On a Wing and a Prayer

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OCD, The Dude, and Me

There are books out there that make you laugh, that make you cry, and that do a little of both. But when you find a book that leaves you stunned and speechless, you stand up and take note. Lauren Roedy Vaughn's OCD, The Dude, and Me is a story like no other. 

Danielle doesn't make apologies for the way she is, but that doesn't mean her mother likes it. What's worse than being chunky, having unruly orange hair, and being a general outcast? How about Obsessive Compulsive Disorder to top it all off? When Danielle's English teacher encourages her to see the school counselor, Danielle is unhappy, to say the least. But at least in class, she can communicate through her favorite means- by writing. Her English teacher even advises the counselor to let Danielle conduct sessions through letters. She can't be all that bad, right? You would think, but then again, she seems to enjoy ripping apart Danielle's English papers, no matter how witty they are (or snarky). 

When everyone seems to conspire together to ruin her life, they decide to do so through a social skills class for other social rejects like Danielle. Even her parents are gung-ho for her attendance in this class. While Danielle inwardly wants to shrivel up and die before attending, her mother's thinly veiled threats to send her back to legit therapy keep her going. But something interesting happens. Danielle meets Daniel. An unlikely duo, as Daniel seems surly and sullen to Danielle's quirks, they find common ground in their relationships with the world. Both have wildly different reasons for how they relate to people, but the end result is fairly similar: outcast central. 

Oh I just loved this story. Danielle is the perfect blend of kooky, sassy, and snarky all rolled into one. And the best part of this story? For once, we have a really great blend of adults in the life of a student with a learning difference who support but don't shelter the main character. Too often we have overbearing parents who try to do everything for their child or protect them from the world, but that doesn't do anything to prepare them for the eventual time when they have to be independent. Or we get the oblivious, absentee parents who don't care the kind of pain their children are going through. In this book, it first seemed like the English teacher and Danielle's parents were too pushy or unforgiving, but really they were doing what was best for Danielle. It might not have been what Danielle wanted, per se, but it was what was best for her. From making her talk to the counselor, to the social skills class, to even forcing her to go on a class trip to England, everything they did was painful, but it actually helped Danielle. I liked that it took me a little while, especially since the story is told through Danielle's assignments and personal journal, to figure that out. Since she was not thrilled about these endeavors, it took her revelation that they had helped for the reader to have the same revelation. It really put the reader in Danielle's shoes in a marvelous and touching way. In addition, she has an aunt who is just fabulous. Seriously. Totally fabulous! We all need an aunt like this in our lives!

This story was so amazing it took me longer than usual to read because I felt like I had to digest every single word with care. It is so much more than meets the eye. My colleague and friend and co-blogger (if we can ever coax her back here!) left this book for me. I knew I would like it, but I wasn't prepared for just how much I would love it! Vaughn really captured the complexity and inner thoughts of her characters, and did so in a way that takes you through their lives alongside them. This is a book that will stay with you long after you have finished it, and just like Theresa, you will want to pass it onto someone you know will love it as much as you do!

Just Like You

"I swear to you fat is not an emotion. I wish you could hear that... it'd spare you lots of self abuse."

Typically, Young Adult authors are adults. Sure, they have lived through high school and their awkward teenage years, but they aren't currently entrenched in them. Perhaps they have glorified those times, or maybe they view them like being the lone survivor of a zombie plague- all alone and waiting to be devoured by the beasts surrounding you. Either way, they aren't part of the target audience for whom they write their books. So can they make the young adults they write for believe they lived through the same situations? Yep. With one book. In Dear Teen Me, a collection of letters from the authors to their teen selves, you will get a glimpse of just how much they can connect to the teens they write for.

"You know there is no way in hell a guy like him would ever kiss a girl like you, you think."

There are moms who left. Left behind was a girl who had to raise her younger siblings and needed her grandmother to buy her first bra for her. Dads who left an never called, creating an almost obsessive need for attention of any kind. There was a dad who suffered from mental illness in a way that devastated her childhood. And there were great parents who loved, comforted, angered, yelled, supported and loved some more.

