Teen Tuesday: Henry Hamlet's Heart by Rhiannon Wilde

Image: Charlesbridge

Henry Hamlet's Heart by Rhiannon Wilde. 336 p. Charlesbridge, October 18, 2022. 9781623543693. (Review of arc courtesy of publisher.)

Teen Tuesday features Henry Hamlet's Heart by Rhiannon Wilde. This utterly beguiling debut comes to us via Australia and is publishing next Tuesday. I read it back in May and was dying to blog about it then, but the publisher asked me to wait until closer to the pub date. Today seems a good day to post my review, as it is National Coming Out Day.

Henry Hamlet is entering his final year at his boys high school in Brisbane and has no idea what he wants to do after graduating despite being class president and on the debate team. Not only is he not popular, he earned an unfortunate moniker after epically vomiting at a party. Luckily for him, his best friend, Lennon Cane, exudes effortless charm and Henry is content to ride his coat tails. 

When Henry reluctantly attends another party, he's knocked for a loop when Len takes a dare to make out with Henry and Henry...likes it? Wow, it never occurred to him that he might be gay, but he's unsure how Len feels and absolutely does not want to jeopardize their long friendship. It turns out Len feels the same about Henry and the two embark on a secret romance.

Henry's penchant for overthinking is at turns hilarious, heartbreaking and infuriating. His internal dialogue is instantly compelling. Henry and Len are so charming, authentic and vividly drawn, they feel real. I wish they were real. I loved that Henry's extended family were so supportive and involved. He loved them unabashedly and I loved that. The dialogue between all the characters crackled with humor and energy. Not one missed note or caricature. Ms. Wilde captures the poignancy of first love so beautifully that my cynical self felt no need for an eye-roll. It was a pleasure to reread in order to write this post and I'd even read it with my ears, if there's an audiobook just to hear it in an Aussie accent. 

Hand Henry Hamlet's Heart to teen fans of Simon v. the Homo Sapien Agenda or the Aristotle and Dante books. 

Middle Grade Monday: A High Five for Glenn Burke by Phil Bildner

Image: Macmillan Publishers

A High Five for Glenn Burke by Phil Bildner. 288 p. Farrar Straus Giroux (BYR)/ Macmillan Publishers, February, 2020. 9780374312732. (Review of finished copy borrowed from public library.)

Sixth grader Silas Wade lives for baseball. He's devoted to his Little League team and hustles in both practice and games. He loves to crack jokes and make his teammates laugh. He's also a devoted student of the sport-the psychology, the strategy and the history. When researching Glenn Burke for an oral report, Silas learns more than the fact that Burke was the inventor of the high five. He learns that Burke was gay. This is earth-moving for Silas, who is coming to realize his own identity. He's thrilled to be sharing his enthusiasm for Burke and his invention, but also terrified that his teammates and classmates will connect the dots. 

He comes out to his best friend, Zoey, and swears her to secrecy. This puts a bit of a strain on their friendship, but then he betrays her, rightfully earning her wrath. His lie explodes in his face and, as the pressure builds, his baseball suffers. 

Phil Bildner nailed it with this engaging novel. In High Five for Glenn Burke, we have a narrator who is endearing as well as irritating. His energy just crackles off the page and that can be a bit exhausting. We all know kids like this.

We also have superb baseball - history, as well as the mechanics of practice and games. We have a stressed out family that is doing their best. We have a best friendship that has hit the skids. Most of all, we have an author who skillfully combined these ingredients to realistically portray an adolescent's coming out in all its messy glory. Highly recommended!

Audiobook Review: Ask the Passengers by A. S. King

Image: Listening Library

Ask the Passengers by A. S. King. Unabridged downloadable e-audiobook, ~8 hours, 5 minutes. Read by Devon Sorvari. Listening Library, October, 2012. 9780449015124. (Review of e-audiobook borrowed from public library.)

Confession time: This is my first A. S. King book. Gasp! Tut-tut! I am a bad librarian.

Over the years, I have read reviews/ heard about her titles and thought I would eventually get to them. But I work in a middle school and they seemed to be solidly high school. Then, she wrote a middle grade novel, which I dutifully bought and never got around to reading. (cringes) I was scrolling through the new titles that were added to Libby (our e-library app) a week or so ago and found Ask the Passengers.

I fell in love with Astrid immediately. She lives with a dysfunctional family (Ugh! That mother!) in a tiny, intolerant Pennsylvania town. She's a whip-smart high school senior who's wrestling with the great philosophers in her humanities class and she thinks she might be gay. Oh. And she's also keeping a big secret for her two best friends who happen to be the school's "It Couple." When things get to be a bit much, she retreats to a picnic table that she and her dad built, lies down and searches the skies for passing aircraft that she can send her love to. Passenger narratives are interspersed throughout Astrid's first-person narration and add an interesting perspective. 

Astrid is a winning narrator. She's smart and dryly hilarious. She's truly questioning her sexuality. She doesn't deny her attraction to Dee, her cute co-worker, but she's also resistant to labels and, truthfully, terrified of the rumor mill and her family's reaction if she does. New-to-me narrator* Devon Sorvari strikes the right balance of snark and sincerity. (*Oops, turns out, she's not. She read Dorothy Must Die.) 

