Boy Meets Boy by David Levithan

Title: Boy Meets Boy
Author: David Levithan

Release Date: 9th September 2003

My Rating: 5/5

Blurb:
Love is never easy. Especially if you're Paul. He's a sophomore at a high school like no other - and these are his friends:

Infinite Darlene, the homecoming queen and star quarterback.
Joni, Paul's best friend who may not be his best friend any more.
Tony, his other best friend, who can't leave the house unless his parents think he's going on a date... with a girl.
Kyle, the ex-boyfriend who won't go away.
Rip, the school bookie, who sets the odd...
And Noah. The Boy. The one who changes everything.

In A Nutshell:
Boy Meets Boy is one of my favourite David Levithan novels. Realistic and funny, I constantly had a smile on my face.

My Review:
Boy Meets Boy is set in a town and high school that is completely comfortable and open about everything, especially the gay kids. While I have certainly never come across a place so overwhelmingly supportive, I hope one day a place a country could exist like this and not just in the pages of such a fabulous novel.

The story centres around Paul, a guy who, by all accounts, has grown up pretty self-assured. He’s known he is gay since he was five and is extremely open and comfortable with who he is (read chapter two; hilarious and probably one of my favourite parts of the story for the ‘messages’ shared.). He has an eclectic group of friends and they have all the same troubles as every other teenager.

Boy Meets Boy is one of my favourite David Levithan novels. Realistic and funny, I constantly had a smile on my face. I loved the characters with all their quirks and extravagance, their insecurities and disagreements, desires and persistence.

Tony, who lives in another town, just wants to be able to go on a date with a boy without lying to his religious parents. Noah, who has been hurt before, wants to give a relationship another chance. Paul, he just wants his feelings reciprocated while his friend Joni, who has dated Ted on and off for years, suddenly decides the ‘off’ should be permanent. She starts dating Chuck, completely throwing off the group dynamics, especially when she starts ditching her life-long friends in favour of Chuck (I’m sure everyone has experienced that!). And Kyle is confused but thinks he has figured out what he wants.

When Paul meets Noah, the world is all rainbows and sunshine, until Paul screws it up. What I like about this story is that it is so realistic (aside from the fact there is no homophobia in their world). Life is messy and complicated and people make mistakes. When Paul accidentally makes a mess of things, Noah doesn’t easily forgive him; Paul has to make an effort to rebuild a relationship and the trust that they once had.

A loveable high school story about love, life, acceptance and the bonds of friendship.

“Do you really exist?” I blurt out.

“Not at all,” he says with a smile. “I’ve known that since I was four.”

“What happened when you were four?”

“Well I had this theory. Although I guess I was too young to know it was a theory. You see, I had this imaginary friend. She followed me everywhere – we had to set a place for her at the dinner table, she and I talked all the time – the whole deal. Then it occurred to me that she wasn’t the imaginary friend at all. I figured that I was the imaginary friend, and she was the one who was real. It made perfect sense to me. My parents disagreed, but I still secretly feel that I’m right.”

The Day I Met David Levithan

Last weekend I attended the Perth Writers Festival. This is a yearly event here in Perth and part of the Perth International Arts Festival. This was the first year I was able to attend since my previous job was at the bookshop that runs the festival bookshop every year (and I always had to work over the weekend). So I was ecstatic to be able to attend (big shout out to Cass for covering my shift at my current job!).

My excitement was for one reason only. David Levithan. I've read eight of his books, four of them being part of my All-Time Favourites list. I actually had the chance in 2010 to meet him when I was in New York and he was launching Dash and Lily's Book of Dares, but I wasn't able to attend. So I was super excited when it was announced he would be coming to lil'-old Perth.

He took part in two panels while here, Tapping into the Zeitgeist and Hard to Love. While I really liked what he had to say in Hard to Love, the other authors participating in the panel were of no interest to me. The stand-out was definitely Tapping into the Zeitgeist.

Along with fellow YA authors James Roy and Chetan Bhagat, David chatted to the audience and chairperson Julia Lawrinson about the changing nature of YA fiction and about creating your own work, rather than trying to follow in the 'it' theme. All three were very funny, something that took me by surprise, and it was a thoroughly enjoyable talk to listen to. The session was being filmed but I am yet to find out by who and how I can get hold of the footage (several emails have gone unanswered to the Festival team) which is unfortunate because it really was a delight to listen to and I would have loved to have shared it with you.

