Meet June and Wes. June’s eyes are a bit too far apart and Wes’s hair is always just this side of scruffy. They are not cheerleader and jock. They are not lead in the spring musical and band geek. Most importantly, they are not fallen angels or pretty vampires. They are just June and just Wes. Regular. And they fall into the kind of love that isn’t love at first sight or like the end of the world. But it’s a love that any of you who have ever been in serious ga-ga with someone will recognize immediately: first love. The love that causes June to feel like: “Wes was planted deep inside her, so deep that no amount of wishing or hoping or parental brainwashing could ever dislodge him.†And Wes to think: “Being in love is hard…—wanting to be perfect for her every second they were together, and trying not to think too much about the scary, murky future when they would be apart…He had never been happier in his life.†A love “like two trains heading toward each other on the same track. It wasn’t like you could swerve to avoid the collision. It wasn’t like you could stop.†A love like that could result in, well, a big crunch. But now that June and Wes have collided and fused together, what will they do when June’s parents decide to pick up and move again? Can the Big Crunch survive the Long Distance? This funny, heartfelt novel is like Harry Met Sally for you millennials, and proves that you don’t need angel wings, vampire fangs or werewolf fur to fall in love.
Month: November 2010
The Good, the Bad and the Barbie: A Doll’s History and Her Impact on Us by Tanya Lee Stone
Oh, Barbie. At least HALF of the people reading this post owned one, and probably EVERYONE reading it either played with or destroyed one. (My cousin used to set his sister’s Barbies on fire in the driveway.) People either love Barbie or hate her, as author Tanya Lee Stone discovered when she was writing this fair and balanced book about the biggest doll of all time. “There is not much middle-of-the-road when it comes to Barbie…We all impose our own ideas and perceptions on the world, and Barbie may just be the ultimate scapegoat.†Starting with a forward by chick lit queen Meg Cabot that ends with, “…like Barbie, we could be anything we wanted to be.†(Well, we all know what side SHE’S on:), Stone lays out Barbie’s whole story, from her humble beginnings at Mattel toy company, where she was conceived by co-CEO Ruth Handler, to her rise as a pop culture icon, as captured by Andy Warhol’s “Barbie.†She chronicles Barbie’s uneasy and sometimes controversial changes from a Caucasian doll to an African American doll, and then a Doll of the World. Stone also addresses the whole debate about whether or not Barbie’s unrealistic body proportions are the cause of women’s dissatisfaction with their own measurements. She even humorously explores, through anecdotal interviews she conducted with kids and teens, our apparently universal and totally embarrassing compulsion to strip Barbie and Ken of their designer duds and throw them in a plastic bed together. I especially enjoyed the chapter “Barbie as Art,†where I got a huge kick out of the jewelry made by Margaux Lange. (It’s one of those times when you say to yourself—man, why didn’t I think of that??) Full disclosure? I still have several shoe boxes full of Barbies and her many accessories (including one Ken) in my adult closet that I just can’t bear to throw away. Obviously I’m not a hater, but whether you worship Barbie or loathe her, you’ll find facts that will both support and challenge your point of view in this interesting and entertaining examination of the famous doll we love to hate.
Pink by Lili Wilkinson
“I never wore pink. Pink wasn’t cool. Pink wasn’t existential. Pink was for princesses and ballet shoes and glittery fairies.” Serious, all-black-wearing Ava has a secret. She longs to be one of those “Girly girls who wore flavored lip gloss and read magazines and talked on the phone…girls who like boys.” Because Ava likes girls. Or, at least, one girl: Chloe, she of the dark vintage clothes and sophisticated literature taste. But now Ava is wondering if maybe she just didn’t give the color pink or boys enough of chance. So she’s transferring to a posh private school in order to try on a different identity, one that her way-left-of-center parents and cynical Chloe definitely wouldn’t approve of. At her new school, she tries fitting in with the Pastels: smart, Brooks Brothers-styled preppies with perfect hair and grades who are all performing in the high school musical. Unfortunately, the best voice-challenged Ava can do is make stage crew, where she meets the anti-Glee gang: the Screws. Like Chloe, they favor dark clothing but have more wider ranging interests than deconstructing Sartre or black and white French films. They’re actually really smart, funny and cool, when they’re not constantly slagging on the actors. Ava warms to the Screws more than she thought she would, but she also still wants to be a pretty Pastel. The deeper undercover she goes, the more confused she gets. Is she gay or straight? Preppy or pouty? Pastel or Screw? Is it possible to have it all and Chloe too? Or is she doomed to have to choose? This refreshing fish-out-of-water story is just what the doctor ordered to spice up the tired old chick lit genre. Ava’s classic adolescent identity crisis is made brand spanking new by the fact that she’s already living the bohemian life most high schoolers dream of, but instead longs for structure, collared shirts and a date to the senior prom. Which just goes to show that the grass is always greener on the other side of the cafeteria…and nobody illustrates that fact better than Aussie author Lili Wilkinson, who also happens to be employed in the incredibly cool profession of teen librarian when she’s not writing super snappy dialogue or creating moments of exquisite fictional teenage embarrassment. All this good, girly, gothy fun can be found at a library or bookstore near you!
American Vampire by Scott Snyder, Rafael Albuquerque & Stephen King