"Here's the thing: You're a freak. Always were. Always will be. One day you'll love this about yourself. But right now you hate it."

There are band geeks, theater dropouts, book nerds, smart kids, dancers, jocks, chubby kids, and so much more. Some had a defining moment like when Big Bern (scary Sister Bernard Agnes) recognized you were a fish out of water and suggested you spend some time in the library, the exact spot where you finally fit in. Some just floated through, realizing only now that they missed an amazing opportunity. But they all have something in common. They had no idea who the hell they really were and who the hell they were going to be one day. And that was OK. Because eventually, they would know. 

"The goose egg on your forehead will heal, but the loose thread in your moral fiber is probably still there to this day."

There were bullies. Some were expected, and some were unexpected. Those were inexplicably sadder. Sometimes the bullied became the bully just to turn the tide a little bit. There were cruel taunts and jabs that will stay with you forever. But there were friends. A girl who let you know it is OK to stop worrying about homework and tests and just be free. Friends who want to play Dungeons and Dragons or belong to the breakdancing group right along with your rhythm-less self. And did you know Lauren Oliver and Elizabeth Miles were friends in school?! How awesome and crazy is that?!

"Keep dancing by the highway, you splendid little dork."

There are first crushes, first kisses, and attempts to lose your virginity. There are milestones and drudgery, but it is all that time you need to spend finding yourself, losing yourself, and finding yourself again. This is all the advice you wish someone had told you when you were a teenager, but then you stop and realize even if they had told you, you would have ignored them and made those same mistakes again. This book should not only be read by students from middle school through their young adult years, but also adults as well. Parents, teachers, and just the woman debating whether or not to go to her high school reunion because she was once an awkward young girl who dreaded every day of high school. I loved this collection. Loved it. And there is nothing you will ove more than watching someone realize those very authors you look up to were struggling through the same horror show you went through during adolescence. (And not Rocky Horror Picture Show, kind of horror either. There was no bustier and singing. This was more like Jason and hockey mask). 

"PLEASE stop pretending you don't know the answers in math class! It's okay to be smarter than they boys. Really. They'll get over it."

Converse over Cranium

Families are as different as people themselves. The definition of family is so broad that it doesn't just cover a mom, a dad, and children. Sarah Tregay gets to the heart of this growing cultural difference in Love and Leftovers with a variety of different kinds of family, but they all have one thing in common: love. 

Marcie's mother drags her to New Hampshire after finding out Marcie's dad has been lying and cheating on her- with another man. Usually they just vacation at their family's old summer house, but fall has arrived, school has begun, and they should have left by now. Back in Idaho, Marcie left her father, her best friends (the Leftovers), and her perfect boyfriend, Linus. She didn't even pack for the move, and her aunt has to donate some clothes to the cold and changing cause (including underwear the size of Idaho). 

At first Marcie just wants to go back to Idaho, but she begins to settle in to her new school. In fact, she even starts hanging out with a boy named J.D. and starts to forget about the life she has back home. When her own father's lies and life choices start to invade her own thoughts, she finds herself uncertain about what to believe. Could Linus be gay like her father is? Is it easier to go after a boy who is so clearly not gay but might be a player?

There are so many layers to this book, it is hard to unravel them all. First you have the catalyst for the whole story, Marcie's dad. This whole relationship is handled so well, I was happy to see it in this book. Yes, the realization that he was no longer in love with Marcie's mother was difficult, but he still cared about her. And Marcie struggled with the separation and divorce, but eventually she accepted it and was actually quite understanding about her father's new relationship. She even becomes close with Danny, her father's boyfriend, and realizes how much happier her father is now. I loved the way this relationship unfolded, and it gave this added depth and love to the story that doesn't often come out of one parent cheating on the other.