(L-R) Julia Lawrinson, James Roy, David Levithan, Chetan Bhagat

After the talk, all three authors were available to sign books. I was so nervous. I didn't even have a fan-girl moment and go all gushy. I just stood there smiling like an idiot while he signed seven books for me (three of my own, three as give-aways and one for a friend). I also got a photo with him and then later went back and managed to form a couple of coherent questions (yes the lime-green couch did exist in real life, although sadly no longer does. Also, Nick & Norah and Boy Meets Boy are 'probably' his favourites since they came first).

It was a great day for me. I did attend another talk with some Aussie adult authors but this eclipsed everything for me. It was also great to catch up with fellow Perth blogger Arielle from *Chimneys and Magic*. You should check out her post from the festival, she made much more of an effort than I did!

Keep an eye out for a give-away in the coming weeks featuring some signed copies of David's books!

How They Met and Other Stories by David Levithan

Title: How They Met, and Other Stories
Author: David Levithan

Release Date: 8th January 2008 (first published), Republished 29th January 2014 in Australia by Text

My Rating: 3/5

Blurb:
Here are 18 stories, all about love, all kinds of love. From the aching for the one you pine for, to standing up and speaking up for the one you love, to pure joy and happiness, these love stories run the gamut of that emotion that at some point has turned every one of us inside out and upside down.

What is love? With this original story collection, David Levithan proves that love is a many splendored thing, a varied, complicated, addictive, wonderful thing.

In A Nutshell:
This collection won't be for everyone. I admit I didn't like some of the stories at all, but there were others that I found I was able to relate to, go 'awww' at, or see the power and beauty of love at its best.

My Review:
How They Met and Other Stories is a collection of short stories by one of my favourite writers David Levithan. The stories are about just what the title suggests. They cover the joy, heartache, excitement, pain, butterflies, surprise, emptiness and thrills of loving and losing, first love, coming out, secret liaisons, hope and turmoil of unrequited feelings.

Featuring stories mostly set during the teenage years, they look at relationships between the gay and the straight that have begun through fate, coincidence, convenience, setups, trickery, common ground and/or instant attraction.

My favourites stories would be Starbucks Boy, The Number of People Who Meet on Airplanes (Levithan fans, this is where the infamous lime-green couch makes an appearance), Princes and What a Song Can Do.

This collection won't be for everyone. I admit I didn't like some of the stories at all, but there were others that I found I was able to relate to, go 'awww' at or see the power and beauty of love at its best.

Every You, Every Me by David Levithan

Title: Every You, Every Me
Author: David Levithan
Photographer: Jonathan Farmer

Release Date: 13th September 2011

My Rating: 4/5

Blurb:

In this high school-set psychological tale, a tormented teen named Evan starts to discover a series of unnerving photographs—some of which feature him. Someone is stalking him . . . messing with him . . . threatening him. Worse, ever since his best friend Ariel has been gone, he's been unable to sleep, spending night after night torturing himself for his role in her absence.

And as crazy as it sounds, Evan's starting to believe it's Ariel that's behind all of this, punishing him. But the more Evan starts to unravel the mystery, the more his paranoia and insomnia amplify, and the more he starts to unravel himself.

Creatively told with black-and-white photos interspersed between the text so the reader can see the photos that are so unnerving to Evan, Every You, Every Me is a one-of-a-kind departure from a one-of-a-kind author.

In A Nutshell:
This is the kind of book you will want to read in one sitting.

My Review:
Every You, Every Me is a psychological thriller for the young adult market. It is a relatively quick read that keeps you turning the pages until you reach the end; the kind of book you will want to read in one sitting until the mystery is solved.

You know one me.
Just like I know one you.
But you can’t know every me.
And I can’t know every you.

Poor Evan. He is drowning in misery, mentally torturing himself for the guilt he feels for his part in the reason Ariel is no longer with him. This reason, and what has happened to Ariel, is not revealed until the end of the story.

My voice is blind, my hearing is mute, my sight is deaf. Art is science, mathematics is conversation, and music is something that bleeds.

Just like Evan, we too are kept on edge as a mysterious person psychologically torments Evan with photographs of himself, where he has been, and of Ariel. Who is this cruel person? How could Evan and Ariel’s ex-boyfriend Jack not know about someone else in her life? As Evan discovers these photographs, he begins to unravel and is forced to participate in this macabre ‘treasure hunt’ in order to find out who this callous person trying to make him suffer is.

