SYNOPSIS: (From the back of the book): James loves Andy but Andy loves mark, a situation complicated further by the fact that this love triangle unfolds secretly in sixth-grade Catholic School.  No one at Saint Marks is aware that Andy, a budding comic book writer, is obsessed with Mark, the captain of the school's basketball team.  To Andy, falling in love with a straight boy seems as hopeless as his own unlikely quest to join the team and become a star basketball player alongside the object of his affections.  However, all is not lost.  Mark is on the outs with his girlfriend, whom all the boys are crazy about.  All except James, the "school fag" and Andy's childhood pal.  Only now Andy wants desperately to lose James, whose more obvious sexuality threatens to open the closet door on Andy.

EDITORIAL REVIEW: This wry account of adolescent same-sex stirrings avoids the flamboyant drag queens, messy crystal meth addiction and suicidal moments of its predecessor, The Tragedy of Miss Geneva Flowers (though it does share that story's optimistic ending), focusing instead on teen angst that's more hormonal than melodramatic. Eleven-year-old Andy, the novel's precocious narrator, enters sixth grade at his buttoned-down Catholic school in St. Paul, Minnesota., aching with bottled-up desire—specifically for star athlete Mark—even though the captain of the basketball team is apparently courting the prettiest girl in the school. At the same time, because he's still closeted, Andy is increasingly flustered by his friendship with school "faggot" James and tries to distance himself from his obvious but persistent best friend. Meanwhile, the sports stud whose handsome blondness Andy covets is struggling secretly with his own conflicted sexuality. Though this isn't being marketed as a YA title, Babcock's empathic rendering of his young characters' voices makes it more than suitable for readers the age of the three boys who form the novel's romantic tangle.  Editorial review Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

Joe Babcock is the author of this tale for boys who may be confused, or experimenting...or just like good reading!

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FORMAT: Paperback, 137 pages

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PUBLISHER: Caroll & Graf.
AVAILABILITY: In stock! Ships within one business day.
LANGUAGE: English.
VIEWER DISCRETION: Mature subject matter.
COUNTRY OF ORIGIN: USA (2005).
DATE ADDED TO OUR LIBRARY:  August 8, 2008.
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