After all this time, it looks like I may be the last blogger for this course - what a ride it has been. In the two years that I have been working in children’s and youth services at a public library, I have managed to read a number of great books for guys. When I took the job, I was dreading actually having to read YA stuff so that I could be “in tune” with our core users; I was used to reading adult mysteries and lawyer novels and didn’t think that I would find anything of interest in the YA library. Well, I was wrong!
My first discovery was Scott Pilgrim, the Canadian manga created by Bryan Lee O’Malley. I had seen hundreds of these digest-sized manga books when I worked on the adult Circulation desk, but I figured it was just a fad, like Pokemon and Teletubbies. One of the first journals I looked at in my role as a youth librarian was a best comics of the year for 2006, and that is where I first heard of Scott Pilgrim. In the brief snippet I read, I noticed Scott wearing a Plumtree t-shirt, and I was stunned - a friend of mine from high school had actually moved to Halifax because he was obsessed with Plumtree (especially their lead singer). I took this as a sign and proceeded to purchase all of the Scott Pilgrim books for our collection. Needless to say, these are highly recommended by me, especially if you are into the whole indie rock scene in Canada, or just want to see a skinny slacker have to beat-up his girlfriend’s 7 evil exes to win her heart (it all makes sense when you read the books - the fifth in the series is coming out in February of ‘09).
Another thing that initially irked me about reading YA lit was that I was going to have to temper my expectations for books with lots of sex (we’re all adults here, so we can be honest, right). Boy, was I wrong about this! When I was in high school (wayyyy back in the 80’s, man), the YA books we had to read were tame to the point of “zzzzzzz”. Now, I find myself recommending modern YA books to friends my age because they are edgy and the sex in these books is often as racy as what you would find in an adult novel. One very intriguing novel in this vein is Boy Toy by Barry Lyga. In it, the main character, Josh, is forced to face his demons of five years past when an old girlfriend tries to re-enter his life and his old teacher/ex-lover is released from jail (I’ll let you guess why she was in jail, but remember, this is a YA novel, so the main character is in HIGH SCHOOL). I admit I picked it up because it sounded kind of interesting/kinky, but it was one of those books that you just can’t put down, and I found myself staying up late for a couple of nights so I could find out what happened. A truly compelling read, and I also recommend Lyga’s other novels, The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl and Hero Type.
I know that there are many novels that deal with teenagers having disablilities and they go on some sort of quest to prove something, and they meet up with a crochety senior citizen who teaches them all sorts of life lessons and then the obvious happens and we all puke - well, I was sure that Mary Hershey’s The One Where The Kid Nearly Jumps To His Death and Lands in California was going to be one of those books, but I have to admit I very nearly shed a tear at the end (I didn’t really - it just sounds better if I say I did). The main character, Stump, has a prosthetic limb (hence the name Stump) and is sent to stay with his estranged father in California for the summer. Of course, Stump would rather be anywhere but with his father, but he endures, learns how to swim competitively from a salty old high school swim coach, and has a near-fatal episode swimming in the ocean, but all is well in the end. It might be a little sappy and old-fashioned, but it had me hooked right away and should also hook many a guy-reader looking for something a little different.
So, if you end up working in a YA library and you see a guy in there looking for something to read and he looks like he is about to pick-up an old standby like Hatchet or Lord of the Flies, slap his hand and tell him to put it down and give him one of the books mentioned above. You’ll be doing him a favour!
Some other recommendations that I’ve read (or I’ve heard are great for guys):
- An Abundance of Katherines by John Green (it kinda lags in the middle, but the ending was great)
- Notes From the Teenage Underground by Simmone Howell (lots of YA lit comes from Australia, as does this one - very insightful for guys who might want to learn about how girls really treat each other when they’re supposedly best friends)
- Notes From the Midnight Driver by Jordan Sonnenblick (it has the same basic plot as the Mary Hershey book, but is a great read, too)
- Doing It by Melvin Burgess (the basis for that short-lived Kelly Osbourne TV show from a few years back, this one is about boys and sex - DUH - but it was more interesting and well-written than I expected. His book Smack is another provocative one that gets adults all upset, but it is an award-winner - it was recently out of print in Canada but that may have changed)
And one that I most whole-heartedly DO NOT RECOMMEND TO ANYONE:
- Slam by Nick Hornby (don’t fall for the glowing reviews on his site, this was one of the biggest disappointments I ever read. You’d think Hornby + YA = Gold but you’d be wrong. If you see someone taking this out of your library, you have every right to put that person in a chokehold until they put it down)
That’s all for now - be back tomorrow with more blogging…
Posted in Reading and Literacy, YA Literature Tagged: barry lyga, books for guys, hornby, manga, mary hershey, melvin burgess, plumtree, scott pilgrim, sex
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was sent to us a couple of months ago, and has been sitting on my shelf ever since (while I try to tackle this never-ending TBR pile). It looked, from the cover, like a cute little fluff book. A romance that might be fun to read sometime. Let me just tell you, DON'T JUDGE A BOOK BY IT'S COVER!! (Have you heard that before?) This book was NOT fluff! 
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Great review! That's a good deal on this book too.
Yeah, that's a ridiculous deal!! And, I THINK you can go to her blog and get it on your computer for free. Don't quote me on that, tho! :D
Thanks for the review! Yes, Rising Shadow is available for free as a PDF on my web site (www.soterians.com) and for $2.99 on the Kindle. The paperback is $12.95 on Amazon. Enjoy!