There's a lot to absorb and ponder here. It's mature stuff with some a lot of profanity. It's typical of high school students and not gratuitous. That said, issues of identity are rendered intelligently and respectfully. Thoughtful high school students should be able to relate to this outstanding novel regardless of where they identify. Ask the Passengers floored me. I'm sorry it took so long to get to. I can't wait to read more of King's work.

Teen Tuesday and Arc Review: Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera

Image: Penguin Young Readers

Juliet Takes a Breath by Gabby Rivera. 310 p. Dial Books/ Penguin, September 17, 2019. 9780593108178. (Review of arc courtesy of publisher, ALAAC19)

Juliet Milagros Palente took a women's studies class at college because she had a crush on a girl. She fell in love with the girl and the writings of Harlowe Brisbane, feminist author, as well. She wrote to Brisbane asking for a summer internship. When she got it, she packed her bags for Portland, Oregon and came out to her family just before leaving for the airport. Things did not go great. Additionally, Lainie, her first love, on an internship of her own in D.C. isn't returning her texts. As a self-proclaimed "Puerto Rican baby dyke from the Bronx," Juliet has a lot to learn, about Portland, feminism, and being a queer poc. And it isn't from Harlowe, who, though she considers herself an ally, often can't get past her white privilege and fragility. 

I fell in love with Juliet on page one and gobbled this story up in two sittings. Juliet is a joyous character, so open and honest and curious and enthusiastic. It hurt to watch her bump up against unkindness. I also loved that the many Spanish words and phrases were not translated for outsiders like me. It's up to me to look them up. I would love to reread this with my ears. 

There were one or two teeny-tiny things that niggled, tiny things like, "Can you hear a click when someone disconnects a cell phone call?" that were mostly lost under the rest of the awesomeness. 

This is the author's debut novel but it was published as a paperback a couple of years ago. It was an Amelia Bloomer finalist, but this got by me. Hopefully, Dial/ Penguin will bring readers to this not-to-be-missed story. It's a tad mature for my middle school crowd, having more to do with serious discussions of feminist theory and intersectionality than language, drug use or sex. Smart teen fans of edgy, hilarious, thought-provoking novels will love it.

Audiobook Review: Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Abertalli

Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda by Becky Abertalli. Unabridged audiobook on 6 compact discs, 6.75 hours. Read by Michael Crouch. Harperaudio, April, 2015. 9780062415097. (Review from audiobook borrowed from public library)

So this title has been languishing on my tbr list probably since it was announced as a Morris Award finalist. I am so-o behind in my YA reading! Anyway, I've grown to become quite the Michael Crouch fan and when I looked him up and saw that he had narrated this baby...click went the submit button on my ILL (Inter-Library Loan). I picked it up Monday, just before heading to the D.C. area for a Scholastic Reading Summit. I read (with my ears) most of a mg book on the way down; finished it whilst driving to the Manassas and Antietam Battlegrounds and read about 2/3s of Simon vs. ... on my drive from Gettysburg home. I was so wrapped up by this gem of a story that I popped it out of my car cd player and finished the last two discs in one sitting in my house because I did not want to wait for errands requiring use of my car. 

Chapters with Simon's first-person narration alternate with strings of email between Simon and Blue, the anonymous boy he "met" by commenting on his post on their high school's Tumblr. Neither one is out, but they have an instant online rapport and Simon begins to look forward to Blue's next email. And it's that that gets him in trouble. He couldn't wait to read Blue's email, so he logs onto a computer in the library to read it. He forgets to log out, leaving the email for the next user to read. Turns out, it's Martin Addison and Martin wants something from Simon.

There's something about Simon that makes him instantaneously likable. I believe that were I reading with my eyes, I would've swallowed this book whole. Michael Crouch's performance tripled Simon's likability. Simon is laid back, bright and funny. He asks interesting questions like why do heterosexuals not need to "come out." He finds his parents affectionately annoying, misses his older sister, Alice, who is away at college and worries a bit about his self-possessed younger sister, Nora. He's got two best friends in Lia and Nick and the three have enfolded new-girl, Abbey into their midst. It's Abbey that Martin has set his sights on and he blackmails Simon into helping him get close to her.

I've mentioned before that Crouch is my new favorite voice. When I looked up his work, I was so surprised to find that he is, in fact, not new to me! I thought that I first came to his work in Salt to the Sea, where he voiced the POV of the despicable German Navy Seaman, Alfred. Turns out, he also narrated Richard Peck's The Best Man and Loot by Jude Watson and Lily and Duncan by Donna Gephart. He also narrated The Haters by Jesse Andrews. I enjoyed each and every one of these and look forward to hearing more of his work. Crouch has great female voices as well. I find that female voices show weaknesses in most male narrators who tend to create either annoyingly breathy voices or caricatures.

There is so much to love in Simon vs. the Homo Sapiens Agenda in addition to Simon. The writing is fluid. The dialogue is smart. The characters are unique and memorable. While the title is a tad mature for middle school - there's some refreshingly frank talk about sex and sexuality - keep the title in mind for that savvy, mature eighth grader. I get one or two each year who would be able to handle it.