13. Heart on My Sleeve

Heart on My Sleeve (Ellen Wittlinger, 2004)

Ellen Wittlinger wrote one of my favorite books of all time, Hard Love. She has a knack for writing really believable characters who aren't perfect kids but make you really root for them to figure things out and grow as people. Heart on My Sleeve is told all in emails, IMs, letters, and postcards, and it works nicely. When done well, I really enjoy the modern-day epistolary device because it's a slick way to do roving stream of consciousness without confusing the reader. This is especially important for younger audiences. Not everybody can create such organic character voices like Wittlinger, though.

This story centers around a boy and girl who meet at an college visit at the end of their senior years and strike up a correspondance over the summer. They each also talk to their friends, sisters, and parents. A lot happens during the summer that I won't spoil here. It's really interesting to see how the relationship affects their separate lives and the people around them, and what happens when they meet again face to face after months of writing and thinking they know each other so well. Read this.

4. Dramarama

Dramarama (E. Lockhart, coming May 2007)

Wow, this is a good book. Sadye and her best friend Demi go to theatre camp the summer before senior year and, as young adults in books always do, learn about themselves and grow from their experiences. Maybe it's because I went to a dance camp one summer--though nothing nearly as competative as Wildwood--but I really bought the story. The auditions, the classes, the end-of-summer performances were very well done and believable. I don't have a lot to say about this one except that I recommend Dramarama to adults as well as teens.

Reading all this teen lit is making me a tiny bit jealous of my YA librarian colleagues. Not that I'd trade my work. I think I'm made to be an academic librarian, but I sometimes wonder if I could have done youth instead.