This is the thing they don’t tell you about being a third wheel – it’s not like you’re the wheel that is added on. You were one of the original two wheels, but suddenly you’re not so important anymore. The relationship drives fine without you.

Every You, Every Me is written from Evan’s perspective, as if he is talking or writing to Ariel. Ariel is always his audience and he is constantly editing himself, his thoughts, something the reader witnesses the entire way through the book. This was only sometimes annoying. For example:

It was your birthday. The first one after you left vanished were gone.
When I woke up, I dreamed thought about other birthdays. Ones where we’d been together.
Like two years ago. Freshman year. When I’d had you all to myself.

This is the 6th book I have read by David Levithan. Obviously, as a thriller, it’s very different to the other stories he has written, but I still enjoyed it and would recommend it to those who like this genre (as I do).

Little Well-known Facts

The title comes from the Placebo song, Every You Every Me.

This novel was a joint project between David Levithan and Jonathan Farmer. Farmer would give Levithan a photograph who would then write part of the novel incorporating the photo. When Levithan needed the next photo, Farmer would give him one. This is how the whole book was written. Levithan never knew what image he would be given next, and Farmer didn’t read anything until the first draft was complete.

Perth Writers Festival Program 2012

It's that time of year again, the Perth Writers Festival, part of the Perth International Arts Festival, is back in town. This year, there are a couple of YA authors, among many others, descending on The University of Western Australia.

The Writers Festival takes place across the last weekend of February, Thursday 23rd to Sunday 26th.

Some of the events you may be interested in are:

Publishing Seminar: The Whole Shebang
Guest speakers include industry professionals; editors, publishers, publicists and legal representatives
Thursday 23rd Feb 2012
9am-4:15pm
$75

It's All Speculation
Guest speakers Carole Wilkinson, Lara Morgan and Lauren Beukes
Friday 24th Feb 2012
5-6pm
Free

Blogging the Revolution
Guest speakers Marieke Hardy, John Birmingham and Paul French
Friday 24th Feb 2012
7-8pm
Tickets $22

Writing For Young People
Speaker AJ Betts
Saturday 25th Feb 2012
10am-1pm
$65

Tapping Into The Zeitgeist

Guest speakers Chetan Bhagat, David Levithan, James Roy and AJ Betts
Saturday 25th Feb 2012
11am-12pm
$13

Creating the Extraordinary from the Ordinary
Speaker Lara Morgan
Sunday 26th Feb 2012
2-5pm
$65

Want to Write Like A Pro?
Guest Speaker James Roy
Sunday 26th Feb 2012
2:30-3:15pm
$12

David Levithan, AJ Betts, Lara Morgan

There are many more events for all ages over the weekend. Follow this link to the Writers Festival webpage where you can browse the online program, download a PDF or request a hard-copy.

Tickets can be bought from the PWF website now or from the Octagon Theatre at UWA (24th/25th/26th Feb only). Slightly cheaper prices are available for students.

I've got my tickets, go get yours!

**I will also take this moment to voice my sheer frustration/annoyance that David Levithan is only scheduled to do one talk (a combined talk might I add) the whole time he is in Perth! A writer this awesome should be the highlight of festival! If anyone hears of any other events while he is in Perth, please let me know!

CAN NOT CONTAIN EXCITEMENT!!!!!!

David Levithan is coming to Perth.
Yes, you read that right!

Some of the guest authors for the 2012 Perth Writers Festival have been announced and, gulp yes, he is coming!!!!


Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!

Session times won't be announced until January but who cares!
*happy dance*

Oh, P.S. Adelaide, he's coming to see you too :)

Perth International Arts Festival

Love is the Higher Law by David Levithan

Title: Love is the Higher Law
Author: David Levithan

Release Date: 1st November 2010 (Australia)

My Rating: 3/5

Blurb:
First there is a Before, and then there is an After. . . .

The lives of three teens—Claire, Jasper, and Peter—are altered forever on September 11, 2001. Claire, a high school junior, has to get to her younger brother in his classroom. Jasper, a college sophomore from Brooklyn, wakes to his parents’ frantic calls from Korea, wondering if he’s okay. Peter, a classmate of Claire’s, has to make his way back to school as everything happens around him.

