From: Kathleen Horning <horning>
Date: Wed, 22 Jun 2005 13:57:46 -0500

I've just read a new book by David Larochelle called "Absolutely Positively Not... Gay" (Arthur Levine/Scholastic) in which the main character does just that. He goes to the public library to try to find info on sexuality, and is too embarrassed to check the book out so he stuffs it inside his pants. Of course, he sets the alarm off when he's leaving, and the wise librarian (who clearly knows what he's up to) tells him the alarm's been malfunctioning all day, so he should go ahead and leave.


On the subject of glbtq books, there are more than a dozen new novels this year -- a significant increase from previous years. None of the ones I've read so far has seemed particularly edgy to me, but I know that any librarian who buys one or more of them, or any teacher who uses one of them in a classroom, is still taking a risk in this day and age.

KTH

Kathleen T. Horning, Director Cooperative Children's Book Center University of Wisconsin-School of Education 4290 Helen C. White Hall 600 North Park St. Madison, WI 53706

horning at education.wisc.edu Voice: 608&3721 Fax: 608&2I33 www.education.wisc.edu/ccbc/

When I read the above line from a previous post I had to leave my usual lurking stance behind to say that maybe some of these materials are missing because GLBT/questioning teens themselves are too embarassed to check them out but desperately want to read
 books that reflect their realities.
Received on Wed 22 Jun 2005 01:57:46 PM CDT