Next were the supporting characters. In Idaho, Marcie's friends call themselves the Leftovers, the unclassifiable kids who don't belong to any group. They are an eclectic bunch, but they are truly fabulous- the kids you wish you were brave enough to be at that age! But they all have their skeletons too. Emily got pregnant and gave her son up for adoption. Linus' father lost his job and Linus spends most of his time babysitting his brother's daughter. All of these backstories make this group of kids enough for an entire book for each of them! But the backstories aren't hokey or cheesy, they just are what they are, and they all care about one another. I loved these kids!

This was a really great book written in verse with short but powerful sentences that suck you in and throw you into the spin cycle. I would love this book, which deals with such mature topics, to be used for an older, mature, struggling reader because the chapters are super short, the language is melodious but simple, and the verse is acceptable. They would be able to read it successfully but not feel like they were reading a story that was beneath them in terms of maturity. I really liked this story and applaud Tregay for fitting in so much material with so few words! Brilliant!

Who Survives?

I remember having a conversation with a family friend a year or so after 9/11. We were talking about humanity and the good and the seriously ugly that comes out of humanity. And after we talked about some pretty ugly things, one being all the people who died on 9/11, I made a comment that quieted us both. I said (not verbatim), "Well, there wasn't a single call of vengeance or hate or anger that came from those buildings or those planes. They were all of love." I remember him pondering that for a moment and saying, "I guess humans aren't so bad after all." We lived through 9/11. We remember where we were that day. What we were doing. Who we were with. But our children and students don't. I am teaching middle school students who were born after that horrible day. They hear about the horror, but none remember it. So how do we teach them about a day we will never forget? David Levithan has the right idea with Love is the Higher Law. He talks about the people who survived that day. And you didn't have to be in the towers to be a survivor. 


Claire was sitting in homeroom when it happened. When she saw people bustling around and whispering to her teacher, she was scared something had happened to her mother. What she didn't expect was a tragedy that would take so many people's mothers and fathers. Jasper was sleeping. With his parents in Korea, he was using the time to indulge in late nights and later mornings and had disconnected the phone. For a family halfway around the world with their son in the middle of a terrorist attack, nothing can be scarier than him not picking up the phone. Peter is in Tower Records, picking out the next great album and day dreaming about his date that night with a cute boy named... Jasper. When he walks outside, he removes his headphones because any song he heard as he watched the second plane hit the towers would have been forever tainted by the horror he was witnessing. 


When the towers went down in NYC, many people died. But while many people survived, a small piece of them went down with the towers. Everything stopped in the city that never sleeps and certainly never stops. And three young adults all living very different lives found their lives intertwining and never losing sight of what their city lost: the facade of safety and imperviousness. Claire, Jasper, and Peter all survived in very different ways, but they carry the towers and what happened that day with them each and every day. 


The importance of this book is that it is not a dictation of facts of what happened that day. It is a personal, human story of three teenagers living through the scariest day of their lives. I think this is a story that teens today could not only relate to, but also get a better image of what happened that day. But the story doesn't stop with that day. It continues for days and years after, showing the true influence 9/11 made on those kids. What was particularly important for me was how different their reactions are. When we look at the way people deal with tragedy, we have to acknowledge the widely differing reactions and this book chronicled three of those. In particular, Jasper was unable to get it out of his mind while Peter just wanted to move on with his life. 


While this book wouldn't tell the whole story of what happened that day, it would be a great companion to any lesson on the subject for teens. It is very realistic and upfront about the lives of these three teens, a skill Levithan is a master at. He doesn't hide behind stereotypes and fluff, but rather delivers a story that will leave you different by the last page. This is a short story, a little over 150 pages, so it is good for an older reader who struggles to focus on longer books or as a part of a larger unit about this time period. Levithan does it again. He brings the humanity out of the shadows and into the light. 

Wicked in Love

What if New England had once been a haven for witches escaping persecution, bringing witches from all around the world to one spot. Then imagine the non-witches of that area launched an attack upon the witches, rooting them out and either imprisoning them or ending their lives. This is the alternate history where the Cahill sisters live in New England at the turn of the century in Born Wicked: The Cahill Witch Chronicles, Book One by Jessica Spotswood.