Here are three teens whose intertwining lives are reshaped by this catastrophic event. As each gets to know the other, their moments become wound around each other’s in a way that leads to new understandings, new friendships, and new levels of awareness for the world around them and the people close by.

My Review:
Love is the Higher Law is a story about three teenager from New York City who were not directly affected by September 11th but whose lives were forever changed.

As many of you know, I have recently returned from visiting New York. While I was there, I visited the 9/11 Tribute Centre which was extremely moving and I was affected way more than I thought I would be. Reading the beginning of the book, which describes the morning of 9/11 from the perspective of our three teenagers, I actually had some trouble getting through the pages, due to the emotional content, and wasn't sure if I would be able to finish reading. Luckily for me, the actual event and description of 9/11 is only at the very beginning of the book. The rest of the story follows Claire, Jasper and Peter and how they react in the months following the aftermath of the attacks.

Claire, Jasper and Peter become stuck in their post 9/11 world, trying to find their place and find meaning in their now changed lives; Jasper trying to feel something and his frustration and anger over not being allowed to help by donating blood, Claire rallying to help, not just 9/11 charities, but all groups, wanting to do something, anything. Claire is a very interesting character, very deep and thoughtful. While feeling completely lost, she marvels at how everyone has come together to help each other (she makes a profound 'speech' on pages 105-106 that I really like). I identified most with her character and found her actions touching, especially the time she spends at Union Square.

In the week after 9/11, New York City becomes something it hasn't been since the days before the steamship: isolated. Even after the bridges and tunnels and airports open again, most of the people who are using them are making a return voyage. The tourists disappear. Bands do not show up. Concerts are cancelled left and right. Museums are empty. New York is filled with... New Yorkers.

(Peter, page 81)

Towards the end of the book it became alot more philosophical, each of the characters talking about how they feel and their new views on the world. While I like this aspect, I would have enjoyed a bit more character interaction between our three protagonists, rather than mostly hearing their thoughts. By the end, we are at a point where it is a year and a half after the attacks. We see how Claire, Jasper and Peter have changed as people. We've watched as they struggled to comprehend what has happened, and the conflicting emotions related to moving on. When is it ok to laugh? To carry on with life?

You may be wondering why I picked a book to read about 9/11 when the sadness was once again quite raw to me (having visited the tribute centre). I actually wasn't so much thinking about what I was about to read, but more whose writing I was about to read. My current quest is to read everything David Levithan has written. He is awesome.

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares by David Levithan and Rachel Cohn

Title: Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
Authors: David Levithan and Rachel Cohn

Release Dates: 26th October (US), 1st December (Australia) 2010

My Rating: 5/5

Blurb:

I've left some clues for you. If you want them, turn the page. If you don't, put the book back on the shelf, please.

Lily has left a red notebook full of challenges on a favourite bookstore shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept its dares. But is Dash the right guy? Or are Dash and Lily only destined to trade dares, dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth at locations across New York? Could their in-person selves possibly connect as well as their notebook versions? Or will they be a comic mismatch of disastrous proportions?
My Review:
Words can not express how much I love this book. But I will try.

Having previously read and loved Levithan and Cohn's other collaborative works, I was highly excited for the release of Dash & Lily, so much so that if you have been following this blog, you will have read about my anticipation.

Dash & Lily was everything I hoped it would be, right from the first page. I couldn't help smiling as I read each page and I grew more and more excited about how much I was loving the book as I progressed. It's always a worry that a book won't live up to my expectations, especially for this book considering how much I loved Nick & Norah's Infinite Playlist.

Dash and Lily are two teenagers who have been left alone in Manhattan for the Christmas holidays. While Dash is ecstatic about this, Lily can't think of anything worse. Both are regular visitors of The Strand Bookshop (one of the coolest places for book-lovers I might add and I can vouch for it as I have been there), although they have never met, and this is where this magical holiday adventure begins. What follows are a bunch of random dares spread through some of the best known places in Manhattan (and some of the craziest at that time of year, much to Dash's annoyance!). These dares are passed back and forth to each other via a red moleskin notebook with the help of their friends and family. Anyone who has a love for New York, Christmas, quirky characters, literature, or if you simply love to watch two people who are perfect for each other find each other, then this book is definitely for you!

