Friday, January 28, 2011

Almost Perfect by Brian Katcher

The new Stonewall Book Award is sponsored by ALA's GLBT Round Table and they picked a whopper of a book to win this year's YA award. I love when YA books take a serious topic and make it seem so real, that you don't realize how "different" love can be. I remember reading Luna, and being so impressed with Julie Anne Peters' handling of a trans-gendered teen. Now you can add Almost Perfect to the list.

Logan is a depressed teen because his girlfriend of three years has cheated on him. Quite the big deal when you never had sex to begin with since she "wasn't ready." But everything changes when a new girl moves into Logan's small town. Sage is tall, brash, and different, which is always nice in a small town. Logan falls for her, but things are difficult when he finds out that Sage is a boy who hopes to be surgically changed in a few years. Whoa. Logan isn't gay. Is he? And what's going to happen when anyone finds out the truth about Sage?

This book handles different questions easily. I loved Sage and Logan and appreciated the author's note at the end for teens who have questions about their (or someone else's) sexuality. Brian Katcher is a school librarian and knows how teens work--can't wait to see what he writes next!

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