Awake - A GLBTQ Teen Anthology

Edited by Tracey Pennington, with a forward by Kathe Koja

Awake features four novellas by some wonderful authors...

Worth Waiting For, by Nancy Garden
When a young lesbian, Marina, falls in love and joins a gay-straight alliance, she learns just how her beloved, very religious mom feels about gay people, and is faced with an agonizing decision.

A Line in the Sand, by Robin Reardon
What could have been just another summer vacation on Hilton Head Island for 15-year-old, out-and-proud Dustin Hamilton takes turn after turn as his infatuation for the exotic Randy Aziz spins him in different directions. Dustin's clear but unspoken challenge to Randy, “Come out of the closet for me, just for a week,” receives first a tentative and then a joyful “Yes!” from Randy. The boys spend days, and a very special evening, on the beach together, learning that their lives are similar in some surprising ways. But coming out takes Randy in a direction neither boy predicted. It's a summer the boys—and their families—will never forget.

Shattered Diamonds, by Jordan Taylor
Told from the point of view of the bully who has made the effort to view the video journal entries of the boy he and his friends have unmercifully harassed. The story painfully inches toward the bully’s epiphany: “The truth—that tiny, precise spark which occasionally crosses my path—is that I do not know how to face his mother and say, ‘I killed your son.’”

Pervert, by Brian Katcher
The unnamed protagonist secretly dresses in his mother’s and his sister’s clothes and suffers the shame that attends any realization that one’s physical gender is just simply “wrong.” But the boy’s sister comes to the rescue and actually accepts him to the point of dressing him up herself. His sister concludes: “Sometimes holding something inside can just eat you up. Sometimes a secret isn’t so hard to deal with if you share it with someone.”


And here's something else really great about this anthology:  all net proceeds will benefit The Trevor Project, the 24 hour lifeline for GLBTQ & Allied youth in crisis at 1-866-4-U-TREVOR (1-866-488-7386.)

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A Love Letter To A Banned Book: "Annie On My Mind," by Nancy Garden

Dear Liza,

I just finished listening to the audio book of your story.

And I fell in love with you falling in love.

With your meeting Annie at the Met. With your play-acting sword-fights. With your blossoming from friendship to infatuation to love to passion.

With your fighting so hard to keep that love, when everything seemed to turn against the two of you.

With your struggle to figure things out. Write it all down. Make sense of the past... And your heart. And your future.

And then, oh, Liza, your happy ending!

Your story gave me chills. It made me teary-eyed. I was you, Liza. And Annie. And Ms. Stevenson, and Ms. Widmer. I was all of you, and somehow, through the magic of your author's art, you were all me. ...And I'm not even a girl!

I know they tried to ban your story. They burned copies. But your story lives on. (I listened to the audio of the 25th anniversary edition, and loved the interview with your author, Nancy Garden, and K.T. Horning at the end!)

Liza, reading your story made me so, so happy. I know that despite the book banners, "Annie On My Mind" will be read, and loved, and continue to change lives for generations to come.

Please say thank you to your author Nancy, for giving us you, and Annie, and a love story that gave me (and so many others) hope.

You were the very first teen novel with a main GLBTQ character with an absolute happy ending.

And you changed the world.

Love,

Lee

ps- Annie on my Mind is beautifully reviewed by Roger Sutton at The Horn Book, and also by readers here at the I'm Here. I'm Queer. What the Hell do I Read? listing. You can find out more about the efforts to ban this book - and how the book and author triumphed at Nancy Garden's website.

Hear Us Out! Lesbian and Gay Stories of Struggle, Progress, and Hope, 1950 to the Present - An LGBTQ Short Story Collection

By Nancy Garden

Published by Farrar Straus Giroux in 2007.

At first I was unsure about this book and whether it could be considered fiction, but as soon as I opened it I knew I was wrong. It is divided into six different decades with a introductory non-fiction section explaining each one. From two girls having to hide their relationship to their families to someone going to a gay pride parade, this book shows the progression of the perception of homosexuality.


1950s

Dear Angie, Sweet Elizabeth
Angie and Elizabeth have an amazing night together before Angie leaves for her theater apprenticeship. They correspond through letters until Elizabeth’s close-minded mother finds the letters and discovers that the girls share more than a friendship. In a time where homosexuality has a negative connotation, even in the encyclopedia, these girls discover who they really are.


Silent Song
When Kathy’s parents walk in on her and Jinx holding each other, they call Jinx’s parents who immediately take her on their vacation to Miami Beach. Jinx, hopeless without Kathy, decides that she wants to walk into the ocean and never return. However on her journey down to the sea she encounters a girl playing the harp that makes staying worthwhile.


1960s

Cold Comfort
Charity is the Reverend’s daughter in a small fishing town. She has never lusted after anyone, until she meets the new girl in town, Andrea. But will her father accept her feelings?


Stonewall
Waverly meets Larry during a summer job at an Inn on the Cape and immediately there is a connection. Larry invites Waverly down to Greenwich village one night in the summer of ’69 and there they witness the famous Stonewall riots.