Levithan and Cohn collaborate so well together, in this case, Levithan writing the character of Dash and Cohn writing Lily's part, with each chapter alternating between the two. They write so well about the awkwardness of being a teenager and being just that little bit different to everyone else. You will immediately fall in love with Dash and Lily. From the very first page I was laughing. Both characters have personality's that have been so well thought out and brought to life that you know you would want to be friends with them if they existed.

This is a book of pure awesomeness with witty banter, teenage insecurities and a potential relationship that is just too cute for words. I have so much love for this book right now. Please go and buy it right now.

A Major Case of Bad Luck

I would like to share with you what I see as complete and utter bad luck that I have stumbled over. As most of you know, I am currently traveling around the US and at the moment I am in New York. One of the things I wanted to do while here was go to a book signing of an author I like. There was no one in particular but I knew there would have to be at least one that I would want to attend, especially since it is extremely rare for me to find one in Perth (where I live).

As it happens I was looking through this weeks Time Out magazine and came across the launch of David Levithan and Rachel Cohn's new book next Thursday. Dash and Lily's Book of Dares is one of my most anticipated releases of the year. I started hyper-ventilating until I discovered that it is on the same day that I have booked to go to Niagara Falls (and i had only just booked the flights the previous night!). Desperately I tried to find out how much it would cost me to change my return flight to an earlier time. This proved too expensive, especially since I would have to change my friends flight also. If it was just me I would have said, "screw the money" and booked another flight, but I can't expect her to throw her money away as I would.

My next step was to find out if there were going to be any other signings in Manhattan or Brooklyn before I leave. Unfortunately, there are quite a few, but none that I can make it to due to other events that I can't cancel. I am so so so so so gutted. Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist, one of Levithan and Cohn's collaborations, is one of my all time favourite books and I have recently read Levithan's collaboration with John Green, Will Grayson Will Grayson, and it was so brilliant. My next step is to find out if the book shop will get a copy signed for me as we do that in Australia, but I'm not holding my breath.

For those of you who are interested in attending, you can find their tour schedule on Rachel Cohn's website.

Dash & Lily's Book of Dares
by Rachel Cohn and David Levithan

Release Date: 26th October 2010

“I’ve left some clues for you. If you want them, turn the page. If you don’t, put the book back on the shelf, please.”

So begins the latest whirlwind romance from the New York Times bestselling authors of Nick & Norah’s Infinite Playlist. Lily has left a red notebook full of challenges on a favorite bookstore shelf, waiting for just the right guy to come along and accept its dares. But is Dash that right guy? Or are Dash and Lily only destined to trade dares, dreams, and desires in the notebook they pass back and forth at locations across New York? Could their in-person selves possibly connect as well as their notebook versions? Or will they be a comic mismatch of disastrous proportions?

Will Grayson, Will Grayson by David Levithan and John Green

Title: Will Grayson, Will Grayson
Authors: David Levithan and John Green

Release Date: 3rd May 2010 (Australia)

My Rating: 5/5

Will Grayson: What is your oldest, wildest, only best friend started writing a musical about your life...and it made you look like a joke? What if the girl you didn't think you were interested in started being interested in you? And who is this other guy called Will Grayson?

The other Will Grayson: What if you are technically depressed? What if you're in love with someone you've never met? And what's the story with the guy walking around with your name?

One cold night, in a most unlikely corner of Chicago, two teens - both named Will Grayson - are about to cross paths. As their worlds collide and intertwine, the Will Graysons find their lives going in new and unexpected directions, building toward romantic turns-of-heart and the epic production of history’s most fabulous high school musical.

I really can't put my finger on what it is that makes me love this book so much. I am a major fan of both David Levithan and John Green and was so excited when I heard they had done a book together. Will Grayson, Will Grayson is laugh-out-loud hilarious, heart-warming and at times heart-breaking, but also absolutely fabulous! I felt like I could really relate to Will Grayson, the first one, and I'm sure everyone will be able to relate to one of the amazing characters in this book in someway.

I have two favourite sentences, the first being in the very first paragraph of the book which I think sets the tone and the hilarity of the rest of the chapter and the book:

When I was little, my dad used to tell me. 'Will, you can pick your friends and you can pick your nose, but you can't pick your friend's nose.'

My other favourite sentence, because I can relate to it all too much, is:

You like someone who can't like you back because unrequited love can be survived in a way that once requited love cannot.

Do yourself a favour and read this book. It's fantastic.