Wow! Today, just as I was getting ready to blog about Cyber Girlfriend Tanya Lee Stone, I saw a giant spread in Newsday on how racy YA books are becoming. The article was called "Page Burners: Sex and the teenage girl."
I guess this isn't news to Tanya, who wrote a book called A BAD BOY CAN BE GOOD FOR A GIRL. According to this starred review from the School Library Journal, she's right there at the head of the pack with this smart, literate, and racy novel:
"Three girls succumb to the charms of one sexy high school senior and emerge wiser for the experience in this energetic novel in verse....The free verse gives the stories a breathless, natural flow and changes tone with each narrator. The language is realistic and frank, and, while not graphic, it is filled with descriptions of the teens and their sexuality. This is not a book that will sit quietly on any shelf; it will be passed from girl to girl to girl."- School Library Journal, Starred Review
But that's not all the buzz this hot book is getting. Check this out:
"It's fantastic--hip, edgy, and addicting. Sometimes funny, sometimes heartbreaking, always real. Sure to be the new Forever."- Award-Winning Author Cynthia Leitich Smith
"Stone's novel in verse, more poetic prose than poetry, packs a steamy, emotional wallop...suggest(s) a mature audience, even though the sex isn't graphic. The lessons learned here, however, are important: the girls realize they'll be hurt again, but they are now "Forewarned / Forearmed / Forever." - Booklist
"The three (very different) teen girl narrators in this candid free-verse novel form a chorus of varied perspectives on how a 'bad boy'-the same boy for all three-causes them to lose control before they even realize what's happening. Stone's portrayal of the object of their (dis)affection is stereotyped, but the three girls are distinct characters, and she conveys the way the girls' bodies and brains respond to the unnamed everyjerk in electrically charged (and sexually explicit) detail. Finally returning to her senses, Josie decides to post warnings about her ex in the back of the school library's copy of Judy Blume's Forever... because 'every girl reads it eventually.' Others add their own caveats in a reassuring show of sisterhood. As this scribbled 'support group' illustrates, even the most careful and self-aware among us sometimes gets bitten by the snake in the grass.'"- Horn Book
If you know a sophisticated young lady who loves to read, this is the book to get. You can find A BAD BOY CAN BE GOOD FOR A GIRL at your local chain or independent bookstore, or online at amazon.com or barnesandnoble.com. For more information on Tanya, visit her website at tanyaleestone.com.
1 comment:
This sounds like a book I would like to read. I guess I'm still a teenager at heart. :)
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