Cate Chaill is determined to keep her promise to her dying mother- to protect her two sisters from the Brotherhood, a gathering of men who seek out and destroy the lives of witches. Cate and her sisters are witches, but only their mother knew Cate's secret, that she could do the most powerful kind of magic... mind magic. While Tess and Maura love their magic and barely keep it hidden, but Cate uses hers only enough to be able to control it. But her time is coming when every girl must declare their intentions to the Brotherhood: get married or join the sisterhood.


When Cate receives a letter from the godmother she never knew instructing her to find her mother's journal, Cate realizes there is more to their magic than she thought. When she finds the diary, she learns there is a prophecy that three witch sisters will come about and either save the fate of witches, or ruin witches forever. Terrified she and her sisters are the witches in the prophecy, Cate seeks help from people she hopes she can trust despite always keeping her secret to herself. In doing so, she not only finds more to her magic than she had imagined, she also finds that marriage for convenience might not be her only fate. A young man named Finn could be the love Cate never dared to let herself dream about.


This book started a little slow for me at first, but then it picked right up and caught my attention. I loved the old-fashioned feel of the story at the end of the 19th century, as well as the alternate history. The world was so well created that it could have easily been our real history! At first, in fact, I didn't realize it was all that different! And the sisters are an interesting mix of personalities. Cate is your typical eldest daughter, too grown up for her age and the responsibility of the world resting on her shoulders. Maura is the willful middle child who refuses to hide who she really is, even if it means exposing the entire family. And Tess is the youngest sister, in all her wide-eyed innocence and loveliness. The love story behind the magic is really quite sweet, but complicated as these things always tend to be. You want Cate to be with Finn, the son of the bookstore owner who is at the top of the Brotherhood's watch list, but you know her marriage to her childhood friend is the safer choice for Cate and her sisters. But alas, love can not be contained and is not safe or logical. It just is.


The setting of this book makes for a nice story with no violence or sexual content. It feels old-fashioned, which might not be the best fit for some students. It was an interesting story and could be the source of some interesting conversations and creative expression dealing with alternate histories. In fact, I would love to have a student create an alternate history after reading this book. The changes are subtle enough that the book is really quite realistic and easy to read. I look forward to the rest of the series and to see what happens to the Cahill witches!

From a Bully's Perspective

After finishing The Fault in Our Stars, I really needed to read something different. I had bought this book on a whim, at first scoffing at it, then intrigued by it. I was torn between being impressed by Curtis "50 Cent" Jackson writing about his early start as a playground bully and being annoyed by this ghost written story pumped out to make more money. Now that I have read Playground: A Mostly True Story of a Former Bully, I think I am more impressed than annoyed...


Butterball is a big guy. Junior High is rough enough for a kid, let alone a fat kid, so you have to be tough to make it through. When Maurice, Butterball's only real friend at school, starts telling people something truly horrible about Butterball's family, he does the only thing he can. He defends his honor. He bashes Maurice's face in with a sock filled with D batteries. Now Butterball has to go to a social worker twice a week and talk about his feelings- the last thing he wants to do.


Butterball and his mother moved out of the city to Garden City when his parents split up. He still goes to the city occasionally to see his father, but his dad is usually preoccupied by his latest girlfriend. Butterball's mom works constantly between her time at the hospital and college classes to become a nurse. Mostly he spends his time with Evelyn, his mom's friend who make gross vegetarian stews and rags on Butterball to behave himself. At school he has gotten a lot of attention, some good and some bad, for what he did to Maurice. Now a group of guys wants him to do it again to a guy Butterball has never met. But Butterball doesn't understand- this guy hasn't done anything to him, so why would Butterball bash his face in? 


I wouldn't say this was a great story, but it was one that has a good moral and is told form a different perspective than others of its kind. I like the fact that 50 Cent took the time (via a ghost writer) to get his story out there about his own bullying, why he did it, and how it affected him later. As an artist many kids look up to, it is great to put yourself out there and try to be a positive role model to them. I think it was important for him to stress that there was a reason behind Butterball's actions. While the reason doesn't condone the actions, it helps someone understand and address the situation properly.


