Boy Meets Boy

Bibliographic Information: Levithan, D. (2003). Boy meets boy. New York: Knopf.

Plot Summary: Paul, an openly gay sophomore, leads a pretty good life.  He lives in a town where people accept his homosexuality.  One night when he and his friends, Joni and Tony, venture to a local bookstore, Paul meets Noah, and they instantly make a connection.  Luckily for Paul, Noah is new in town and attends the same school.  After enlisting his friends to help him track Noah down, he finally sees him again at the school pep assembly.  Noah and Paul begin to lay the foundation for a strong relationship, that is until Kyle, Paul’s ex-boyfriend, starts talking to him after spreading rumors that Paul had “tricked” Kyle into being gay.  This change in Kyle confuses Paul, and combined with his best friend Joni’s new relationship with Chuck and her slow disappearance from the group (and his life), he finds himself on the verge of losing his new-found love.  Before Paul can get his “happily ever after” he needs to reconcile his feelings for Kyle, and the odds are stacked against him.

Critical Evaluation:  The setting and characters in Boy Meets Boy provide a fresh perspective through the eyes of a gay character.  The story takes place in a community that is open and accepting to homosexuality, and transvestism.  In elementary school Paul ran a campaign for class president with the slogan “Vote for me, I’m gay,” and the high school quarterback, Daryl Heisenberg, is a cross-dresser who now goes by the name Infinite Darlene (she is also the homecoming queen).  The community also has a strong PFLAG (Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays) organization.  Pauls’ community is an ideal place for lesbians, gays, and transvestites to flourish, which provided him the environment needed to become the confident person he is.  Paul’s friend, Tony, juxtaposes his life entirely.  Tony lives in a neighboring town and goes to a different school.  Tony’s homosexuality isn’t embraced by his community, and it is abhorred by his severely religious parents.  As a result, Tony’s life isn’t as easy as Paul’s.  His parents openly pray for his soul and forbid him from friendship with Paul when they are caught hugging by one of his mother’s friends.  Boy Meets Boy is not only a story about love, but it shows how lesbians and gays are affected by the acceptance of their communities.  David Levithan broke the mold of novels about gay teens by not turning the main character into a victim of homophobic abuse.  Instead, the main character thrives as a homosexual teen, as do many of his peers in the book. 

Reader’s Annotation:  Boy meets boy.  Boy loses boy.  Can boy win boy back?

Information about the author: Boy Meets Boy was David Levithan's first book, and he wrote it as a gift to his friends for Valentine's Day.  He aimed to write a book about homosexuality that broke the reputation many homosexual-themed books had- that of a gay teen who suffered horrific prejudice and bullying from his peers. Levithan has published many other successful novels like Nick and Norah's Infinite Playlist (which was also made into a movie), and Will Grayson, Will Grayson, co-written with John Green (Levithan, n.d.). 
Earlier in his career, Levithan worked on The Babysitter's Club series while he was an intern at Scholastic Corporation.  He is the founding editor of PUSH.  Levithan received the Lambda Literary Award in 2003 for Boy Meets Boy, and in 2006 for The Full Spectrum (Wikipedia, n.d.). 

Genre: Realistic Fiction

Curriculum Ties: English (literature)

Booktalking ideas (one or two):

1.    Notes from Paul and Noah

Reading level/Interest age: 14+

Challenge Issues: This book includes homosexuality, but no references to sex.

To defend challenged material I would:

1.    Read/watch/listen to the material to become familiar with the content.

2.    Familiarize myself with the Arizona Common Core curriculum standards http://www.azed.gov/azcommoncore/teacher/ to defend how the material can support the learning of these standards.

3.    Refer to the Library Bill of Rights: http://www.ala.org/advocacy/intfreedom/librarybill

4.    Refer to the collection policy of my library.

5.    Collect reviews from staff/students/patrons who have used the material

Why I chose this book: This book is evidence of the evolution of gay literature.  No longer do gay characters have to be chained to the expectation of bullying and prejudices.  Boy Meets Boy tells the story of an accepting community, which is symbolic to the transformation society is undertaking with their acceptance of homosexuality.  

References:
Levithan, D. (n.d.). You probably think this page is about me. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/-pUhraVG7Ow

Wikipedia. (n.d.). David Levithan. Retrieved from http://youtu.be/-pUhraVG7Ow