Lambda Award Finalist and self published. To buy a copy its best to go directly to the author's site.

A Map of Home by Jarrar is classified as fiction and works very well as a YA crossover.

I've been hearing great things about Torres debut We the Animals which is also classified as fiction. From the description it looks like it has some YA crossover appeal as well.

The LGBTQ characters in Pull and Jazz in Love are secondary, role players but their presence is felt.