From: Karen Cruze <kcruze>
Date: Thu, 27 Mar 2003 13:57:15 -0600

Ingrid and Deann: Perhaps what all of us are running up against with Postcards is a certain amount of fear. The main character isn't sure about his sexuality, and that theme is powerful. As adults we probably see much less stigmatism about material featuring gays and bisexuals. But teens are horribly conscious of what others think of them. My daughter is quite open about being a "rainbow" supporter. But she tells me that at her school even cool kids raise their eyebrows a bit when they see her carrying books featuring gay characters. (Likewise, The Hours, despite being on the bestseller list and a popular movie, seems to be only attracting those teens who are the deep, arty, rainbow types.) Francesca Lia Block seems the exception to the rule as far as popularity goes, but maybe that's because her books have been around awhile and are fairly whimsically edgy. Perhaps once Postcards is put on various booklists (Historical, GLB lit, etc.), it will get more circs from specific groups of kids who are mature enough to deal with it. We can help by continuing to promote the book, by putting it on our lists, etc.

Karen Cruze Northbrook Public Library Northbrook IL
Received on Thu 27 Mar 2003 01:57:15 PM CST