1970s

Maybe Someday?
Teresa has always struggled with her father’s strong faith in the Catholic church because Teresa knows that she is a lesbian. She tries to separate herself from the church as much as possible by not going to confession and attending a public school, until one day an historic moment happens for homosexuality and Teresa is given hope.


Dear Cuz
Cousins Mickey and Jennifer hadn’t seen each other for ten years, but when they finally do a tremendous bond forms. They become pen pals and discover that they are both homosexual and not alone. But Mickey who lives in a small mid-western town, soon believes that the world will never accept him and his boyfriend Sam as they are.


1980s

My Father’s Buddha
Two teenage boys befriend Bruce and Calvin, who has AIDS. Bruce and Calvin become the boys’ close confidants and mentors, but when Calvin’s condition starts to worsen, the boys decide to give back.


“I’m Nobody!...”
Lily and her friend Michael, two friends who bonded over the fact that they were different and homosexual, are confronted by a gang one day who beat Michael and rape Lily. For weeks, Lily is too petrified to tell the story as Michael’s condition worsens. Eventually she learns that the only way she can progress is to speak.


1990s

Parents Night
Having a booth at Parents Night should be an easy experience right? Well not for the Gay- Straight- Bisexual club at one high school. They are faced with insults and stereotypes of homosexuality and must overcome these obstacles to participate in what should be a typical school event. This story was also featured in the anthology Am I Blue?


The Tux
Laine and her girlfriend Sarah, accompanied by their friend Rachel, go to rent a tux for Sarah for their prom. Much to their chagrin, the entire football team is there. Sarah looks so good in her tux that the self-conscious Laine decides to get one too and is applauded and supported by the jocks she once feared. I loved how every character in this story showed acceptance and support, which is a refreshing change from the darker times portrayed in the previous stories.


2000s

Loving Megan
Penny, a freshman, is obsessed with Megan, her beautiful blonde track captain. Her best friend Kat always has to listen to Penny lust after and write poems for Megan, who doesn’t even know Penny’s name. However, when tragedy strikes, Penny realizes who is actually there for her.


Pride
Lisanne attends her first Gay Pride March and is astounded at the immensity and support of the crowd.


--Posted by Hannah

Good Moon Rising

By Nancy Garden

Jan loves the "Theater." After spending the summer before her senior year in High School ACTING in a professional stock company, she's crushed when she loses the lead in her school's play to some new girl, Kerry.

Even worse, Jan is forced to coach Kerry in the part.

But, instead of hating Kerry, Jan realizes she's falling in love with her. Kerry is falling for Jan, too.

But what are they going to do about the hate and prejudice of others?

"Good Moon Rising" won The 1996 Lambda Literary Award for best YA book with GLBTQ content!


While the original Farrar, Straus edition of this book is out of print, so many fans asked for it that Nancy took advantage of the Authors Guild "backinprint program" and copies are once again available.

Here's what the old cover looked like:




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The Year They Burned The Books

By Nancy Garden

Jaime's high school starts distributing condoms. She's the editor of the school newspaper, and when she writes an editorial in favor of the new policy, it's incendiary!

A growing free-speech battle takes over the town.

School library books are burned.

That and her own confusion over her attraction to Tessa make Jamie's Year They Burned the Books violent, controversial, and life-changing.

"The Year They Burned the Books" was a 1999 Lambda Literary Award Finalist, and is particularly fascinating because the author, Nancy Garden, has actually had HER books burned - in real life! (That book was "Annie On My Mind.")

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Holly's Secret

By Nancy Garden

Holly has Two Moms. When she moves to a new town and school, it's her chance to take on a new name and pretend to have a "normal" family...
But it doesn't work out the way she planned.

Like many of the books that focus on kids whose Parents or Caretakers are GLBTQ, this is a middle-grade novel, targeted for ages 8-12. As there's not much out there (pun intended) that deals with this issue for kids at ANY age, I feel it's important to include these titles on this blogsite. Just as I, an adult, can get a lot out of reading a picture book, Teens who have GLBTQ Parents or Caretakers might get a lot out of reading these titles, even if the heroes and heroines are younger.

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Annie On My Mind

By Nancy Garden

Liza's a High School senior who falls in love with Annie. Now Liza's coming out, dealing with parents and school.

Okay, this seemed a perfect book to feature for Banned Book Week. (Check back Tomorrow for more on Banned book week and GLBTQ YA novels...)

"Annie On My Mind" was not only banned - it was burned. Seriously. In 1993 (yeah, only 14 years ago!) Here in the United States of America. In Kansas City. (The Olathe School District, to be specific.) What happened then? As Nancy puts it:

Finally, it was the subject of a First Amendment lawsuit when a group of courageous teens sued to have it returned to school library shelves. After a trial in 1995, a federal district court judge ruled in the book's favor.

It's amazing to think that people had to fight to have the right to read this book! And also amazing that it was teens that carried the torch of our rights!

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