I would probably keep this book around, even though there are better stories out there, because it would appeal to some kids where other books might not. They may pick it up and read it just because the author is someone they know and look up to. And to be honest, the moral of the story is pretty strong. Overall, not a bad book but definitely one that has a place on my shelves. But I'm not going to lie... still feel silly calling him 50 Cent (what a ridiculous name!).

Please Don't Ignore Vera Dietz

What happens when we put our heads down and ignore all the bad things around us? Do they just go away, or do they come back to haunt us? Please Ignore Vera Dietz by A.S. King is a phenomenal story that shows the life of an average girl who struggled to ignore what was happening around her and prayed everyone ignored her very existence. Fortunately and unfortunately, that was impossible.

Vera has been friends with Charlie since they were in elementary school. They have suffered through his abusive father, her mother leaving when she was 12, and deep dark secrets they only shared with one another. But when Charlie starts hanging out with a bad group of kids, drugs ad alcohol aren't the only changes to his life. The girl he starts dating, Jenny, is manipulative, a liar, and hates Vera's relationship with Charlie. When she tells Charlie things she swears Vera has been spreading around school about Charlie, he believes Jenny instead of Vera, who would never say such things. He finally joins the rank of the others and starts torturing Vera in every way possible, from throwing dog poo at her to telling the school how her mother was a stripper when Vera was a baby. Charlie's betrayal is more than even when her mother abandoned her.

Now, almost a year later, Charlie is dead and blamed of a heinous crime. Vera deals with her emotionally unavailable father and works a full time job in addition to going to school, just like he tells her to do. Of course, the vodka bottle beneath her car seat she uses just to get through the day and numb the pain is nothing her father would understand- especially since he has always warned her about their "alcoholic genes" they must be careful of. As Vera's destructive behavior continues, her father is desperate to save her, even if it means accepting the pain he still suffers and would prefer to ignore. What he doesn't expect to uncover is the truth behind Charlie's death.

Please Ignore Vera Dietz is a story you simply cannot ignore. Told in a series of flashbacks to the times when Vera and Charlie were young as well as snapshots of Vera's life now, it slowly gives you snapshots that add up together into a story you can't ignore. The story isn't revealed immediately, and you truly don't know everything until the very end, but you won't want to stop until you find out exactly what happened. It is one of those stories that pulls you into the whirlwind and won't let you go until it spits you out all disheveled and discombobulated.

The story has some mature content and language, but it is handled beautifully and in a way that opens up so many important discussions between you and the reader. Charlie starts selling his underwear to a perv he met on the street, but when things escalate, he doesn't know what to do. Vera knows her family's history, but can't break out of her inevitable future. Perhaps she feels she deserves to suffer like her whole family did because they had her so young. It also raises the question of when you should step in and do something when you know your neighbor is terrorizing and beating his wife and child. At what point do we need to become involved. Although this book has some mature language and content, it is just too important to censor from kids. I would suggest this story for mature middle school students through high school students, but be prepared to talk about it. Not only will your student want to talk about it, you will need to talk about it too.

Made My Heart Beat

Every now and then comes along a book that is so beautifully simplistic and complex at the same time. The story might seem simple at first, but the layers and layers of emotion and consequences make you feel as though you have been bulldozed. My Heartbeat by Garret Freyman-Weyr has a way of grabbing you by the heart and not letting you go.

Ellen loves her brother Link and his best friend James. She is only 14, but she knows she loves James. The three of them are always together, watching old movies, arguing, playing games, you name it. When she moves up to the high school, she gets to see how they are in the world outside their own little bubble. At first she sees them eating lunch on the fire escape and knows how special they are to each other and to her. Then, a classmate asks if they are a couple, and her entire perception of them changes. Are they a couple? What does it mean to her if they are?

