My Heartbeat by Garret Freymann-Weyr

Printz award winners and honor books all tend to deal with an issue that they are trying to explore relevant to teens. Some of my favorite books in the last few years have been Printz books. These books tend to be well written with an engaging narrative voice, likable characters, and an unflinching eye for plot. Usually, they don't feel like transparent "issue books".

My Heartbeat is the story of Ellen, a fourteen year old girl iving in Manhattan. She is madly and deeply in love with her brother, Link's, best friend, James. All that goes about the way one expect until someone suggests to Ellen that maybe James and Link are a couple. This opens a discussion on sexual politics for the teenager set.

Link and James implode leaving Ellen to figure out what being gay is or isn't. I like that Freymann-Weyr avoided overly simple categories and embraced the idea that it's possible not to know for oneself the answer to the question, "are you gay?" Neither James nor Link really know if they are gay or not. Definitely they are more than just friends but past that definitions are fluid. James is comfortable with the ambiguity. Link is not.

Ultimately, James and Ellen end up together which further complicates things.

On another level, this is a story about a young woman figuring out what's important to her and defining her identity as separate from her parents.

Something about My Heartbeat felt a little transparent though. Freymann-Weyr is taking on teenage sexuality and sexual identity issues. Both are worthy topics. Her characters are all likeable and the premise is solid, I just came away feeling like it fell flat. For one thing, these characters all come from a very privileged world. I'm not sure that should make a difference but I have a hard time believing that these kids can do all they do in the book. For example, Ellen picks up drawing with no effort over what seems like a couple of weeks and is suddenly accomplished. James and Link perform similar feats. 

There are many things to like about this book, but I feel that it might very well alienate many teens who are living more normal and average lives.

I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson

Sometimes I think I should spend more time reading non-genre fiction. I don't know why I'm so drawn by fantasy and science fiction. Maybe it's the world that draws me in which is easier to convey in a back panel blurb. I just have a hard time getting the gumption up to start reading a mainstream novel. All the same, when I do manage to get into a mainstream narrative, I generally fall in love with them.

I've been working my way through all the Printz award winners and honor books, so I've been reading a lot more mainstream fiction albeit mainstream fiction for young adults. I found Laurie Halse Anderson that way and John Green too. I liked their books well enough that I'm in an extended project to read all of their books. Which brings me to I'll Give You the Sun by Jandy Nelson. I've had this book out from the school library since last June. I kept picking it up, reading a few pages, and putting it back down. I had every intention of reading it and getting it back to the library with no one the wiser but I instead accidentally held it hostage for most of a year. (Bad English teacher, no treat for you)

Noah and Jude are twins. Their mother is a crazy free spirit art history professor. Their dad is a scientist who researches parasites. The siblings are both incredible artists: Noah draws and Jude sculpts. The twins are close as twins tend to be but something happens the year before entering high school that drives a wedge between the siblings that neither seems to be able remedy.

The story is told alternating between Noah and Jude as protagonists but Noah's sections are told from before the cataclysmic event when they are 13 or 14 and Jude's are all told from after the event when they are 16. Each twin is fully defined with their own host of difficulties. Noah sees everything in snapshots like paintings waiting to happen. Oh, and he's gay but not out yet and struggling with all of that. Jude thinks in terms of superstitions and arbitrary rules she creates to avoid disaster on a metaphysical level. It's clear that both teens are in crisis but how these crises fit together is the compelling mystery of the narrative.

As is usually the case, once I really started reading it, I couldn't put it down. I was supposed to be grading today, in fact. So much for that idea. I instead spent the day alternating between wanting to cry for these characters and laughing loudly and unabashedly. While, I figured out most of the plot twists early on, the delightful humor in the character voices and the characters kept me reading.

Excellent book for teens looking for a more challenging read. The chapters are very long (up to 100 pages) but there are sub breaks in the chapters that give plenty of places to pause.