After talking to her mother about James and Link's relationship (mom, by the way, was amazing), Ellen took her mother's advice and decided to ask Link and James herself. The answer she got was complicated, messy, and became the downfall of the life together the three of the shared. James answered that yes, they were in fact a couple, but Link immediately disagreed. He proclaimed he was not gay, like James, who had slept with men in the past. When Link left James' house, Ellen knew her question had opened a can of worms that would never be closed again.

Now Link refuses to see or even speak to James, and he starts acting very strange. He lies to his parents about going to Math camp, and instead takes up the piano (James' former piano instruction). He also gets a girlfriend named Polly. Ellen isn't sure what is happening to Link, but she knows she doesn't want to lose James because of it. Since Link starts avoiding her as well, she starts spending more and more time with James until they are finally dating. The relationship between Ellen and James is almost a way to compensate for the fact that they feel they have both lost Link and can fill the void with each other.

James is honest with Ellen about his mixed feelings toward men and women, and he explains he likes the person, not the gender. For Ellen, this time is confusing, and her way to compensate is to read everything she can find on what is confusing her- like what it means to be gay in today's society (all this mixed in with her reading classics her father keeps giving her). While she can't see it, her approach, the logical research, is very much like her father's approach to the possibility Link might be gay. Instead of understanding the emotions (although Ellen does experience those too), both choose to approach the topic with pragmatism. In the end, Ellen's life, as well as the lives of her parents, Link and James, have all been changed, for better or for worse.

This small novella (150 pages) was the most touching and heartbreaking story. Ellen loves her brother and James, and them being gay or not would never change that. Very often siblings are the ones people struggle to come out to (second only to parents) because they are afraid to lose their family, but very often siblings are the ones who would be most fine with the news. Being a sibling is all about unconditional love, and this story illustrates that beautifully. It also shows how two parents can struggle with differing philosophies. Ellen's mom would be fine with Link coming out, but she doesn't encourage it because she knows how her husband feels. Ellen's father is a stereotype-breaker. He is a well-educated and well-traveled man who may suspect his son is gay, but chooses to ignore it or influence him to be straight. He doesn't view "gay" as "normal" which is heartbreaking to bear witness to, especially when he essentially pays Link to date Polly (or at least encourages it monetarily). He loves his son, but if his son were to be gay, Link would somehow be "broken" to him.

The relationship between Ellen and James is the hardest to understand. Through her innocent questions and observation, she clearly knows James and Link love one another as more than friends. But somehow she is still able to have a romantic, and eventually intimate, relationship with James. She isn't even jealous of James' feelings for Link, just accepting. At times, especially in terms of intimacy, it seems as though James feels guilty about his relationship with Ellen, as though he knows he is almost using her as a substitute for Link. But it isn't even as simple as Ellen being a substitute for Link, because James truly seems to love her unconditionally.

This is a fast and short story, but it will leave a piece of itself in your heart by the time you reach the last page. It is written in language that makes it perfect for a low-skilled student. While the language is simple, the content is anything but. This story will give you hours of discussion time because it brings about so many questions with so many possible answers. I was blown away by this book and can't wait to share it with as many people as possible.

Will Haunt You Long After You Finish

Some books are haunting and others literally haunt you. This book, both physically (the cover and graphics are amazing) and as literature, will stay in the back of your head for long after you have finished it. I was surprised by the content of this story, as it turned out to be much different from what I expected, but I was absolutely not disappointed. Lauren Myracle really threw herself into Shine. You can tell there is a piece of her soul left on these pages, and you won't be the same once you have read it.

Cat and Peter grew up in Black Creek, NC, a small, rural community that keeps its skeletons in the closet and has no tolerance for anything that might come out of the closet. This is your typical southern community rife with poverty and homophobia. Everyone has "known" Peter was gay, but by not acknowledging it they don't have to confront the issue of their own homophobia.

Over the past few years, Cat and Peter have drifted apart due to her pulling away. She didn't sink into herself to get away from Peter, but rather to escape the shame of a sexual assault by one of her brother's and Peter's friends. When Peter is brutally attacked at the gas station where he works, left beaten almost to death with a gas novel taped to his mouth and a homophobic message left scrawled across him, Cat knows she must come out of her self-imposed exile in order to save her best friend. She knows she is the only one who can find the truth, because the rest of the community is content to assume the attack was made by strangers and move on with their lives. Cat has a feeling Peter was attacked by someone in their community and she will do anything to find out who hurt her friend.

As Cat digs deeper and deeper, she uncovers many nasty details about the lives of the people she grew up with, including her brother Christian. When she learns some of the boys have been dealing and using meth for the local drug dealer, she knows she is treading dangerous waters. As secrets are revealed that were never meant to see the light of day, Cat has to come to terms with her own demons as well as the ones who hurt Peter. Can she find out who hurt her friend without becoming the next victim?

This is a beautiful and ugly story all at once. The ugliness of the community's prejudices are blanketed by the beauty of how Myracle writes such a difficult story. Underneath the pain and shame of the surface story lies one of love, friendship, and loyalty. What happens to Peter is so hard to read about, but Cat's devotion to him and the truth is overwhelming. The beauty of this story is the lesson to the reader that anyone can overcome something ugly. Anyone can overcome hate and ignorance, they just have to believe in themselves. In a world that is still full of homophobia, racism, prejudice, and ugliness of other manners, it is important to realize that just one person can make a difference. One person can change things.

The language in this book can be mature at times, but so can the story itself. While this is a difficult and mature story full of attempted rape and hate crimes, the difficult nature is handled beautifully. This is a story you can share with your children and students and be sure you will both come out of the experience having grown and changed. In a world that can be really ugly at times, we need to have these kinds of conversations with our children. Sheltering children does not protect them from anything, it just leaves them unprepared when the inevitable ugliness of the world pokes its head out. A book like Myracle's Shine can prepare them for what is really out there.

Freaks will be your Next Revelation

Sometimes you stumble across a diamond in the rough and you just aren't sure what to do with it. With that in mind, I will pass on Freaks and Revelations by Davida Wills Hurwin to you and wish you the best of luck. It will leave you raw and with a knotted stomach, but it is certainly hard to forget.

Freaks and Revelations is based on a true story of two men on opposite sides of a hate crime. Jason is a 13 year old young man who comes from a family that is anything but desirable. His parents have separated, and he is forced to live with his mother who feels strict religion is the solution to every problem. Unfortunately for Jason, he feels the damage to his family is a direct result of their secrets that torment them all and decides to share his biggest secret. When he announces to the family, including his estranged father, that he is in fact gay, his father walks out and his mother tells him to find another place to live.

Doug comes from an equally horrible household, but handles the situation differently. His father is abusive and Doug finds himself escaping through hardcore punk music and culture. Soon he begins going to clubs and meets another group of people who share the same beliefs that minorities- all minorities- are beneath them. Eventually, they even begin "bashing" on a small scale- mostly scaring people and threatening anyone they deem unworthy.

Jason is living on the street, hustling money and turning tricks. Doug is sinking deeper and deeper into a life of intolerance and violence. A night of tension and uncontrollable rage lead Doug to attack Jason, who he thinks is just "gay trash"- not someone worth consideration, let alone human decency. Years later, however, a chance encounter will change both their lives.

This is an amazingly powerful book about how two boys can come from equally awful houses, turn out so very different, and still come colliding together more than once. With hate crimes like Matthew Shepard's murder still in our memories, this book based on the lives of Matthew Boger and Timothy Zaal is one that will stay with you forever- and not just because of the violence and hate behind it- but because of how intolerance and violence can change into tolerance and caring with the right circumstances.

My only complaint about this book is that 95% of the book is about the two boys and how they grow up and end up in this situation. I would have loved to read more about the aftermath of the bashing, how they got to where they are now, and what happened after their meeting later in life. I am sure their journey as adults was just as interesting as their journey as kids, and there is so much to be learned about their path to acceptance and forgiveness. Nonetheless, this is a powerful book about sentiments that are still so real and raw, even in 2010. Please give this book a chance!